Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to host three elders from the Sahtu who were in Yellowknife for the Roman Catholic district celebration for the bishop.
In the time I spent with the elders and my family here, I had the opportunity to talk with the elders about living in the small communities. From time to time people come to Yellowknife and go back to the communities. They see the opportunities they have here in Yellowknife. They couldn’t believe the prices they pay at the OK Economy or the Co-op, or the gas, or the opportunities they have here.
They provided my wife and me with some dollars to go the store to buy some groceries for them. We did buy the groceries, and they couldn’t believe the amount of food they bought in terms of dollars. They said: if we had this in Tulita, we would have paid $400, but for the amount we have given you, we have a lot of food.
The elders were talking about that: how lucky we are in the larger centres to have support like this. They thought about this for a while, and I said: how it is back in the community? They said: we’re on fixed incomes or low incomes; we have support from the government, but it is very difficult for us.
In small communities their way of life of growing up on the land is completely different from today. Mr. Krutko talked about this in the recent Hansard, about the people wanting to stay in their communities, in their region, with home care. Their culture and their values are very different — very different — in the Sahtu. No different from the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit or any other aboriginal community that has these beliefs. We want our people in our communities.
Mr. Speaker, in the Sahtu we have over 200 elders, and we are looking at the things we can do for them. We have to put them at the forefront. It is our obligation as people from the community to put our elders forward and give them respect, as they raised us in the past with their elders’ values.
I am going to be asking a question of the Minister responsible for Seniors on how our elders are taken care of in the Northwest Territories. It’s most important to the Sahtu people. They are paying the high price of living in the region without any roads and modes of transportation that would make it easier for us. In this day and age, Mr. Speaker, it’s a crying shame.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
