Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was listening to the issues of board reform and the information that’s been provided to me about board reform I was thinking about a time when in the Sahtu region we had something like a board reform. Finally, after many years of good politicking and the leaders in the House Assembly, this Assembly here, we finally have an educational divisional board. Several years ago we had a health board. Now we have a district office of the housing authority in the Sahtu region and we are just getting used to having this kind of authority in our region. Now this government is proposing to take it away again. The people yet have not really fully benefited having full authority in the region in terms of these types of boards that the Minister is suggesting that we go towards a super board in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, people in the Sahtu, and I spoke to them and asked the leadership if they support the Board Reform Initiative. I have received letters and phone calls saying no, they do not support the board initiative at this time. There is no type of real genuine consultation that has gone on with my people in the Sahtu region. We have land claims, self-government negotiations that are being negotiated as we speak. This has an impact on the board reform. We, in the Sahtu, want the same rights in terms of education, health and housing. We brought to the community level as close as possible where authority and decisions can be made. We have experience where education decisions, health decisions and even housing decisions were made out of the Sahtu region.
I will tell you what. It is not a good feeling when you are living in the region in communities where decisions are made at headquarters and regional levels. They tell you and they dictate to you, but they call it consultation. But it is really a dictatorship in terms of telling you what to do, how you are going to do it and what you should be grateful for. We know in the Sahtu region that this is the price you pay for being in a democratic society, the Northwest Territories, where the federal government has given the right to aboriginal people to negotiate aboriginal governments.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
In closing, the people in the Sahtu agree with the Members here that board reform needs to be stopped and really looked at. Otherwise, this government here is going to feel the wrath of the Sahtu people.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
