Mr. Speaker, Yellowknives Dene First Nation has lived on these shores of Great Slave Lake since time immemorial, part of whom make up the presentday community of N'dilo on Latham Island. While they find themselves in the municipal boundary of Yellowknife, the community which has only existed before less than a century, N'dilo is separated in the community with distinct people. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories evidently does not agree. I say that they do not agree because the people of N'dilo are officially treated as residents of Yellowknife. We just have to look at how the community of public infrastructure format is calculated.
The calculation which dictates how much per capita funding is allocated to the communities. The population of N'dilo's grouped in Yellowknife instead of being included in with Dettah. Therefore, N'dilo is subsidizing services in Yellowknife leaving Dettah on the hook for the funds needed to maintain services for their fellow YKDFN members in N'dilo.
Yes, Yellowknife and N'dilo have a close relationship, but it is inappropriate for the people of N'dilo to be forced to rely on the municipal services of a different community. N'dilo is unique and needs and has a distinct government separate from the city of Yellowknife. So this situation is also inefficient as well as unfair to the people of N'dilo.
The leadership is looking for services such as a new water treatment facility, new band office, new gymnasium, upgraded community freezers, etcetera. They should have asked Yellowknife to share the funds for these projects or be told that they can provide them with these services instead.
These two separate entities deserve two separate pots of money. However, there's a lot of agreement between N'dilo and Yellowknife as well, as leaders of both communities understand they must work together for the benefit of the region. Expanding a municipal boundary to have more lands for housing and other services is a good example. There has been a great deal of collaboration between the city of Yellowknife and YKDFN to make this happen, but we have not seen any progress coming from the GNWT despite years of work on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, we need to strengthen our relationship between N'dilo and the city of Yellowknife so that YKDFN members are respected in their community and supported. I hope to get some clarity on this issue today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from the Sahtu.
