Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to say again that the needs in this department, with regard to the infrastructure needs…and certainly being reminded by the Minister of Finance as to the amount of funding we have, and putting the funding where it makes sense and it makes a good business case. I just want to remind the Minister and his officials here of the support that is going to be needed in forthcoming years in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to the support for families, single parents. There is a great deal of opportunity coming up in the Sahtu that would greatly...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 24, 2013, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when the House adjourns on October 24, 2013, it shall be adjourned until Monday, October 28, 2013.

And further, at any time prior to October 28, 2013, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the...

Certainly the people in the Sahtu do realize the opportunity that lies right in their backyard on our land. What I’m asking the Minister of ITI is: Is there going to be some sort of a comprehensive checklist? Families who want to go work, there’s the high cost of living. So we need daycares in our communities, Deline, Good Hope, Tulita, Norman Wells, Colville Lake. We need to provide training opportunities in the Sahtu.

Will the Minister be coming forward to say this is a comprehensive checklist so that we can take advantage of the opportunity of hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu? We know that. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the observation made by Thomas Edison, who is a well-known inventor who had trials and tribulations before he got the incandescent light right. I want to talk about the issue of technology called hydraulic fracking. I will direct my questions to the Minister of ITI on this issue in the Sahtu.

No matter what we saw in the Bakken and the east corner of Saskatchewan, is the Minister looking at some sort of a checklist in the social, environmental, cultural and economics when we look at fracking in the Sahtu. Do you check that yes, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thomas Edison once observed that the reason most folks don’t recognize opportunity when it comes along is that it is often dressed in coveralls and it looks like work.

Opportunities in the Sahtu and opportunities in the Northwest Territories involve a great amount of work and the willingness to take a chance on something. We are told we take hold of opportunities and know the outcome, which may be uncertain. There has been a lot of media awareness, protests and discussion in the North about the Sahtu’s oil play and, more importantly, the use of the technology hydraulic...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The motion speaks to the support that’s needed in the Mackenzie Valley winter road system. Looking at the infrastructure and hearing the Minister talk, I appreciate his continuous effort to negotiate with the oil and gas industry and seeing what they’re going to do to support their operations. It’s in their best interest to seek the most advantageous road system going up from Wrigley to Norman Wells. Sometimes I wonder if the oil industry wasn’t there, then we wouldn’t have much additional dollars here. I’m wondering if this here is we’re relying on the oil company to...

The Minister outlined several areas that certainly bring interest to me. However, I do have a motion I want to read in this section here, so if I could.

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the response back from the Minister on the runways. I specifically want to talk to Deline in regards to their willingness and their partnership, even though for the department, maybe for the government it seems like a small community. How do we erase the $4.5 million? Well, that is their business. Let them do it. They have been in business for long enough. Give them the ability. Give them the credence and the faith that they could come up with money. It’s for them to decide. All we do is lend our hand in a partnership and see what they can do. It might take...

Mr. Speaker, certainly I said earlier, I was in Norman Wells over the weekend and people there are ready to go to work. They know what fracking could come to if we don’t do it properly. They know the work is there and they are willing to work and there’s excitement in the region. Certainly, there are issues that Members have talked about that we need to look at.

I want to ask the Minister in regards to doing it properly, doing it right and doing the best they can. We have an opportunity to work in this area here. Is the Minister working closely with the National Energy Board since they will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An elder said, sometimes you just gotta live. That elder was Wilfred Henry McDonald. With the passing of this elder, over the past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Sahtu and be with the people in the Sahtu, in Fort Good Hope, Deline, Colville Lake, Tulita and Norman Wells, in honouring the wisdom of our elders who lived on our land.

The Sahtu came together this past weekend because of the generosity and the wisdom of Wilfred Henry McDonald, in paying their last respects to this elder.

Wilfred Henry McDonald was born on July 17, 1935, to Ernest Roy McDonald and...