Norman Yakeleya

Thank you. That being the case, I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to continue to work with his colleagues, but also maybe come to a point of asking his colleagues saying I need some money, I’m out there begging the Department of Education, MACA, Housing, you know, I need to have some money in my own budget so I can take care of the seniors the way I think they need to be taken care of The Minister has heard a lot of complaints from me about the seniors and I want to know when will this Minister get a pot of money to help our elders rather than go and beg the other Ministers to help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to recognize the Native Women’s Association. Of course, your mother. I also want to recognize my wife. Every day in my house is women’s day and international day for me. It’s just that sometimes I don’t get her flowers, so I’m sorry.

I also want to recognize her sisters, Cecile Deneyoua and Doris Camsell. My colleague recognized her, so welcome to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a document here from the Department of Justice, the RCMP Detachment Comparison Report, Northwest Territories, for the Sahtu Region.

Mr. Speaker, the information I have in front of me is October 29, 2012, one litre of gasoline in Fort Good Hope is about $1.07. So we lost 11,500 litres of fuel. Thank God for the berms that they had built there.

Can he also communicate this to the Minister of Environmental and Natural Resources, that when there are spills of such a large amount, that the MLA is also kept up to date as to the environmental damages and what’s happening with the damaged fuel that’s in that area? Can the Minister inform me this will be done as soon as possible? I hope that we have a new policy by next week.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. When Minister Ramsay and I were in Fort Good Hope last Friday, we were notified by the leadership of a fuel spill at the tank farm. When I did more research, I noticed there were two fuel spills, one on February 8th and one on February 22nd. I want to ask the Minister, what’s the communication protocol to let us Members know when there are incidents like that that have a significant damage to the communities. What is the Minister doing to straighten up his department to notify the MLAs right away? Why do we have to...

Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will start that discussion with his colleagues, with the Assembly within the life of this government, start putting together some discussions, some option papers, to see that the Minister of Seniors can have some type of authority, some leverage of funding just like the Native Women’s Association or the youth or the Women’s Secretariat. We’ve got to have some money for the elders secretariat. The elders need that. So I want to ask the Minister is he willing to commit, within the life of this government, to put some discussion papers, have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the elders’ wisdom and their discussions with me and I want to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors regarding helping out elders in our small communities. It seems that the elders are really in need of some tender loving care and I want to ask the Minister are there any type of discussions within his department, with his colleagues to review looking at the role of the Minister responsible for Seniors and put some real dollars behind that department? Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker. There was a quote that I’d like to do my Member’s statement on. The quote is: “The land is in my blood.” One reason for the lack of understanding between the European people and the Aboriginal people can be traced back to the early world views of Aboriginal humanity. For example, taking care of our elders or taking care of our land. Both are different but yet they are the same.

It is in the European’s view of the natural world that our resources are primary value, quite simply of raw material. In the North we have a wealth of these resources. For example, the...

I was notified, just saying that the bands were going to be, right across Canada get 10 percent. I didn’t really get into it until I got to Tulita and sat down with the chiefs and they started talking about some of the information, so I’m glad the Premier would be open to some discussion, if it does happen, with the chiefs and the councils and looking at the impacts of this funding that will be taking place here. It’s preliminary right now, just having an early discussion, and we’re not getting our feet dirty and our hands dirty on this issue here. I’m looking forward to the GNWT’s support to...

The Premier is correct on the partnerships and I guess he’s looking at the different aspects of the Gwich’in, Inuvialuit, Sahtu, and how to work with them. When in Rome do as the Roman’s do sort of concept. I’m looking at the GNWT and I guess that’s how it will be done. It has to happen with the Akaitcho or the Dehcho, even in Yellowknife – there’s a large population here – Hay River, I guess, looking at those types of support for communicating the Devolution Strategy. I look forward to the draft communications strategy and I’m pressing to him to say yes, okay, we can maybe look at something...