Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two questions to the Premier regarding the intergovernmental affairs relationships engaging with the Metis groups in the North. My first question is: What is the GNWT’s policy or position when it comes to engaging with Metis groups and how long ago was that established?

Completing the highway and connecting Canada from coast to coast to coast will be a big boost to all Canadians in establishing a year-round transportation link to our Arctic coastline. It will also be a major step to protect our Canadian sovereignty. We think it will lead to further investments in other regions such as the Sahtu.

I am very pleased to be able to support this project. Truly, we stand here and say the North was built by Northerners and will continue to be built by our own people in the future. We have a dream.

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...

The point I want to draw to is, New Zealand has very good coroner policies with regard to taking Aboriginal cultures and traditions into their system. I wonder if the Minister has looked at the New Zealand experience to see if that makes any sense in the Northwest Territories. Most of our communities are Aboriginal people. Fifty percent of the population is Aboriginal people. We’re certainly well versed on the people who have this very important role in the communities. That’s all. I’ll make a comment there to the Minister and he can come back later on to this issue here.

My last point is that...

Mr. Speaker, once again I ask the Minister that, because of the occupancy rate is at 46 percent level at Nats’ejee K’eh, there are some dollars, I believe, left. Given that the report will be done some time next year, I think that the implementation of those recommendations that are rolled out later on, can the Minister look at communities down the Mackenzie Valley to say, yes, we have these additional dollars? We appreciate the money that is going into the Sahtu. We would like a little more to really help our people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chair, certainly I encourage the Minister to continue providing other effective means of educating the young people.

If you look at the RCMP stats in the Sahtu, the increase of liquor has shot up quite considerably. It’s scary. If you look at the amount of liquor that is being sold in the Northwest Territories combined that with the stats of the RCMP with people who are getting into trouble because of alcohol, those numbers are high. If you look at even the jail, $37 million to house correctional facility inmates in our jail here, and the amount that the Northwest Territories liquor sales...

Mr. Speaker, again, going back to the numbers I have been given, in Fort Good Hope the alcohol-related occurrences in 2009 was 238. In Fort Good Hope in 2012 it was 681, and Deline was 23 in 2009 and 319 in 2012. In regard to the increase of the alcohol occurrences by the RCMP, people are drinking quite a lot and they get more calls.

With the Minister’s support and his leadership, will the he start looking at some solid programs, working with the Department of Justice and other agencies, to say that we have a problem here, Houston? What do we need to do to get the money into our communities to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here in regard to the Liquor Revolving Fund. Can the Minister indicate to me from 2011-12 what was the number of sales in the Norman Wells liquor store?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The winter season is coming to closure and soon it will be warm. Does the Minister have some plans in place, once the federal government has given us the permission slip to go ahead on this section of the road, do we see any type of difficulties due to the warming of the seasons?