Norman Yakeleya

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...

Madam Chair, the Minister and I have some little thing going there. The Minister talked about a remote medical rescue initiative interdepartmental working group, and they’re putting in training and looking at piloting a couple of projects. I would hope that now that the winter roads are closing, there are another 25 or so more days that it will be open. I know the oil companies are going to use that opportunity to get their equipment out, and people are going to come back on the winter road from holidays and people are steadily using that road. Is it something that I could look for to, say, in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, in regard to preparing a training plan, I believe we have the assessment. Would his department start going into the Sahtu while the winter roads are open in Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Deline, and Tulita and Norman Wells, and bring them together? Cut down the cost, be efficient, be effective. Can the Minister do that within 25 days to get things moving?

I look forward to working with the Minister in the Sahtu. The winter road is going to close down within, what, 25 days or so? Equipment is going to be sitting idle. However, we in the Sahtu want to start to look at next month.

Can we start assessing, start getting different types of training for the various different programs in the region? I want to ask the Minister if we could speed up the process, inform his department, the oil companies, and the communities and everybody. Let’s sit down in April, May and June and let’s put together a training plan that we can look at starting in July, and...

Madam Chair, the crime stats with the alcohol in the Sahtu in the last year, I want to ask the Minister. I appreciate that Tulita is going to get an extra RCMP and they are going to get a victims crime service worker. I’ve talked to some of the RCMP members. They are pretty well worked. They certainly provide, from eye-witness accounts and speaking to them, there is a lot of business. It is pretty heavy. They are doing a good job with the resources they have. I want to ask the Minister, in his analysis, research, has the Minister seen an increase with the crimes associated with alcohol abuse...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were a couple of spots that we went on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. There’s one called Washboard Lane and Pothole Valley. I want to ask the Minister, is the Arctic paving program going to increase the dollars for the oil companies, because those number, maybe 1,500 or 1,600 trucks are pounding the roads in the Mackenzie Valley. If the Minister can look at some funding to increase the Arctic paving program in the Mackenzie Valley, that will certainly help our people and probably will save a lot of lives.