Norman Yakeleya

Certainly, the Minister is right that it covers everybody; however, in our small Aboriginal communities, about 90, close to 100 percent of the education is geared to Aboriginal students. I want to ask the Minister, when he does his research, can he look at how many, what type of Aboriginal contexts are in there that would be related to the people in that specific area or school.

Thank you for clarification, Mr. Minister. As a client, what does it cost for a community of Deline to be clients that will now operate with the bandwidth? What is it costing our government now to have that service in that community to deliver our programs and services such as telehealth or Education? Do you have some kind of number?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning was a beautiful day outside, and when I took my little son to school I said, look at the day, it’s Pink Day today.

It is beautiful today, even in our gallery. Thank you very much for the teachers and the parents and the children for being here. I, too, did my homework last night and early this morning. I was looking for the magic pill for, as my friend would say, bullyology. I looked through the old school of reading and listening to what the elders have that talked to me about, and I think I have the magic pill. The pill is free. It is be nice and be...

If I’m correct, at one time Colville Lake was a target for a new school and then, somehow, that fell off the Capital Infrastructure Plan. Is that information readily available to see if that was the case? Was there enough work there to say if Colville Lake did receive the funding, this is the type of school that they would need? That’s what I’m asking.

Nahendeh, Trout Lake, or Nahanni, if they are in a temporary school, I’m not too sure. Our definition in government is as temporary, but that school is in a temporary waiting stage, and they’re not in a, as we would think, a proper facility...

Thank you. My final question to the Minister. The Minister of MACA, myself, along with the leadership of Colville Lake have met recently and the issue was their newly installed water treatment plant. There have been problems with the installation and the piping had broken. We had a good meeting, it’s just that when we have companies coming into our small communities, there’s no type of guarantees. We try to say that this is the problem now, we have broken pipes that we can’t use the water treatment facility. It actually fills up, and some other issues there.

So I guess my question is twofold...

I will be talking to Deline shortly and let them know. Thank you, Minister, for some guidance as to how we start out this discussion recognizing there is a capital infrastructure planning process. We need to look at other issues so at least we can start the discussions. So I’ll leave it at that.

The Minister is also responsible for granular material planning, and certainly our small communities look at that issue to help with the granular material for housing or any type of other buildings that are going up in the community. Is this the Minister I should be talking to about gravel, and sand and...

There’s a question I want to ask the Minister in regard to the small communities and the Public Works garage and maintenance of those buildings. Has the department been in discussion with the other departments or corporations that work in our small communities to combine a one-stop shop? It seems that would make sense in the smaller communities than have three different garages. If we just had one building, Housing, Public Works and community municipality workers can work together. It would save costs, and save energy and fuel. It just makes sense to have them under one roof in the smaller...

It’s no different than for us when we’re going to Ottawa and asking for a devolution deal to bring the decision-making closer to the region and to the people. That’s what I’m asking the Minister, the Minister of Transportation and other departments. We want the same type of request that we’re making to Ottawa. I want to ask the Minister, would he closely work with his colleagues and bring forward a discussion paper where we want to bring in decision-making power closer to the people in the Sahtu. Will the Minister commit to that within the life of this government?

I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to the Minister on that. I certainly would like to go with the Minister to the Bakken field.

I want to ask the Minister, with the government’s increased budget for programs and services, and that’s one of ITI’s mandates, I want to ask the Minister how his department coordinates activities with other departments since the oil companies said the oil plays in the Sahtu are encouraging and they want to further develop those areas.

Just quick comments also. Thank you, Minister, for your opening comments. I, along with Mr. Bouchard, probably are going to ask some of the questions on deferred maintenance costs, because that ties into one of our goals for having safe and reliable facilities that are available to support the delivery of government programs and protected $290 million. That is by the end of this government here.

We have a lot of assets in our communities that certainly need taking care of and need some tender loving care. I guess it’s pretty tough, with the funding that we have right now, in determining which...