Norman Yakeleya

I, again, look forward to some of the information that the Minister is going to bring forward to us. I want to talk about the Aboriginal culture and building the bridge for the new type of academic western type of learning. I want to know how that bridge is being formed in our small communities, and that the Aboriginal culture is certainly at the foremost and at the base of our education in our schools.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ve looked at this department and I’d like to make comments. First of all, I’m glad the department is responding to the oil and gas activity by the planting of two positions in the budget so they can come and work with the people in the Sahtu to handle the increase of oil and gas activity. As to their role in the community, I’ll probably ask the Minister later as to what type of work they’re going to be doing to get the people in the Sahtu ready for the oil and gas activity.

As you’re well aware, we also have the new hospital and long-term care facilities. So there’s...

My questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I did a Member’s statement, as other Members talked about, on the Anti-Bullying Campaign. I want to ask the Minister of Education, what percentage of Aboriginal cultural content is in our education system.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister, in light of what we are discussing on another front, the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line and what we see here for the Technology Service Centre.

In our small communities, we have different departments that belong to us and different authorities and health and education boards. Everybody is using different systems. It costs us quite a bit of money in those small communities. Is there a system now being looked at where everybody will be using that will cut down costs for some of the innovative concepts and ideas that are being discussed, like...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister about the infrastructure requirements or needs in our smaller communities. For example, our schools or Aurora College. Is there infrastructure information that we could look at in terms of a 10, 20 year, sort of, down the road? For example, my colleague from Nahendeh talked about the schools in his riding. They’re no different than the schools that we have in Colville Lake and we still expect our children to obtain a level of educational standards that is pretty difficult to beat at times. I appreciate the work that you’ve done in the last...

Okay, that’s great. My next question is on the safe drinking water initiative. Some communities have some questions on their source of water. Has the department been, in the past, willing to support communities who want to look at other sources of water initiatives? I’m talking about Fort Good Hope where there is an issue on their water source, and that Fort Good Hope wants to look at other alternative water intakes to calm the concerns of the people in that community. They are looking at another source, but that costs quite a bit to get that going. So is there support within the department to...

Thank you. I look forward to being in contact with the people in Deline because they’ll be happy to hear what the Minister has said. I will relay the message to them. Of course, I will ask the Minister’s guidance as to how we kick off this type of discussion. I know Deline has been quite anxious to begin this discussion and look at this concept. Where do we begin? Where should we begin? Letter writing? Phone calls? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could let the Minister of Public Works know that we have a process such as the devolution process now. We don’t want to get the jobs out of Ottawa and bring them into Yellowknife. I think the basic process that he has a path. I want to ask the Minister, within the life of this government, to serve the people the best that they need. As the Minister of Finance has always said, we want to control their own destiny. We want that in the Sahtu.

Will the Minister again commit to a discussion paper, a paper that would make sense, similar to the devolution deal that we did...

In the Sahtu exploration readiness session, a lot of good things were talked about. One of the things that concerned me is there was no lead identified during the readiness session to work on the addictions and mental health issues. I want to know how ITI is addressing that within the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have a plan in place with Sahtu, we just don’t have the money.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about a song that Johnny Cash sang, called I Walk the Line. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in light of the oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu, and I also talked about the people in the Sahtu walking the line. We are at the brink of having both development and protection of the area in the Sahtu. I understand the Minister is going to meet with the Aboriginal leaders who are involved in the Bakken shale play in April. I want to ask the Minister how he is going to bring this report back to us and report on it on how Aboriginal people...