Norman Yakeleya

I do look forward to a time when this opportunity also will be available in the Sahtu region. We will continue on with the progression to that place and time in history where we can also have that type of industry with our region to support the biomass initiative, because that would be very helpful to us. So a wait and see approach, I guess.

I want to ask one more question to the Minister in regard to the forest management for the sustainable management of our forest resources. Trappers are saying that where there are good areas to trap, sometimes those areas get burnt out because sometimes...

Thank you, Minister. I am wondering if there is anywhere in your corporate planning, or planning for the department, to start looking at this. It’s very preliminary right now. I am asking for some consideration.

The Minister, over the past eight or nine years, is aware of myself taking a hiking trip once a year on the Canol. Over the years, I want to let you know, the Minister flew out there one year with me. We saw some natural slides of the mountains. Last year or the year before, when you walked past one of the trails, there was a huge mudslide there. It wasn’t there before. We started to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank Member Bromley for raising this motion and bringing it to the floor, and colleagues for allowing us to again speak on this motion.

I have 10 things that Aboriginal people should know about the federal omnibus budget implementation legislation. As I read the legislation, looked over the two bills, I see that there is a tsunami wave of changes coming to the North and there’s some big question marks for the Northwest Territories, because we have not yet seen Canada’s changes to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the Northwest Territories Waters Act...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Enbridge Pipelines Corporation is up for debate on the views of different people who deal with Enbridge. With regard to the contaminated soil that was found on the pipeline route, will the Enbridge Corporation come to this government to assure our people, through some type of meeting, that the line is safe and the integrity is there with the pipeline?

Is the Minister also checking on the land that is affected around the pipeline route to ensure the integrity of the environment is in place and Enbridge Pipelines is going to assure the people of the Northwest Territories that there are no more cracks and leaks along this 30-year-old pipeline?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s where we fall short of supporting our people in the Northwest Territories. If they’re going to fall short and you know it, what programs and treatment opportunities do we have for our people so that we do not label them or blame them for the mining companies falling short?

We’re making excuses for the mining companies. What is this government doing to help our people to increase the number, not only in the Yellowknife area but also looking at the whole Northwest Territories? We should be hiring a lot of people right across the North.

Mr. Speaker, in the Sahtu, as I said, the mining companies don’t really hire people outside the Yellowknife area. The Sahtu is very little. We have to go to Deline, Norman Wells, Inuvik or Yellowknife to get on to the workforce. In front of me I have a list of graduates from the Sahtu. There’s 33 graduates, seven from post-secondary and 26 from the high school.

Can the Minister ask the mining industry if they could make up pick-up points in the Sahtu communities further than what they have right now so that they can increase their mining workforce? We want to go to work. Let’s ask the mining...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize the best court worker in the Northwest Territories, Daphne Lafferty from Fort Good Hope. I also would like to recognize some friends, Rose Lamouelle and Pat Waugh who are also court workers and Charlene Doolittle whose family is from the Sahtu. Also, the other court workers here. I also would like to recognize the students from Nahanni Butte. It is good to see you come down this way to see us in action, and the rest of the visitors I would like to welcome. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I would appreciate that and people that have spoken to me about this would also appreciate that the government is starting to look at this issue.

I also want to ask the Minister in regard to what Ms. Bisaro was talking about, the opportunities that could be looked at in the Sahtu. I understand, from Mr. Campbell’s replies to our question, that the Sahtu and further north could be looked at as a biomass industry opportunity for us in that region, if we are to embark on that journey through the government’s energy initiatives on reducing the cost of living and carbon emissions from the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The motion speaks to a new initiative for something that we want to push on this side. The people from my region will certainly welcome a motion like this, and welcome more so that the government looks to reduce the high cost of living in the Sahtu.

We’d like to see an initiative like that that would cut down the cost for some of our people in our communities. The unemployment rate in Deline or Colville or Fort Good Hope is quite high, in the thirties to 42 percent, and the cost of living is quite high with the cost of fuel, especially diesel going into our communities. So...