Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister in regard to biomass business opportunities in the Sahtu for the Sahtu people. We have communities that could be involved. We have businesspeople that could be involved. Where are these pellets going to be coming from? Are they going to be made in the Sahtu? Do we have an opportunity, giving our native organizations or businesspeople an opportunity to say we want to participate? Or is it all going to come from La Crete, Alberta?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of ITI, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay had an exploration readiness meeting in Norman Wells that was attended by the Sahtu leadership with the Department of ITI and oil and gas companies. I want to ask Mr. Ramsay, on the 11 recommendations on the Sahtu readiness exploration session all had to do with the Sahtu shale oil play. What’s the next step to this important meeting and, more importantly, to the 11 recommendations that came forward?

From last year I recall it varied from different departments. It’s not a very good record for us as a government to look at the population that we represent that falls well behind the numbers that we perceive should be going higher.

I want to ask the Minister if there are some concrete, measurable plans to raise this number. I’ve been here for nine years and we still haven’t done a significant amount of work to increase this number. Is the Minister confident that these numbers will be raised by the end of this Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of Human Resources on the Aboriginal hire and Aboriginal senior management area of our government. I want to ask the Minister what plans he is working on to close the gap. There is a gap between the number or percentage of Aboriginal people in senior management within the Department of Human Resources already with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories is gifted with artists whose talents reflect our culture and history. As pointed out in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment Arts Strategy, art and artistic endeavours are important from a social, cultural, and economic perspective. The process of expression, and creation and production of art, celebrates, preserves and transmits culture. This appreciation and the benefits of the art is also shared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, of Canada.

The TRC believes that artists have a keen, profound contribution to make...

I want to ask the Minister to look at the overall recruitment in the boards and agencies and, again, look at our region as the efforts. We need to put strong directive efforts to our boards and regions to hire the people who are qualified, who can go through this program and go through some programs so that our people in the region, vis-à-vis Aboriginal people, can be in program manager positions or higher, other than just being a front desk receptionist or administrative assistant. That is not good with me in my region.

We need to have people who can do the job and who are qualified or can be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Department of Human Resources is going to come into a lot of challenges. Most that I’m looking at is when the Devolution Agreement is signed and we start of our implementation of the devolution chapters and the focus on the decentralization of the government.

I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources with regard to the potential number of people coming in from the federal government to the GNWT, and the number of employees that we would have now because of the Devolution Agreement, and the big picture plan when they come to the North and how are we going to look...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If resources are proven, there will be a road down the Mackenzie Valley.

I want to ask the Minister, will he commit to pulling in people into the Sahtu to have a community/regional meeting on the exploration that’s happening in the Sahtu so we get ready and start addressing all 11 recommendations from the previous meeting. I thank the Minister for that.

In front of me I have the two-page 11 recommendations. I want to ask Minister Ramsay, I met, also this morning, with one of the oil companies and they were talking about their upcoming activities. One of the key points of this activity taking off would be understanding the fracking that’s going to possibly happen in the Sahtu and the importance of the Sahtu people, along with the people of the Northwest Territories, getting ready. If fracking takes off, we need to get ready.

How soon can the Minister pull together a meeting in the Sahtu to look at the concept of fracking and what it’s going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Department of Human Resources working with colleges and students to start successive planning for careers for students who have graduated from these post-secondary or high schools?