Norman Yakeleya

I look forward to the information the Minister is going to send over to the House in regard to the cost factor. It’s about dollars and cents. Again, I go back to the point Mrs. Groenewegen made earlier that it’s not normal in our communities to see people drinking on the roads, fighting, swearing. It’s just not normal.

I want to ask the Minister, there’s an elder in Fort Good Hope that said there’s a miracle standing right before you. He said, I haven’t drank in 10 months. It’s a miracle that I’m not drinking. He said, it’s just common sense to take our people out onto the land.

If it costs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have talked about the trappers in the Northwest Territories. In 2008 and 2009 there were 812 trappers. Of those 812 trappers in that year, 161 were in the Sahtu. People in the Sahtu understand the high cost of living, and trapping is a business. There is a market out there with the Russians and Chinese, who all want northern furs for their own product. Trapping is a business.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI, with the recent increase of petroleum products in the Northwest Territories, especially in the Sahtu where there is gas, trappers are asking if there’s any type...

The Minister speaks to a territorial commission with regional representation from the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask, if once this commission is in place, if there will be specific requirements that members are appointed or if it’s pretty well someone from the region that’s very passionate about this work and want to see this type of legal aid service in our communities emphasize in regards to the types of service now we are seeing from the legal aid services when they come to our communities for specific court issues. There are too many complaints from our region about the legal aid...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the honourable Member for Nahendeh for bringing this motion to the floor and having some discussion on it this afternoon. I have also been contacted by some people in the Sahtu region. I didn’t quite understand the issue until I looked into it further.

Regarding the rent scale, I applaud the Minister. We have worked through the issue of how to reduce the cost of living in our smaller communities up in the Sahtu, of Fort Good Hope, Deline, Norman Wells and Tulita. Further north the cost of living is very high. Actually, I was up in Ulukhaktok. I couldn’t...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a letter to Prime Minister Harper regarding the Financial Investment Protection Act, “First Nations lands and treaty territories cannot be sold out to foreign investors.”

I look forward to the Minister’s end results of that discussion. I guess I’m going to ask what type of commitment he can make here in the House that he will get back to me and other Members who also have trappers in their regions that could possibly benefit from this type of discussion, and what type of numbers we are looking at.

There are two price lists that we have in the community of Tulita: non-government customers pricing of gasoline in Tulita at $1.76 a litre, and then we have the government customers pricing, which is $1.61. What is the difference?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other part of being a trapper is to be a businessman, entrepreneur. Are there any courses that are offered to trappers, say, in the off-trapping season where they learn to be a businessman, thinking on their feet and thinking quick, in terms of how to put together a budget, what things they need and what tools they would need to be a successful business person? Is there any type of trapping business program we can offer the trappers off-season, so they can prepare for the fall season when the trapping opens up again?

Trapping is a unique skill, and to be a trapper requires a lot of hard work, a lot of smarts, a lot of heart. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in his role as the Minister, to look at if there is a type of discussion happening within his department to support the trappers and to initiate a type of apprenticeship program for the young trappers that want to come out to be a trapper. That is an honourable position that should be supported, and I commend this government for doing all it can to help these trappers.

Is there any type of discussion happening within the Department of ITI to have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to acknowledge the hardworking trappers that are in the Northwest Territories. I was in Fort Good Hope and the people there are happy that winter is finally coming. They were quite concerned because of the late snowfall and the warm weather they have been having around the Sahtu region. Now that they are out there trapping, they noticed that the fuel prices have increased almost to $40 per gallon of gasoline. The trappers are saying that the way of life is very hard. They need close to $1,000 now to check their traplines. Some of them have 700 traps out there...