Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions on the Buckle Up water prevention campaign. What types of initiatives has his department done to allow or to notify the communities of this campaign? Have there been radio ads or newspaper ads? How do the communities, other than what I am saying this afternoon in the House, possibly know that there is a challenge out there for all of the communities to take up this challenge and win some good prizes? What has the department done to communicate this to the communities in Dene, and French and English?

Thank you, it’s okay.

When we look at these types of programs, like I said I felt before in my statements, that the Sahtu didn’t really have a fair shake at this type of initiative. I felt that we missed out.

I was a little bit forceful in my language on our use of the diesel fuel. That’s a reliable source for us right now. I found that we need the government to be supportive. If you’re looking at the Norman Wells health centre and long-term care facility. Does Public Works and Services see that wood pellet would be a viable heating source of energy for any other large facility? If it is, then tell the people in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to this plan for the budget there. Minister and your staff, certainly, a couple points I want to make this afternoon and then we can go through the business plans in detail.

I do want to say that the challenges that this department has had to do with the diesel price increases that they seem to be dealing with. In the document it said that since 2007-08 that the diesel prices have increased by 57 percent. I look forward to the types of initiatives you will have to deal with this issue of the high cost of energy in our communities by implementing or initiating...

The Aboriginal cultural awareness training, I would hope the Minister would not bank 100 percent on the e-training. It’s easy to go there and click things and don’t really have a relationship. It’s all up here. You can say I know how to make fire because I learned it on e-training or how to do this and that. That is not what I hope I envision this government is going to do. I hope they would take half that training, 50 percent, and go out and do the experiential training, out on the land with the real McCoy and do the real thing. I hope that is there also, that they take the senior bureaucracy...

When we look down the Mackenzie Valley and you look into the communities, we have small communities. In a lot of our small communities probably about 60 to 70 percent of the people who live in our communities have some direct impact of residential schools, so there’s a high need for this. I want to ask the Minister where in his department is there a policy that says that if you, Mr. Yakeleya, want to go to a program for your family and yourself – and I have a lot of brothers and sisters and they had big families too – where in the policy that we can go to the department and say we want to go...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the department look at what type of programs are there for residential school survivors and the ones who are also affected by it?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow, May 26th, is a very important day in the Northwest Territories. The last government recognized May 26th as National Residential School Reconciliation and Healing. The point that I want to raise this morning is that tomorrow is a day that this government is the only government in Canada that has recognized this day for residential school survivors.

In the Northwest Territories we affect over 10,000 students, and many communities in the Northwest Territories are feeling and healing on a recovery and healing through the residential schools. This is a chapter in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My points I am going to be speaking on this afternoon are going to be around the way we do our operations as a government. As we’re well aware, the federal government gives the territorial government, the people of the Northwest Territories, about 75 percent of funding to do our own operations. We have not yet grown up enough for them. We need to do our own work to be fully accountable for our own spending and for the raising of our own money and operating as an independent, strong government. We still rely on the federal government for funds to operate our programs and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Town of Norman Wells feel very strongly that with the situation that happened in the town, the situation that was occurring that this government wasn’t there for them. They had to dig in their own bank account and take out the money and say, we will pay for the Hercules. We will pay for propane tanks. We will do this. The government did not come up and say, we will help you. To make insults worse, they said no, you are not eligible for extraordinary funding to help offset this here.

It’s a good thing they had strong financial planning that they were able to do this...