Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I talked about women in general, and specifically in our communities, and the changing roles that women have with today’s society. I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources in regards to women in government positions specifically in senior management. I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the number of women in the Aboriginal Development Management Program, what type of percentage do we have in that program?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being International Day for Women, I thought every day was a day for women.

I want to say a few things about our women. No, I’m not going to sing the Shania Twain song, titled “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.”

---Laughter

Our women have come a long way in today’s society. From the traditional roles of raising and guiding our precious little children to becoming world leaders in our country, there has been a cultural change. As a matter of fact, it was a woman who helped save a nation of Aboriginal people in the Southern Plains tribe legend, according to the elders’ story...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments will focus around three major things for us in our region. I want to make comments to the Minister. The first one is around Sahtu, which is a stand-alone region within the department, DPW. Our regional office is up in Inuvik. There are plans to have a manager of some type in the Sahtu region. We have employees in the region, yet we still have to call Inuvik, to the higher levels of authority. I want to not only talk to this department but other departments within government. My region wants to become a stand-alone region. With all the challenges our region has...

Mr. Chair, I’d like to ask about the Older Workers program and if the Minister could share with me the projects that may have impacted in the North here and if he can do some with me on a region-by-region basis. This is a good program. It’s targeting older workers and it’s very creative. I’ve seen some of the work and it has involved some of the elderly people. This program has somewhat of an impact on the old-agers who are receiving pensions from the federal government. Sometimes it cuts into their program, so I just wanted to know also if this has been an issue from our communities on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the Minister, in regards to the Income Security Program for my region, can the Minister provide a breakdown for the last year or two years as to this program? Due to the lack of oil and gas activity this year, we have seen the numbers increase and I would like to get a breakdown. When activity was happening there, oil and gas was booming, people where working, businesses were in operation and people were taking advantage of that, to now where we have a minimum, very little activity and the government is now being the main supporter, funder to our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister, how many Aboriginal women do we currently have in management, and what is our plan to increase the number of Aboriginal in senior management?

In the Aboriginal Development Program this is something that programs choose to support women into senior management, and I’m speaking more for the senior Aboriginal women into the programs.

Does the GNWT have a succession program planning to help the Aboriginal employees move into management or senior management positions?

I would like to recognize Ms. Barbara Hood, also, and the other ladies and the recipient of the Wise Woman Award for the North Slave in the House here.

I would like to recognize again the two young Pages from Deline on this historical week for them, Miss Faith Gaudet, daughter of the chief negotiator, Danny Gaudet; and Miss Hannah Beyonnie, whose mother is Rita Beyonnie who is shadowing the students from ?ehtseo Ayha School in Deline. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to the additional information the Minister can provide to us just to continue supporting this program in our communities in our region.

I just want to conclude that from the support that we received from oil companies, I know that in the Sahtu with the breakfast food program, I know Husky Energy has contributed to their communities for a breakfast program, and I want to state for the record that some of these oil companies have done some good in our communities such as the breakfast program for the families. As children, they don’t know. Food is food. They...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk to the issue of the transboundary water agreements that this government has undertaken since the Minister has taken the lead on this. The transboundary water agreements are very important, especially from our neighbours in the south of the Northwest Territories, specifically Alberta, because of the development that’s happening in the Alberta province and that the flow from these rivers have come from the majority of the rivers here.

I want to talk because in the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement it speaks to a chapter where the quality and the quantity of our...