Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The number of issues that this department has to deal with are very important to people in the North and people in my region. We are starting to see some of the impacts of the warming up of the environment, some of the concerns that my elders in Colville Lake are raising in regards to climate change, especially with the weather. It is very rare that elders would stop you and talk to you about the weather. They don’t like to talk about it in their cultural beliefs. That’s the first time that the elders said we’ve got to talk about it. When the elders say that to a young...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The concerns again brought to me by the elders of the community of Colville Lake, they’ve stated to me many times they’re concerned about wildlife technicians, biologists using the collars to monitor the movements of caribou, especially the ones that we use in the Sahtu, Bluenose-East and Bluenose-West, and that the feeling that their method of traditional knowledge is not taken very seriously as the aircraft and collars are used on caribou to give credence and evidence to the scientific papers on caribou. There is some value to it. Again, it rubs against the respect for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that he plans to sit down with the Minister of Education. Would the Minister look at, again, the review more comprehensively and see if some of the things that they do with the Take a Kid Trapping Program that they would look at building some credits to this program here so that will be going towards a Grade 12 diploma?

So in a few months I certainly hope we have a lively debate on this program review in terms of this issue. Hopefully we’ll formulate a new policy in terms of the harvesters and the land and area that we’re talking about that we’d see it before the end of the life of this government. If this has been an issue in the past, I can only imagine the departments have been working quite creatively to put this compensation to test in terms of working with the harvesters on areas that have been damaged by forest fires. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in terms of the success for the program Take a Kid Trapping, if he would sit down with his colleagues and see if they would review this program to see how they could include it into curriculum into the schools, into a more permanent core curriculum or program that would support our students to learn both on the land and in school, in terms of their education.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask, have we been fairly active with our forest fire damage compensation? Have we been giving it to people applying for that compensation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I often speak in support of culture and Aboriginal programs and the needs for these programs to preserve and to hold onto our traditions, especially in our educational institutions. My Member’s statement today will focus on the importance of these same programs that contribute to the achievement of our children and our youth. We need to continue to walk in our ancestors’ footpath of success, which is adept to whatever is in front of us.

Last year, in the Auditor General’s report, it was clear from the Alberta Achievement Tests in the last three years that NWT students’...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister, they had a biomass report, sorry, wood pellet district heating study done in the Territories, October 2010, four months ago, by the Arctic Energy Alliance. In the budget here there’s $1.3 million for the biomass energy, page 13-18. The report states what they found to be deficient, dare I say, in terms of supporting district heating in communities that would be beneficial. I want to ask the Minister are there plans to go forward with this report and look at communities such as Gameti, Whati, Tulita, Fort Good Hope and Tuktoyaktuk to look at...

Thank you. I look forward to the workshops and the meetings that are going to be held in the Sahtu and how they’re going to work with this department and the other agencies to move forward.

On the woodstoves, I’ve been told -- and please correct me if so, Mr. Minister -- in terms of giving them to some of the people or putting them in some of the houses that need some professional, I don’t know if they have professional installers or they need to look at it in terms of however, or whatever, it became an issue that in our small communities that is more like... Maybe in the larger centres they...

I again take the word of the Minister. In March I dare to ask him which day in March, so, I hope the Minister is going to follow through strong with his department. Hopefully before the closing of the winter road so I will leave it in his good hands. Thank you.