Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to ask the Minister about his statement that he’s very proud of the Sahtu. In the last four years the funding level has not changed once in the Sahtu for the on-the-land program in the Sahtu. It’s been in the...(inaudible)... Costs have increased with the program. Will he look at putting this into a permanent program with the inflation costs of running the program? Because right now it’s something that is desperately needed in our region. Would the Minister look at that?

I want to ask the Minister about the programs that they offer at the North Slave Correctional Centre or any other correctional facility in the Northwest Territories. It seems like we’re having people enter back into the system. Once they come out, they come back to it again. It’s been said in the House here that we seem to be recycling some of the inmates and it seems like we’re not giving enough resources to rehabilitate them properly so that when they get out, they stay out. I want to ask the Minister of the type of dollars that are committed to programs to help the inmates while they’re in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Justice what the average cost is of housing an inmate at the North Slave Correctional Centre.

I hope the department can rectify this situation as soon as possible. As you know, students who leave small communities and come back to do their practicum or to go back to work, it’s a good incentive for other students to continue on their education and role modelling. I would ask the Minister again if he would commit to see if this resolution can be done sometime within the life of this government.

The one instance I made reference to and the Minister has just talked about, the Grande Prairie institution. Is the Minister now giving the House a deadline on when maybe a resolution could be satisfactory to the student or the community to have the student or future students come up to the North to do their practicum?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the explanation. I want to ask the Minister about the billing issues in medical travel. Do we still have some disputes with the federal government in regard to medevac or any type of billing issues? I know we have a history and we used to have some issues there. Do we still carry on with some of the outstanding issues that we had in the past with the feds?

Thank you. Just to follow up, Mr. Chair, on the supplementary health benefits and the recommendations that came from the committee. I know in the Minister’s sessional statement from the last session she talked about this spring we would have new policies coming out and see where things are going to be followed up on the recommendations. I guess I just wanted to get clarification in terms of what she’s exchanging with MLA Hawkins in terms of their report that the government is now implementing on the supplementary health. I want to see where the working poor, how that issue is being followed up...

Thank you. Can the Premier explain where the thousands of dollars that have been given to the regions went if it wasn’t to explain the devolution?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about devolution. I want to ask the Premier some questions. I want to ask him in terms of the mandates for going forward, when and who decided that the Aboriginal governments won’t have direct participation at the tables when they were negotiating the draft AIP? So far what I’ve been told and what I’ve read is only the GNWT and the federal governments were negotiating and they drafted the AIP. The Aboriginal governments were briefed from time to time, but they didn’t really have a seat at the table per se in terms of the direct negotiations on this important...

Again, I’d like to ask the Minister about medical travel. I understand that the department will be reviewing its Medical Travel Policy and I myself being personally involved in medical travel in the Northwest Territories, look forward to having some meaningful discussions with the Minister and the staff about my own experience with medical travel. I won’t take up the time now to talk about it, but at a different time in terms of how medical has been with me at least and my family and I’m not very happy with it. I don’t need to say any more right now, but I wanted to have the opportunity to...