Norman Yakeleya

I consulted with some of the self-government governments in the Sahtu and I would agree to disagree with the Premier’s comment in terms of taking away some of the existing land claims agreements or self-government issues here. I’ve not yet completed my analysis, but I’m hoping to bring it up sometime within the next couple of days to have a debate with the Minister.

I want to ask the Minister again in terms of bringing forward this and building a relationship with the Aboriginal governments in terms of is the Minister looking at, say, for example, the Dene Nation are going to be having a chiefs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with MLA Bromley’s question in terms of the impact of this initial signing of the AIP and the impact on the relationship with the Aboriginal governments. As I’ve witnessed on TV, while I was in Deline, seeing the initial and the amount of Aboriginal governments with the protestors out there to not have this go forward until some more work should be done on it, I want to ask the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs why they rushed in terms of initiating this agreement. There was some talk about waiting until May or something like that. Why did they rush...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought about this motion and due to the sudden developments of the draft AIP, I said there is something missing here. There is something seriously flawed with this process here. That is why I asked to have this motion come to the House for some discussion.

We need to look at a public consultation process. Mr. Speaker, I have been in the negotiations business for a bit before I became the MLA for Sahtu. Any type of drastic changes to our communities or the way we will run our communities, when we come to a process of putting an agreement together and having the people...

WHEREAS the people of the Northwest Territories share common values and aspirations, including the belief that the authority to govern stems from the people to their institutions of government;

AND WHEREAS aboriginal governments are intrinsically linked as partners in designing, implementing and participating in the development of government institutions;

AND WHEREAS respect for the Northwest Territories’ diverse cultures and the desire to live in balance with the land are cornerstones of our future and those of our governments;

AND WHEREAS the recent draft Agreement-in-Principle on Devolution of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had been working with the Minister’s office on this particular subject. There are probably other ones that fall into this category. I want to ask the Minister in terms of speeding up the process. It seems like this person, in the eyes of the community, is very simple. You have a public unit house. They want to buy it. The Minister has encouraged people. How quickly can this person buy this unit? It certainly would save a lot of grief for the family and I think this could be done as quickly as possible. I will work with the Minister. I want to ask the Minister if we...

Mr. Speaker, clarification I will give the Minister is that this lady wants to purchase a house; however, due to some complexities, I guess, within the policies of the Housing Corporation, it will take months to purchase this house. She is doing it all on her own, yet it seems like the Housing Corporation has a whole bunch of policies that speak of more frustrating for her in terms of purchasing this unit. Get it off their inventory so that they can build another unit that they would allocate to other people in the community. It is just very tiring for this person.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of this whole draft AIP, it comes down to one issue. It comes down to trust with our aboriginal governments and this government here. So far we have not seen that in terms of how this process comes out to play in terms of we have to post this agreement on CBC for everybody to read. Mr. Speaker, our leaders here are saying that we need more than just having a government-to-government. We need a third government. I am not too sure when this decision was made to have a territorial government and federal government come to a deal and then turn around to say to the...

Mr. Speaker, I was carbon copied a letter by the Sahtu Secretariat certainly indicating their position on the draft AIP. I want to ask the Premier, in terms of my regional position here from the leaders, the chiefs and the Metis presidents, in terms of the attitude or the position of the federal government and the territorial government on the government-to-government relationship, and they certainly didn’t feel that they were participating as much as they wanted to and several issues from the Sahtu were not left to be discussed and they certainly don’t feel that it can be discussed any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to congratulate Thomas Manuel Sr. He is 73 years old and a well-respected elder in Fort Good Hope. His bravery was recently celebrated by the Governor General of Canada, David Johnson. It was a great honour and the people of the Sahtu region are proud of Mr. Manuel. He received a Medal of Bravery for protecting his wife and three grandchildren from an armed intruder three years ago. People across the Northwest Territories remember this incident well. It was widely covered in the media. A young man broke into Mr. Manuel’s house. He had a shotgun and he used...