Norman Yakeleya

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...

Then why are the aboriginal leaders not standing side by side with our Premier saying this is a good thing? Why are we trying to force the deal?

We need to do this right and we need to take the time to do it right. Our elders know very well how agreements like this will have an impact on us and our lives and the fallout interpretations between governments. Just look up the amount of court cases that we’ve had to deal with in our time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on the ground on the faith of my people. For the last three weeks my mind and heart have been gone from time to time as to the fate of how we will be shaping our land and our relationships with aboriginal governments. We are beginning to see what it may look like. There’s an interesting saying in the Chinese culture that goes something like this: May you live in interesting times. Certainly we’re in those times with the draft devolution agreement-in-principle. Advice I’m getting from my elders and the leaders in the Sahtu give me strength to carry on with my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people of the Northwest Territories, from my stories from the elders, have traditionally been self-reliant and have governed themselves for thousands of years. More recent arrivals in the Territories have been fiercely independent also. All of us believe that our government should be of the people and who can work out things together. Our system of government has grown, Mr. Speaker, and it has taken on more authority over the last 50 years. Aboriginal peoples have settled land claims and have actually set up their own governments based on both tradition and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting this motion. I’d like to thank Mr. Bromley for bringing it to the floor.

The statistics show, the numbers show that students who take on a career by advancing their educational knowledge, greatly contribute to the Northwest Territories and the communities. These educational programs that we offer in secondary institutions will certainly be busier if we had the proper funding for students to take advantage of upgrading their skills and educational knowledge by having them being supported through Student Financial Assistance.

As Mr. Bromley has...

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise the Members in this House what he is going to do to ensure that the sale of public housing units can occur in a timely manner within the communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have about 238 adults in the Sahtu region that are 60 years and older. Some of these adults are considered elders in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, elders’ care in the Sahtu is severely lacking. Gone are the days of families taking care of their parents and grandparents on a full-time basis. Mr. Speaker, families need support to take care of their own in their own homes. However, this type of care puts a lot of pressure on families, because it speaks to the core values and beliefs of a family in our communities. It’s stressful as families have to take care of their own...