Norman Yakeleya

I look forward to the end results of the discussions with the regional leaders on the report that’s going to be discussed with the Members of this Assembly here.

I wanted to ask the Minister on the issue of the draft AIP, would that agreement then require this Assembly to change the Northwest Territories Act to make the commitments in the draft AIP?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In September, late September, a group of veteran leaders in the Northwest Territories, aboriginal leaders, met in Yellowknife and talked about the state of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, they came out with a report, and in that report it stated that in 1992 the NWT commission, the constitutional development report published a phase I of this report, it’s known as the Jim Bourque Report.

Mr. Speaker, this report had extensive consultation across the Northwest Territories to all people in terms of constitutional reform in the Northwest Territories. A lot of good...

Then, Mr. Speaker, it would be beneficial to the Minister, in terms of looking at the report, specifically the phase II of the Bourque Commission Report, in terms of constitutional development, in terms of that could possibly go hand in hand with the draft AIP. Can the Minister then see the beneficial use of looking at phase II of the Bourque Commission Report to support what this government now is wanting to do and they’re waiting for the aboriginal governments to see if they’re on board or not?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about phase II of the Bourque Report that was commissioned in the early ‘90s on the constitutional issues in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations if he has any indication from a meeting that was held at the spiritual location, the Trappers Lodge here, on this group going forward with a report to come out asking for a look at phase II of the Bourque Report in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. In terms of the participation in the negotiations, well, we could certainly have a long debate on that on the definition of participating and negotiating. What we see from this point is that Canada and the GNWT are excluding the aboriginal governments. I want to ask the Premier, can he advise how the GNWT has met its obligations to consult, as defined in the Sahtu claim under section 2.(a)(b)(c) that the Sahtu aboriginal governments in determining the fiscal formula in the AIP.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister, in terms of his method of ensuring that some of the small communities are receiving some of the facilities that they need, in terms of career, in terms of, they call them shops, I think -- industrial arts when I was in high school -- in terms of those types of facilities. Certainly, I know that the education boards have to put together some good proposals to acquire an extra teacher just to have a shop program skills trades into the schools. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Sahtu schools, in terms of the facilities that are like that in our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize some of the Sahtu leadership, specifically the K’asho Gotine chief Arthur Tobac, Metis leader Jim Allard, the Yamoga Land Corporation president, Mr. Harvey Pierrot, and also Larry Hutchison, who is the advisor to the leadership there. I also want to recognize the Aurora College students Trudy Kochon from Colville Lake and Donald Yukon from Deline. I also am very happy to recognize an old school chum, Ray Ruben, a good hockey player from Paulatuk.

Mr. Chairman, I do agree with Mr. Ramsay’s comments in terms of the North needing a university. It seems that we have some pressing issues that we need to put together for the Minister. As Mr. Ramsay indicated, there are some things that we should really take this opportunity to press hard with the federal Minister to look at a university in the Northwest Territories for building our case. I hope that we have the opportunity to make a strong case to the federal government.

The Minister alluded to the NWT Day as something that we could do. I think that the North does need a university now, we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The capital infrastructure for colleges, under the budget there’s minor capital upgrades to various college facilities. I noticed that in Yellowknife Campus or college, a lot of students from the Sahtu have come to go to school here and also they have used their facility to upgrade or attend some of the courses here. Some of them have vehicles, and parking space is very limited around the college campus. Also, winter is coming and they use their vehicles to go back home and they need proper plug-ins or insulation at this campus. I’m not sure what the process is or if the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s quite a considerable amount of dollars here in terms of what the Minister has quoted on a five-year plan. I ask because of some of the infrastructure that’s desperately needed in our communities. We are hoping to see them come onto the capital plan in putting some good investment in there. I just wanted to thank the Minister for those numbers and the significance of the type of investment we need in the NWT in terms of our infrastructure within the GNWT.