Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been noted that the draft AIP has been posted on CBC for the whole public to take their own view and to have their own interpretation of the AIP. Mr. Speaker, I was meeting with the K’asho leadership in Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope and, Mr. Speaker, much to my surprise, they were in shock and awe in terms of the agreement. So I wanted to ask the Premier if he can advise the House as to who and when the decision was made to exclude the K’asho Gotine in the process of entering into bilateral negotiations with Canada.

Certainly the Minister is correct; he did hear it from the aboriginal chief at the initiative symposium we had in the Sahtu on our leadership’s wishes. What in the capital infrastructure, capital planning dollars, study dollars, needs to keep the process to look at a planning study or needs assessment that would, you know, you have to do one step at a time to have a university in the North or a Sahtu institution of technology training centre in the Sahtu off and running. What would it take for this Minister to say yes, let’s put this into a five-year capital plan or even a 20-year capital plan...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the K’asho Gotine Dene of Fort Good Hope and the K’asho Gotine Dene of Colville Lake, which are the Dene and Metis of the Sahtu land claim, hold fee-simple title to approximately 13,000 square kilometres of land within the Sahtu Settlement Area with the Northwest Territories. The K’asho Gotine Dene negotiated the Minister’s access and benefits agreements with the proposed development with the K’asho Gotine district of the Sahtu Settlement Area.

Mr. Speaker, the draft proposed AIP suggests that the Government of the Northwest Territories would be assigned law...

I certainly hope the Minister keeps us informed as to the results of their discussions with the board of governors and the college and whether there is going to be any type of small infrastructure dollars go into having a proper parking facility with proper plug-ins for the vehicles. A lot of these vehicles don’t have plug-ins. I’m also speaking from last year’s experience and this year’s experience. This issue has yet to be addressed in a serious manner. I am very cautious as to the Minister’s caution on continued discussions. I’d like to see where there is an implementation plan to put in...

No, it’s okay.

The approach to the Mackenzie Valley Highway has been long discussed within these Assemblies and the people down the Mackenzie Valley. Certainly we recognize that the federal government will play a huge part in terms of constructing this road here. I look forward to the day when this government and this Minister can bring forward a P3 discussion or we can have some discussions as to the possibilities out there in terms of building part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We have yet to see a P3 discussion or paper in front of this Legislative Assembly to look at infrastructure such as this. So we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, colleagues. I want to ask a question to the Minister in terms of the project description report funding and the push to construct the Mackenzie Valley Highway sometime within this century here. Can the Minister indicate the status of the project description funding and hopefully where that would carry us through to iron on the ground in terms of actual construction of the highway with reference to his exchange with Mr. Krutko on the piece of infrastructure that’s going to be needed on the Bear River Bridge to go ahead? Are those dollars identified in here...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier and Mr. Krutko have exchanged on some of the history that went on with the devolution and resource revenue sharing beyond 1988 and from there today where we have an initial agreement that we’re discussing whether we sign or not sign, Mr. Speaker, in terms of that history it also shows that the government has also changed its views in terms of the majority of aboriginal governments on board to the full support of them to some support. Now it seems like we have a government-to-government relationship and I’m afraid that this initial agreement will not...

I’m asking the Premier in terms of some innovation and thinking outside the box regarding the established guidelines and policies to bring this significant deal to the peoples’ front doors and asking if this is a deal that we want to sign on with everybody in the Northwest Territories. I have the K’asho leadership coming here today and I’m meeting with them after this House session here today. I need to let the K’asho leadership know. What should I tell them about this deal?

We have 13 days, the Premier has indicated, to get responses from the aboriginal leaders; 13 days to tell my leaders what...

I say to Mr. Premier, give the people the respect and dignity to have a say in their destiny. Give each resident in the North the opportunity to voice their opinions on this deal.

We must move forward on the path of unity and sometimes this takes time. That’s what we have today: time to know how this deal is going to go down in history to be proud or to be chapters of regrets. I ask the government to take their time on this deal.