Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, February 26, 2015, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, February 26, 2015, it shall be adjourned until Monday, March 2, 2015;

And further, that any time prior to March 2, 2015, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice...

Thank you, colleagues. Once again, I’d like to recognize the Deline leadership, the negotiating team on these past couple days, a historical day for them. Welcome, and good to see you guys again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has the department ever come to the point where they do a pilot project such as they’ve done in Inuvik with the TEST program, with students in sports or on-the-land activities within education so these students can develop into world-class athletes? Has there ever been a program since they did theirs in Inuvik with the TEST program? Has there been any thought to that?

I do apologize to the Minister. I was talking about hoping the student would say something that would get them to stay in school or something exciting, but he was looking forward to leaving the school every day. So I want to know what type of programs are in place in the schools, such as sporting events, that make students go to school and stay in school and have their school be a fun place to go to.

Has the Minister looked at any type of program such as sports and the days of the TEST program where there were sporting events that kept students in school and measured their success by also...

Mr. Speaker, it says in the paper, kids are not learning to read and write by Grade 3, and if you don’t learn to read and write by Grade 3, you’re handicapped all the way through. That’s what I’m talking about, and the results show that 50 percent of our small schools are operating below their grade level. We are failing them.

I’m asking the Minister again, is he willing to look at the pilot projects that are done in Ontario to see if these pilot projects can be implemented in our Sahtu communities as a pilot project to improve the literacy skills of our students? Will he be willing to commit...

In the Globe and Mail article it talks about the Aboriginal Literacy Pilot Project that dramatically improved the test scores in Ontario. I wonder if the Minister is aware of this First Nations reserve school in Ontario. It was struggling with the basic literacy test scores, and they have done a pilot project in that community that has greatly improved the results of these test scores for the young students.

Is this something that the Minister would be interested to investigate and to see if this could be done in the Northwest Territories in looking at a pilot project in the Sahtu communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand what the Minister and the deputy minister are saying. I want to point out that I’m not talking about homeowners. I’m talking about operators who have lodges that they’ve invested half a million, a million dollars, and these are fairly expensive lodges for the outfitters. If there is part of their licence requirement that if it’s a season like this, you make sure it’s there because these sprinklers can be used somewhere else in the area for homeowners who are living on the land. We can’t mix apples and oranges here. We’ve got to put them apart here and say...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to recognize the Dechinta students here and also to the special family here, the Austin family. I want to say thank you to all the people who made this event happen for the family on behalf of the Sahtu. Congratulations.

I also want to recognize two of the elders from the Deline leadership, the elders Andrew John Kenny and Leon Modeste.

I have a question for the Minister. When we have tourism outfitter lodges and that, is it part of their requirement to have a sort of fire management sprinkler system? From last year’s fire situation, have we as a department been lending our fire sprinklers to the lodge owners? They don’t have that when they are in that situation. Is it part of their licence? I know it’s part of ITI, but the Minister has responsibility also for the fire protection.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand proudly to second this bill and thank my colleagues from the other side to allow this to happen.

I do want to say, in keeping with the spirit of the Deline Got’ine people, that what they have done is historical. The visions of the people are coming to realization. We don’t know what’s going to happen and it’s because of the elders in their wisdom and the guidance of us young leaders that they tell us how to go about and how to live our life. Sometimes we don’t quite understand from our culture, but our elders have guided this team for over 18 years or longer to...