Norman Yakeleya

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...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to table the Globe and Mail article, Aboriginal literacy pilot project dramatically improves test scores in Ontario.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. So, in 2015-16 the needs assessment and analysis will be done for Deline palliative care beds in that community and that discussion will come forward for discussion for the ’15-16 infrastructure. Is that correct, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past weekend, specifically yesterday, the grounds in Yellowknife were hopping. About close to 500 people from the Sahtu region live in Yellowknife. So, yesterday they had their first ever Sahtu Dene-Metis beneficiary gathering for all beneficiaries that live here in Yellowknife. People come here for school, to raise their families, for work, whatever.

It was the unofficial Sahtu day here in Yellowknife. It was a gathering of the large families that came together yesterday. The board of directors said, you know, we have close to 40 percent of listed beneficiaries...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have the pleasure of recognizing the leadership of Deline in the gallery this afternoon. Yesterday we had some beautiful music from the Deline drummers at the celebration here. Of course, Deline is the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada and Deline is the place where you want to catch the largest, biggest trout in the whole wide world. I want to recognize the leadership, the negotiating team, the elders from Deline who are here on this historic day for themselves. They also brought along a friend, I think, one of the leaders from Colville Lake, Mr. Joseph Kochon...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation. The Minister of Transportation and I had a visit in Deline last year and we talked about the safety of the lake and we did talk about the concept of the road going around a section of the lake to hook up to the winter road on the other side of the Bear River.

Is that concept still alive within this department as to the wishes of the people of Deline?

There are provisions, there are training resources in the community of Deline should an elder want to go back to the community for their final resting area. Are there provisions and resources in that community that people are trained to look after their loved ones?