Norman Yakeleya

I just wanted to ask the Minister about the positions that were 276 and increased to 280.

Again, Mr. Chairman, I know the importance of hydro energy as a valuable asset to the communities. To help the communities, you see it in the prices of electricity paid where there’s hydro going into the communities versus the thermal communities. You don’t have to sell me on that. The hydro communities have this infrastructure given to them as a gift from the federal government. They set up mines here and we’re taking it over. I think for myself I want to say that I do support the Deze Energy Corporation. It involves some really good people in there to put the project together. It’s helping...

I do want to say that I know that the department does have expertise and the department I need to bring this up with is MACA. However, the Minister has offered to, if the community does want to look at chipsealing, that there’s expertise there that could assist with looking at what they can do. I want to just leave it at that rather than pushing this issue any further with this department here.

I want to ask the Minister about the contributions this department is making in terms of staff time for megaprojects such as the Deh Cho Bridge. I know they have some staff that is assigned to the...

The foods are part of a third-party contract, as the Minister stated. How can we get the third-party contractor involved in this type of recommendation, sure to come from the elders council through their recommendations, to serve aboriginal foods? I think this is long overdue. Can the Minister provide some insight on how to go about putting the aboriginal foods on the menu at Stanton Hospital for my people?

Just on the Taltson River hydro electrical for this, I know there are some discussions here on the project. I just want to ask the Minister about this project here. Certainly businesswise it’s a good business opportunity for the mines and you don’t have to tell me what the benefits of it are, I just want to know about the start-up of the project. You had listed some numbers and it’s a joint initiative by other proponents to look at this hydro development. Are we foreseeing anything on issues that will be run into like we’re seeing with the Deh Cho Bridge Project? Cost overruns, I mean, you’re...

Fair enough. I’ll have to check my correspondence and get back to the Minister for information. Even though the P3 policy isn’t under the Minister’s responsibilities, it is closely related to projects we want to look at. I guess I’ll have some discussions with him on how far we can go on this issue here to look at major projects we want to build in the North and in my region.

I want to ask the Minister about the memorandum of understanding with this government. I know it’s administered by ITI but there are maintenance and highways contracts, winter roadwork, airports with this department. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Hospital serves about 65 percent of aboriginal patients. I want to ask the Minister in terms of healthy, good aboriginal foods for the Stanton Hospital for the patients. Has the Minister moved anywhere in regards to having available traditional aboriginal foods for people who come in from the outside and surrounding communities to see if they will have a choice to have traditional foods served to them while they are in recovery?

Just a comment that I wanted to run by the Minister here. Mr. Chair, in the JRP recommendations of 176 recommendations, in there there’s a phrase in there that they use in terms of the Inuvik facility, Inuvik compressor facility that has waste energy. I know there’s a facility that’s being planned close to the community of Tulita. Is this something that this government has looked at as a possibility of tapping into the waste heat energy for the community of Tulita? I know there are some discussions around natural gas conversions into the community once, and if, the pipeline is built into Good...

Mr. Chair, I’m very encouraged by the Minister’s comments in terms of the possibility of this being a discussion at a Cabinet level and coming back to the community for a look at this issue here. I certainly appreciate the Minister’s support, I guess, from all around to increases. This is very important for our communities, to increase the funding for this type of project. So I want to say to the Minister that he’s done a good job in this area here. He has certainly listened to the people in this area here.

Mr. Chair, I want to speak to the Minister about the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the...

Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement in terms of this government concluding its time in this Assembly here, is this a big enough decision? If we are going to make some changes into how we do the review of the rental of public housing, is it a big enough decision to leave it for the next government or can we make this decision within this government to go forward in terms of the next Assembly?