Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to also thank all Members of the House for their thoughts, for their passion, for their analytical thinking in terms of this issue. It’s a very big issue. It’s good that the people of the Northwest Territories hear the peoples’ government talk about a very important species in the North.

Mr. Speaker, the motion that I’ve moved in this House is to consult; consult with each other, consult with the aboriginal governments and show respect to the aboriginal peoples and to the aboriginal governments.

Mr. Speaker, the comments about this animal, you know, thinking...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two questions for the Minister. The first question is more retrieving information from the Minister in terms of non-government organizations. Can the Minister provide to me the list of NGOs in the Northwest Territories? Can she break them down maybe by the regions or health authorities for me?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The document I am going to make reference to is put out by the Department of Health, 2006-07 document at my office here. It talked about the age group of 60 years and older as the fastest growing demographic in the Northwest Territories, this population here. Certainly, from 1996 to 2006 the population of seniors in the Northwest Territories increased by 46 percent.

Mr. Speaker, I want again just to speak to the Minister in terms of the care for seniors, or I refer to them as elders, in terms of the health policies in regards to having seniors come out of our...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to follow up on Mr. Krutko’s comments. My comments would be around the issue of the caribou and how this has come to the forefront in terms of the various different types of positions put by various people. I’ve always said to go back to the elders because the elders are the ones who were raised on the land, they know the land, they know the animals, and the elders have always told us how to behave on the land with specific animals and which animals have special gifts for the people. I’m not too sure how well that sits in with the non-native people in terms of our...

At the time of the negotiations I didn’t know Minister Miltenberger would be our Minister in terms of this issue here. I wanted to say that in terms of making reference to residents of Colville Lake, Colville Lake people, I spoke to them the other day, they had some words for it and I can’t say them in the House in terms of the issue of caribou. The Minister has indicated that. I’ll leave it at that.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of the impact of caribou in this here, has he really looked at the impacts of the diamond mines, vehicles that are going into the diamond mines, has that been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to MLA Krutko and recall the terms of the rights for aboriginal people that have been fought for long and hard by some very good people. As a matter of fact, my grandfather signed a treaty in 1921, Chief Albert Wright, in terms of having these rights here.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of the protection of the herd and the protection of aboriginal rights with respect to the consultation and this interim measure. The Minister has indicated that he made a decision based on emergency conservation measures. I want to ask the Minister, with respect to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask about the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority. They have a bunch of lease arrangements here with the health office program space there. Is this a one-year lease? I know you’re building a consolidated clinic in Yellowknife here, so these leases are for one year then?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just in terms of looking at emergency shelters for my region, we had looked at several possibilities of having emergency shelters in my community yet we seem to be stumbling over policies or different programs or services and we just can’t get it into our region even though we have been asking for it. So I guess I want to ask the Minister is that something that we can look forward to putting emergency shelters in the Sahtu.

I do apologize, Mr. Chairman, for that to the Minister. Let me rephrase my question. I mean more specific to the Department of Health and Social Services.