Norman Yakeleya

Just in closing, I want to say, Mr. Chair, that after being in Tulita for a bit there, I noticed some of the young employees of the hamlet in terms of the water treatment plant operators that...The young guy that I met at the airport in Tulita talked about going to Norman Wells and getting some training to be a certified water plant operator and this type of initiative has really been appreciated by me. This person was very proud to say that he has been certified as a plant operator. It does go a long way with our young people in terms of training them. So I wanted to let the Minister know...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly the Minister pretty well knows which water treatment plant I was talking about and it’s certainly an issue here. Now, I guess, the other one is up in Colville Lake regarding the new water treatment plant and the ability for them to have proper O and M budget to maintain that new highly technical water treatment plant there and meeting the new national standard.

The Minister is correct, you know, if we do want to come up to the new standards of waste and water treatment plants, this money’s got to be attached to it by the federal government to us to...

Mr. Chair, just a question to the Minister in terms of the Tulita tank farm and shelter that they use. The Minister has written to me, I’ve received some good correspondence in terms of the future plans for the shelter or the shack that we have in Tulita for handling the fuel in our community. I’m just trying to get a sense, I know it’s been delayed and I wanted to ask the Minister in terms of the next couple years before you start putting the real building in there, in between there are some safety mechanisms we should be looking at in terms of the quality of this building in terms of...

Mr. Speaker, in regards to the traditional knowledge work that this department is leading, how soon or when would we see these types of traditional knowledge information be implemented into government-wide policy with all departments?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People in the Sahtu certainly appreciate the funds for the hydro symposium. Can I ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, as a result at the conclusion of the hydro symposium, would this government seriously look at construction of some of the initiatives that they could do in the Sahtu to reduce the cost of energy?

Can the Minister inform me as to how much has been invested into the feasibility studies for the natural gas conversions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a song that goes something like this, “wintertime is coming, wintertime is coming.” However, I’m not allowed to sing it, so I’m going to say, Mr. Speaker, that winter is here and it’s time to turn up the heat in the Sahtu. I’m not talking about global warming, Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about providing affordable heat to homes and businesses in the Sahtu region.

Earlier this session, I stood up and talked about the energy initiatives in my region and I would like to come back to that today, Mr. Speaker, because it’s a hot issue. I don’t think there are any or...

Mr. Chair, I want to follow up on the line of questions from Mr. Krutko, MLA for Mackenzie Delta, on the extraordinary funding that communities used to have and just hear the exchange between the Ministers and the Member here in terms of the communities that want to understand that some of the unforeseen disasters happen and communities know that MACA will be there for them and there is a clear understanding about funding if something happens. For example, last year the ice breakup in Norman Wells and certainly they appreciated the support from MACA where some discussions happened in terms of...

If I could ask the Minister if he could maybe forward where some of the regulation requirements, if he could forward it over to us in terms of seeing where things are at with the federal government and the Minister, I would certainly appreciate that. So we could possibly give a heads up to our communities that this may be coming down and somebody should look at it when we’re looking at planning or constructing or whatever through the New Deal and what’s required of them, possibly, in the future. So then we know what’s coming down the tube from the federal government.

I want to also ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments I have for the Minister are in terms of the empowerment of the communities to take over the facilities and some of the assets that are going to have some decision-making authorities. I would like to talk about the water and waste treatment plants in our communities and our ability to meet these new standards in Canada now. I want to ask the Minister, over time, how are we going to support our communities to meet these new national standards in our water and in sewer and in wastewater treatment plants and also the regulatory requirements that will be...