Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have listened to the exchange between the MLA for Mackenzie Delta and the Minister of ITI. I wanted to ask the Minister of Transportation in terms of public roads in the north end of the CANOL here, is that under GNWT’s jurisdiction in terms of public road maintenance and operations?

That’s what I’m afraid of in terms of the Mactung. If they go ahead, if they get the go-ahead to mine their deposit on the Yukon side, they are going to use the Northwest Territories side as a transportation corridor. I’d like to ask the Minister what type of alternative plans does he have in regard to having protection. We know this is a proposed park that was negotiated with the Sahtu Dene and Metis in 1993 and that we want this to happen. We don’t want to see any damage to this piece of property here. So we ask the Minister what is he prepared to do to work with the Sahtu to make sure this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue my questions to the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, I’ve recently received some information that the Mactung, the tungsten mine at the border of the proposed CANOL Park, is going to go into some environmental hearings in terms of starting up the tungsten mine. This tungsten mine is one of the world’s largest tungsten deposits in the world and this is the start of the CANOL Heritage Trail. I want to ask the Minister what is his department doing to ensure that this piece of property, this part of the CANOL Heritage Trail or CANOL Park is protected in...

I certainly appreciate the commitment from the Minister. Can the Minister further commit to having some further options, concrete plans in terms of coming to the Assembly in terms of the possibility of advancing a nomination should there be support for nomination of the Mackenzie River as a designated heritage river?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the recent concerns about the Alberta tar sands and the idea of using the Mackenzie River as a super highway, it seems to me that harm to the Mighty Mackenzie is going to happen. We have to take action. We cannot allow one of Mother Nature’s wonders to be hurt.

The Mackenzie River is 4,200 kilometres long. It touches many of the communities along the Mackenzie Valley. An elder once said the Mackenzie River is like the blood veins in our bodies; it gives us life. The Mackenzie is in our blood. Having just spent 10 days at my family’s camp at Old Fort Point, right on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the possibility of designating the Mackenzie River as a heritage river. I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources if he would consider this type of initiative and consider looking at this process to nominate the Mackenzie River under the Canadian Heritage River System.

…the church is sorry for its role in its attempt at assimilation of aboriginal people of the North. This is one more step in the healing journey, but more and more and more must be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation of residential schools in Canada. The date is sponsored by the Nechi Institute of Alberta, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Presbyterian churches in Canada.

In October of 2005, this Assembly formally recognized the day by a motion in this House. We are still the only Legislature in Canada to officially recognize this important annual event. We passed this motion in support of our communities, our families and individuals who attended our residential schools and who continue to endure the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to get some clarification from the Minister in terms of the air terminal building rehab at Fort Good Hope in the books. Is this something that we will see become a reality in this fiscal year, in terms of that building getting some work done?