Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, would the Minister consider having a working partnership with the Sahtu people so that if these land rovers ever do decide to come back to the Northwest Territories, they would be stopped there and not to go any further on this CANOL Heritage Trail?

Mr. Speaker, the issue of the land rovers coming in from B.C., these six land rovers that came very close to some very sensitive areas in the Sahtu along the Heritage Trail. These vehicles tear up the muskeg road. I want to ask the Minister in terms of him working with the Minister of Transportation in terms of some restrictions on this piece of road here. As you know, Mactung Mine, close to the border, has filed for some application to start up their project here. It will become very busy. The Yukon government has put thousands of dollars into upgrading the North CANOL Road. I want to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to reviewing the recommendations with the rest of the Members of this House here and Cabinet colleagues. Can the Minister tell us as to when these recommendations can come to the knowledge of the public in terms of this review of this specific issue on reducing the cost of living in our small communities?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for some of the highlights of what his department is doing. I am also asking about some of the other businesses such as the Northern Store, the Co-op or some of the other industries that have goods and services, because of the high cost of running their stores on these diesel power plants in my region, where the costs are fairly high in terms of being in the region. Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Minister if there is anything his department is doing to reduce the costs in these communities.

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.

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...

Mr. Speaker, these significant days in our people’s lives, sometimes I think it would be a wonderful consideration if the government could take it on its onus to advance these types of issues forward in terms of a motion like this in the House here. So I would appreciate if the Premier could take it on in his leadership to engage the Members to see if something can be done within this short life of this Assembly here, to recognize this important day for the survivors of the residential schools.

I’m not too sure if we’ll have enough time for how quickly we can engage the Members to see if we want to do something. I want to ask the Premier in terms of his leadership, in terms of the leader of this government here, in terms of taking a leadership role to say something on behalf of this government in terms of May 26 being the day that we recognize, in this government here, as the national reconciliation healing day for residential school survivors. Will the Premier do something?

…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.