Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I Had a Million Dollars was a song sung by the Barenaked Ladies. However, I’m not going to say anything to that, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if I had a million dollars I would pursue with the people of Colville Lake and this government to develop a strong partnership with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to begin planning to build a new school. …(inaudible)…,says the movie. If you build it, they will come.

This issue is so important that it was raised with the Premier and the Cabinet on September 24th in meetings with SSI and our government. The...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for clarification on this bill, is it flexible enough that the offenders would be in their home communities working off their surcharge in the Fine Option Program? So a modern chain gang type of a method here.

Thank you, Minister, for the explanation. This request, in the previous discussions, could not have been foreseen that we’re going to be coming back to this Assembly to ask for a supp for the additional support that’s going to be needed for the opening of the Hay River health facility. So, hypothetically, the Norman Wells Health Centre could be in the same situation in regards to a supp because the planners didn’t sign this. If they would have, they would have put the money and it would have been done, already put in with the plan, the whole design here. But something happened that they said...

I’m certainly looking and being very optimistic as to the solar project in Colville Lake. People up there are looking forward to seeing the benefits. It could certainly reduce the cost of their consumption. There is a lot of money spent on energy, especially with their small co-op store that has a huge power bill every month. We’re certainly looking forward to that project and hopefully that will be duplicated in the other communities.

That’s the goal. Really, it’s the goal for the homeowner either living in public housing or their own private housing is to get a cheap power bill. A lot of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The initiatives that Mr. Aumond has just spoken about, I’ll get back to them, but I want to ask the Minister in regards to the low water. Are we expecting, in the upcoming years in the next government, that will continue? Is there any type of prediction as to the low water that we’re dealing with in the Bluefish Hydro area that this government is going to be expected or asked to forecast a huge amount of dollars to offset the high cost of having that facility operate? The way I guess I understand it is that the whole Northwest Territories is paying for this expenditure...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 8, 2015, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the GNWT consider development and coordination of government-wide programs to teach official languages of Northwest Territories to senior managers of the GNWT departments as appropriate to the regions which they are responsible;

And further, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion to the 18th Legislative Assembly by June 2016.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

One of the factors of these 10 or more students who have dropped out for one reason or another in Colville Lake could be because we don’t have a proper school to educate them. Because of this situation and working with Colville Lake, the Colville Lake Education Council and the Sahtu Board of Education have cut this year’s budget by cutting out high school teachers. There are no high school teachers in Colville Lake. This is why the community, chief and council are pushing strong that they get a proper school in Colville Lake. This has to stop, Mr. Speaker.

What is the Minister going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Currently, in Colville Lake there are 45 to 50 students enrolled this year. About 10 of those students have dropped out for one reason or another. They are citing that the fact that they cannot concentrate in the small building shared by all grades, considering that kindergarten and Grade 1 are housed in a separate building.

So, imagine the size of this room. You have well over 40 students all trying to reach their grade potentials. This is why Colville Lake is asking for partnership with this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that subclause 34(3) of Bill 64 be deleted and the following substituted:

(3) Subsection 42(6) is amended by striking out “$100” and substituting “$500”.

I urge this government to build upon the partnership that they have with Colville Lake and make this a reality. It’s been proven already. I urge this government to continue this initiative and pass it on to the next government. Colville Lake recognizes our goal set out in the 17th Legislative Assembly and we must walk our talk and commit ourselves to partnerships that will see a new school in Colville Lake