Norman Yakeleya

I would like to ask the Minister, the Tulita Housing Corporation said no, the Fort Good Hope community says no, the Sahtu Regional Health Board and education board have said no. What part of “no” on this board reform does the Minister not understand? The people in the Sahtu do not want…

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I ask the Minister what it will take for this House here to tell the Minister to cease and desist on the health board initiatives from the Sahtu people. What will it take?

In closing, the people in the Sahtu agree with the Members here that board reform needs to be stopped and really looked at. Otherwise, this government here is going to feel the wrath of the Sahtu people.

I certainly look forward to the new numbers that the Minister indicated. That will be coming out sometime this year in terms of core needs that I am using the 2004 needs, so it might not be too fair to the Minister and his department, but I think those numbers pretty well reflect the needs in the community. It is not fair to the Minister to give a proper answer until he sees the new numbers that are coming out this year and I look forward to that.

Mr. Chairman, the seniors facilities, and I am going to make another pitch for the seniors facilities in our communities that meet the needs. With...

The strategies that are going to be coming forward certainly would possibly help the communities, I guess. Mr. Chair, I would like to ask in terms of the issues here we are just discussing. I am not quite fully briefed as to the issues in the community of Fort Good Hope because it wasn’t given to me over the phone. Basically the request was to look at land issues in Fort Good Hope with the Housing Corporation. I am hoping that this corporation here with the Minister is flexible enough to look at issues such as Fort Good Hope in terms of the issues that they need to resolve to build units in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I do have a few comments to make. I would like to say that I certainly look forward to the $50 million that the federal government made available to the Northwest Territories to look at housing investments. It will be very interesting to see the game plan how we expend it, how we expend $50 million to put houses on the ground in our communities. Mr. Chair, I look forward and I am very anxious to see what type of plans will be coming forward from the department to let the people know what is possible out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last couple days I’ve had some pretty early mornings thinking about how the motion is going to be discussed, and how it’s going to be talked about amongst the 18 MLAs in the House here, and what the interpretations might be in the public in terms of what we are looking at and what we are doing. What are the different analyses of the meetings? What are the interpretations of the meetings? How will this play out in our communities? How will this play out amongst ourselves? Looking to this day as to how it will roll out.

The motion, as I read it, is a...

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to when this government, through the lead Ministers, can go into Deline, sit down with them, prove that this commitment is something that they’re committed to do by sitting down with them and making this project a go. There’s going to be lots of discussions there. I look forward to when can this government direct your staff to go into Deline and sit down and sign off on the progress to the Dene mini-hydro project. Right now, for them there’s nothing mentioned on this. Again, that’s one of my disappointments on hearing the budget yesterday. This mini-hydro project...

Mr. Speaker, the communities of Lutselk’e and Whati have also been in the same situation as Deline. Again, I ask the Minister this specific project that’s been on the books for a long, long time with this government in terms of continued support, why was it not mentioned in the budget as the two other projects that have been ongoing with this government in terms of the funding? That’s what upsets me and upsets the people in Deline in terms of this mini-project. Why was it not mentioned?

Mr. Speaker, as I listened yesterday to the territorial government budget address, I was very sad to hear that our region in terms of programs and services hadn’t been mentioned. A case in point: the hydro initiatives. I understand that Lutselk’e and Whati were mentioned but Deline has been working for many years on the mini-hydro project and they see no support on Deline being mentioned in terms of this project.

That is why I am very frustrated with this government in terms of things that are very high for us in the Sahtu region and other areas, the cost of living, energy, infrastructure… I...

The Minister has indicated the possibility of implementing this policy in September. I plead with the Minister to reconsider those dates as that leaves about eight months to implement this policy. Eight months of copied e-mails from the other Members to me in my office in terms of the questions that are out there for clarification by the seniors, concerns by different Members in the Northwest Territories in terms of some very technical and scientific economic formulas that have been used in terms of how do we implement this policy. I don‘t believe we can satisfy all these questions within this...