Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we’re going to change the name of the Bear River Bridge to the Red Flag Bridge. You got red flagging going on on that side of the government here, Mr. Speaker. On this specific issue on the Bear River Bridge, the Deh Cho Bridge is going ahead. Why not the Sahtu? Certainly someone has taken our money from the Bear River Bridge and put it somewhere else.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me that the plans that are going forward to the federal government for whatever plans they are making, why doesn’t it include the Sahtu people in terms of looking at some real solutions in terms of building this bridge? Can the Minister commit to this House here, this day here, that the Bear River Bridge is a high priority as he said it is -- it is on the shelves -- to take it off the shelves to be constructed just like the Deh Cho Bridge project?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in light of that, getting the process in place with the department and the Sahtu regional health board, would the Minister look at committing to put together a feasibility study in terms of looking at a regional wellness centre and putting that on the agenda with the next government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the department look at an initiative brought by the Sahtu leadership in terms of looking at a P3 model in terms of helping out with this government? We want to be part of the government. Would something like that be feasible by this government to look at a P3 model in terms of building a regional wellness centre?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several months or weeks ago, I heard the federal government make an announcement on the patient wait guarantee time in Canada. I was quite delighted to hear about this, Mr. Speaker. I wasn’t too sure how the interpretation was going to be interpreted or how it was to be translated into our region. The way I looked at it is this region here I am talking about is the Sahtu region. Patients are guaranteed to wait for health services, Mr. Speaker. Patient wait guarantee time for us. We are asking again in terms of like the highway, in terms of other...

We want to know when that bridge is going over the Bear River. So can the Minister, again, look at plans to start phasing in parts of the work of the Bear River Bridge? I appreciate the Minister and Mr. Roland coming into my region and looking and we had to go across by boat because we had no bridge across. So I wanted to ask the Minister, can he look at his department to phase in parts of this and that we see a bridge in a couple of years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I get some different stories here, but, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, because of the financial constraints, why did this government not come to the Sahtu and say we have an issue here, we’re short $15 million, let’s look at a solution to build this bridge? Why hasn’t this government come to the Sahtu to say can you help us? We’re willing to help. Why haven’t they come? When will they come to the Sahtu and demand that this bridge here…We’ll demand this bridge here gets built. Where is the money?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other question I have for the Minister has to do with the $2.5 million for creation and implementation of a Tourism Product Diversification and Marketing Program. I’ll ask the Minister in terms of this project here in terms of I guess I’m curious as to where did this come out from in terms of a lot of questions around this here? So I’ll ask the Minister in terms of a very brief, very brief summary.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister on the Health and Social Services operations expenditures specific to the $150,000 that’s going to the Nurse Practitioner Program in terms of this funding that we receive from the federal government on these patient wait time guarantees in terms of how is this going to help people in our regions and our small communities in terms of this specific initiative? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very afraid that this Northwest Territories cash cow is not going to get the Mackenzie Highway built up into our regions here. Mr. Premier, I want to ask you one question. We went on a hike here a couple of times. Last month, in seven days we walked 90 miles and we just did it. We saw what it took from us to do, along with the young leaders and people that accompanied us, and we just did it. I'm asking this government here to look seriously at the Mackenzie Valley highway in the next couple of days you have, in terms of just doing it, put the...