Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement is on the northern residents tax deduction. In February of 2002, this Legislative Assembly passed the motion in favour of an increase of the northern residents deduction. The motion also calls for the annual indexing of this tax incentive. The Premier and the Minister of Finance were tasked to work with their counterparts in other jurisdictions to lobby the federal government in favour of the incentives. The maximum amount of a northern residents tax deduction has not been increasing since 1987. This means the real work of...

Thank you. It’s an ongoing issue, so, Mr. Chairman, I’m not going to continue on with that question. It’s an ongoing issue and those other issues will come up. I want to say to the Minister in terms of the other issue of the beavers in the reservoir, I heard this also in Fort Good Hope, so I hope that the Minister, somehow with the powers that we’re going to look at with this new act here, helps remediate some of these concerns with some of the smaller communities that have reservoirs and, you know, dust on them and a whole bunch of other issues that finally is getting some attention...

Mr. Chair, the bill itself, I applaud the people who were involved in terms of making this a more up-to-date bill and the health system. Mr. Chairman, the question I have is in terms of the concerns that we heard, the powers for the new positions that are going to be in this act here has to speak to a concern from one community we visited in the Sahtu, Tulita, in terms of water intake treatment plant and the quality of the water is not there and it’s a funding issue in terms of the Health department somewhat has to bring the standards of quality of water into our communities. How much power...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from witnessing two years of walking the park with the Premier, Mr. Premier walks just like the ATV. He just gives her. I want to ask the question, Mr. Speaker, in terms of the ATV. There have been noticeable curves witnessed by this government, the Members and the people of Tulita, that the use of ATVs at mile 222 is disturbing. It is serious. Actually, if the Minister can do some serious follow-up in terms of letting people know, if you come to our border in the Northwest Territories, not to chew up our land, people outside of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to also say to the participants who walked on this hike, it was a wonderful trip and a golden opportunity. One of things I would like to state, Mr. Speaker, is that the heritage trail is very sensitive and very precious to the Sahtu people, especially to the Shutah le Gohlini (sic) Dene people. Will the Minister look at looking at restrictions or some type of bylaw or law in terms of the use of ATVs in the Canol Heritage Trail? I know it has been quite an issue amongst our people in terms of the use of these all-terrain vehicles especially in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was hoping that the Finance Minister would give some good news to the people in the Northwest Territories prior to us leaving this Assembly in terms of this issue here. I hope that we see a little more progressive steps taken, not like the devolution and resource revenue sharing. So, again, what type of a letter of comfort maybe to the people of the North in terms of this issue as being taken seriously by Canada and the other counterparts so we can see that this issue be front and foremost in terms of this issue being dealt with in the near future?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Finance Minister give some strong indications to the people in the Northwest Territories in terms of an outline of somewhat of a time frame to see that they will hopefully receive this type of benefit from the federal government in terms of securing support from the other jurisdictions in increasing the northern residents deduction?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to advise that on May 25, 2007, fire chief Urban Antoine of Tulita was honoured at a luncheon organized and hosted by the Hamlet of Tulita in recognition of having him being chosen as the recipient of the 2006 Territorial Fire Merit Award.

The Department of MACA and the NWT Fire Service Merit Award Program annually acknowledges and recognizes important contributions made by community firefighters. Urban was chosen as the recipient for his dedication to training and maintenance of community equipment and for hosting the successful Fire Prevention...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister and staff in terms of safe water drinking qualities. We have bottled water in our stores in our small communities. There has been some research and reports that our drinking water is actually safer than bottled water, but yet we seem to buy bottled water because of some security or some thought in our heads that it is safer and cleaner. Actually, some reports show just the opposite. We have really good, clean water in the Northwest Territories, Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake and several lakes around here. Are there any types...