Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of FMBS, Floyd Roland, in terms of the Sahtu people looking at becoming a full partnership in this government by having the Financial Management Board have an office in the Sahtu region. Is the Minister planning to move an FMBS office in our region to become a full partnership with the rest of the territorial government departments? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Can he look at these types of options and come back to my question in terms of yes, we can do this, it’s feasible and it can get done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of alcohol and drug treatment programs comes up almost on a weekly basis in our communities where children are running around and families are disrupted by the abuse of alcohol and drugs now. The complexity of drugs now in the Northwest Territories makes it really hard. So in terms of the Minister catching up on some of the issues here in terms of Nats’ejee K’eh, in terms of other treatment programs, we need to have specialized treatment programs. I am looking for the option for the Minister to come to this side to our region and look at mobile...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the many goals of this government is to look at healthy families, self-reliant people helping themselves. Mr. Speaker, people in our smaller communities want to know how does that translate into their lives and into their communities. What does that possibly mean? What type of action could be put in place to get to those goals, and where do we start and where can we help and why do it?

Mr. Speaker, communities down the Mackenzie Valley have a high increase of alcohol and drugs in the Northwest Territories. It's been reported that the Northwest...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. However, fall is setting in and winter is just around the corner, and I'm somewhat surprised and shocked that even though the program is being delivered that it has no changes yet for an increase in fuel for the small communities. Elders are getting their fuel I think by November until the end of April, so it's not enough for all the elders and the elders are struggling right now with the high cost of living in these small communities. Mr. Speaker, we do have a surplus. I wonder why the Minister's not going to the Finance Minister to knock on his door, like other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I would like to recognize a former Tulita resident, Mr. Paul Andrew, now residing in Yellowknife and working for CBC.

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister in terms of their being diligent about their debt collection and the prevention, or are they just lending less money out to the public in the Northwest Territories as there were no write-offs for this year or last year. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly support the departments going through their own debt counselling process in terms of retrieving some of the debts that they would like to have paid back. Maybe I could be a little more specific, Mr. Chair. Is the core need under one department to have all these debts? I know this is the last stage of the debt efforts and it's going through this bill here. I'm leading up to a framework that all the departments go there and say this is how we'll handle it. Is there one shop, I'm asking, that people in the communities and people in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s not giving myself here false hope. It’s giving false hope to the elders. We have to take care of them. We have to do something out of the extraordinary to take care of them. Give them the fuel. They are complaining to me in Colville Lake. So will the Minister do the honourable thing and respect the elders, give them the fuel that they need this year, talk to your Cabinet Ministers and give them a break? Don’t break the elders. Thank you.