Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make a commitment to come into my region sometime in the next few months to really have a discussion on this concept? We want to hear both sides. We want to know how it’s going to impact our communities, the benefits to our communities and the things we have talked about in this House. The community needs to be comfortable and to lend the support. This concept could bring a lot of benefits to our community, but if we don’t do it right, it also could be a disaster. So we want to have a good discussion with the Housing Corporation on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I followed the Department of Justice on this initiative because I think it’s ground breaking, I think it’s the way to go in terms of our larger institutions down the Mackenzie Valley, down the Deh Cho and right down the whole Northwest Territories that this department can be the guiding light, I guess, to the other departments, I guess, in terms of looking at large facilities that have institutions like this that could use wood pellets and get the people in the Northwest Territories to start supplying wood pellets. So I guess I wanted to ask, would the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the past week or so I read in the papers and I also received the information from the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Brendan Bell, on this wood pellet initiative that the department is doing in terms of reducing or looking at energy, effective methods to use in the government institutions. I wanted to ask the Minister in terms of what are the long-term goals, I guess, of this wood pellet initiative that’s being used at the facility by the Department of Justice? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7 of the orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is really a good news story for the department in the way you are looking at this approach in terms of our health in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister, when will we see an elderly residence at the Stanton Territorial Hospital?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister also inform me and the House, the people of the Northwest Territories, are there any specific type of plans you would seek Stanton go out into a place where there will be units or places where the aboriginal people can have a unit similar to the Whitehorse General Hospital where there is a unit set aside for the needs of the aboriginal people? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, I just want to ask the Minister because there may be some fear or confusion in terms of the news report on the housing issue in Hay River and for my people back in the Sahtu communities that do need this program that are in the house they have been living in for 20 or 30 years, that they are not going to be removed right away. There are some good things and they are not going to be removed or kicked out of their space. Can I ask the Minister what he’s doing in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister look at providing some directive, some initiative to all the DEAs in the Territories to come up with some draft policies to have healthy foods, healthy snacks in their schools? Take out the junk food from the school and provide direction, let his department, this government, provide some leadership. They’ve provided strong leadership in the past on some other initiatives this government has done. I suggest continuing with that leadership. Would the Minister provide a time frame or something that the communities can report to saying by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Minister Dent. I’d like to ask Minister Dent is he putting some plan together in terms of banning the junk food in all our schools in the Northwest Territories as outlined, put the junk in the trunk as my friends say and get some action in our schools here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to hear the Minister say the policy is going to stay in place until a review takes place. Once the review is underway looking at the different policies, would the region be consulted, would the elders be consulted in terms of how this policy is going to fall out? I know there are some people in my region that think that this policy should be looked at very carefully, but that time will come, I guess, when the Minister announces the community consultations. So will all our elders be consulted in our communities? Thank you.