Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I tabled a letter from the Colville Lake District Education Authority on October 18, 2005, in the House. That letter outlined several concerns that the district education authority has with the adequacy of the program space, classrooms and lack of sanitary facilities in the Colville Lake school.

There are 41 people, 36 students and five staff, in that building approved for an occupancy load for 40 people. One room teaches kindergarten to Grade 12. The lack of space is such that one teacher teaches in the cloakroom, just a few feet away from the honey...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe if the Minister sat down with the people in Colville Lake, we would beg to differ on the issue of public safety and the use of that school. Mr. Speaker, the chair of the Sahtu Divisional Education Council wrote a strong letter regarding the school in Colville Lake and the lack of proper facilities to have a proper learning environment. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Minister in terms of his strong advocacy of having graduates in the communities. The Minister is making the commitment to visit Colville Lake. Can he visit by the end of this month? This is an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have always said that the community of Colville Lake is a long way out of Yellowknife; it's far away. So sometimes it's out of sight, out of mind, for the people in Colville Lake. If they want to maintain a traditional economy, I support them 100 percent. For a traditional lifestyle, I support them 100 percent. But it's unacceptable, in this day and age, when we have education facilities such as are built in and around the Northwest Territories, that we cannot fix Colville Lake in terms of the use of the honey bucket. Can the Minister tell us, short of moving...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, because of the number of students we have in the gallery, I want to make a quick reference. Of these 60 students, if we took only 20 out, and we put all those students in one building, from kindergarten to Grade 12, that's what the children in Colville Lake are faced with. In this time and age, Mr. Speaker, that's just totally unacceptable. So I would like to ask the Minister, can he state, for the people of Colville Lake, that their school, where they send their children each school day of the year, does the school in Colville Lake meet the current...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. A portable classroom may have a lifespan of 20 years. It makes more sense to renovate and put an addition onto the existing structure. I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

A crying shame that we have to put our students in this type of building.

In examining the history of an addition for the Colville Lake School, I know the project has been delayed, and reduced in scope, since 2000-2001. That’s five years, Mr. Speaker. It went from a $1.5 million addition to be concluded in 2005-2006 in the 2000-2001 Main Estimates, to a modular classroom, at the cost of $448,000, to be delivered in 2007-2008 in this year’s main estimates. In fact, Mr. Speaker, at one point in the 2003-2004 Main Estimates, the project did not even appear in the books for the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 20, 2005, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that the Legislative Assembly resolve to formally observe May 26th as the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation in support of our communities, families and individuals who endured the impact of the residential school system.

Mr. Speaker, my written question is directed to the Minister of Transportation, the Honourable Michael McLeod.

How many NWT schools were involved in the National Students Against Impaired Driving Day and what forms of government support were made available to them?

Can the Minister advise me the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities in the North, by region?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, how is this type of information, through the communities down the valley, being communicated? Again, you said the notification went out to the MLAs, to the communities; how is that being…Because of the different mixed messages that the communities are receiving, I'm not too sure in how plain a language you could put it, Mr. Minister, in letting the communities know. Can the people in Colville Lake know that $1.50 will now stay until next year, or is there going to be an increase in the heating fuel or the gasoline fuel? They weren't...