Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, regarding the consultation, is there a specific forum that the people in the Sahtu can get together and talk about the strategy and an all-weather road in the Sahtu? I appreciate the Minister’s steady trips into the Sahtu and the people appreciate that. What I am looking for, Madam Speaker, is that the Minister can have a specific forum so people in the Sahtu can get together and talk specifically about an all-weather road strategy into the Sahtu so the Minister can take notice and put it into a package for the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, in my statement, I quoted John Diefenbaker’s vision to the northern frontier, building roads. In John Diefenbaker’s roads in the past 30 years of that vision being voiced in Ottawa, I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation if he could outline a brief strategy of his department’s intentions to move on building an all-weather road in the Sahtu region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I guess that’s where you get into the smaller regions versus Yellowknife. Lots of money is going into essentially what our regions are asking for: clinics or additional housing for physicians or staff professionals to get into a region and you put this kind of money into here and that’s what the perceptions out in the community is being viewed as. So I guess they look at the government’s priorities in terms of its spending and hope it will change in the future. This is something that I’m not quite comfortable with in terms of the explanation. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The whole process of this decentralization is somewhat confusing for me because the first time I really did notice it was when I saw it in the newspaper and I’m not too sure we had the opportunity to have some discussion with our community members or in our region. What’s more startling is that I found 25 percent of the referrals are from Inuvik and the Sahtu and 40 percent are from the community of Yellowknife.

This is a Territorial Treatment Centre. I support the decentralization policy this government has undertaken and that there are a lot of our youth in small...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are there any plans to have any communities in our region to put a program in there? As I spoke to it earlier this week about the amount of garbage that is being tossed around in the Sahtu, are there any programs that are going into our community? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. It gives me great pleasure to recognize the Sahtu powerhouse negotiating team for self-government. I’d like to recognize Danny Gaudet, chief negotiator for Deline self-government.

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I’d like to recognize O'khi Leon Modeste, elder.

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A former chief and constituent of mine and a good worker, Andrew John Kenny, the young elder.

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Elder Alfred Taniton from Deline.

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Learning to be an elder, Morris Neyelle.

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And a young elder, Fredrick Kenny.

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Thank you, Madam Speaker. With the Minister continuing to travel into the communities, hopefully one day he will be able to drive into our communities. The Sahtu is having an annual gathering in August in Colville Lake. I would invite the Minister to that meeting and have a meeting there with the people. Would the Minister consider looking at this type of meeting with our people in terms of bringing the solution to the Sahtu who know the solution: Build the road that can be done over a number of years by using a community approach method and connect all the communities in the Sahtu before...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Maybe this government can do one for old Diefenbaker’s vision here and push it over the hill, so we can get an all-weather road in the Sahtu and have the federal government give us full support and attention to this matter. Can the Minister advise of any type of public consultation that his department has undertaken with the people of the Sahtu to build an all-weather road in the Sahtu region?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. At the start of the 15th Legislative Assembly, we all came here to debate and work for our constituencies and the entire Northwest Territories on the issues of today. Madam Speaker, over the course of this Legislative Assembly we, as legislators, initiate, amend and debate matters brought forward by Cabinet and government. Most importantly, we bring forth our vision for the North and how we can thrive under the unique circumstances of living up here in the North.

Madam Speaker, we, as legislators, work towards building our NWT nation. Mr. Diefenbaker's quoted vision...

Thank you. Just a brief comment here. I appreciate the Minister's efforts to improve the Sahtu health authority and the plans to upgrade the health system in our region. I know that Yellowknife does need some support and I guess you are looking at the amount of dollars, the millions of dollars spent in the Sahtu and the other regions, such as Yellowknife here, and there is no comparison. The amount of money spent here are millions, compared to the Sahtu. I hope that there is some effort to look at that in the Sahtu.

I understand that there is a budget for two doctors in the Sahtu, but they...