Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment today. I’d like to put aside the trick-or-treat and get right down to the cold hard facts from our oil and gas office.

I want to ask the Minister, has he had any word from any of the oil companies about them returning to the Sahtu to continue their exploration permitting?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Did you see the ghost of the family past or just a portrait of past Premiers on your way to the Chamber? On this Halloween I wish to go over some spooky details. Well, they’re not that scary. No Grudges or Annabelles here, just some cold hard facts.

Right now we have 79 students attending Aurora College or are enrolled in courses at the community learning centres. After reviewing the Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment like a treasure map, 68 percent of those positions for this industry are tied to some form of transportation work. Either heavy equipment or truck driving...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The bill speaks to a number of points I have listened to from my colleagues and to the Minister. It certainly raises the questions on the appointments by this government for employees. Certainly for us in the Sahtu region, we have a different perspective. We are looking at the percentage of representation by this government of the people they serve into those higher levels of management.

Recently, I’ve been very pleased with the increase of northern Aboriginal people who are qualified who are now taking senior management positions. I believe that many of them have won...

I would certainly hope the Minister would be in contact with NTCL to say, listen, we have an issue here. The government supplies, we don’t know if they all got in. Private industry supplies didn’t get in. Homeowner supplies didn’t get in. Things that didn’t get into the Sahtu certainly affect our people, so I would strongly suggest that the Minister have a conversation with NTCL and say, who’s driving this ship here?

My question is: Is NTCL paying for the freight costs that are affecting my people that have to come in because the ship didn’t go up the Mackenzie River? Our highway was closed.

That is good news. I want to know if the Minister, along with NTCL, will have a meeting with the people in the Sahtu on the solutions that they’re talking about, some of the agreements that he’s talked about on the multi-modal of transportation, because people in the Sahtu would certainly be willing to listen and we want to know who’s driving this ship here. Certainly I would welcome the Minister if he can schedule a meeting in the Sahtu with the Sahtu people to talk about the NTCL issues.

More specifically, what are the solutions so that people will not have to have their materials shipped up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has the Minister had any type of discussion of an impact fund similar to what was designated for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, what we call the Mackenzie Gas Project, for oil and gas development in the Sahtu with the federal government?

Thank you. Certainly hearing that is a treat over here, hearing those words.

Can the Minister give us some timelines for the development of the NWT Oil and Gas Strategy? Where are we at with this issue right now?

It’s not the time to be mad hatters, but rather a time to look down the rabbit hole and build up our youth’s potential with a trade school so we can sustainably be masters and commanders of our own destiny.

Remember, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, all those little ones going out tonight, and the young, have a spooky and safe Halloween. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank my colleague Mr. Dolynny for bringing this motion to Committee of the Whole. It’s very small; it’s a one word motion. It has a lot of different viewpoints on it.

I wanted to say to Mr. Dolynny, this motion here certainly looks at the government as a whole and the appointments of the positions in HR. Certainly hearing the Minister talk about this one word here then means it has to go back to the unions for discussion, because the unions are part of it, and we’re going to come to have that kind of a delay here. That’s what I’m getting. The unions are part of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the self-government realities of Deline.

Will the Minister be creating a K-12 trades program with the shop that they’re planning to build in Deline?