Norman Yakeleya

That’s why it’s so important to come into the small communities of the Sahtu and talk to us about the solutions. We don’t know, and people in our region are asking, why is the water so low? There was no oil and gas exploration. There were dams that were running low and we had to pay extra millions of dollars to offset the costs for the request for a high percentage of an increase to the power bills.

We want to know from the Minister that NTCL and the Minister, if possible, can come to the Sahtu and talk to them about some of the solutions for barging their supplies into the community. Can the...

Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Transportation. Over the past fall here, we had some issues with the shipping company, NTCL, and certainly in some of my communities we did not see the full shipment of some of our supplies or fuel into our communities.

I want to ask the Minister of Transportation, has he had any meetings with NTCL to see what was the problem and how can it be rectified so this is not a continuous issue for us every year in the Sahtu or in any other small communities?

Thank you. Can the Minister tell us how this strategy will incorporate findings and recommendations from the recent Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment?

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. My questions on the education of the Sahtu people, we have students going out of jurisdictions for long periods of time, out of our communities. We have a great need for seeing a Sahtu tech in our region. So my third question, I understand from the information I got from the department, impressive facts, that we have 30 students from our Sahtu communities attending the Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith. In total, we have 79 students attending some form of college programs in the Northwest Territories. In regard to our students at Aurora College in Fort Smith, yesterday I was shocked to...