Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I just want to make a comment to the Minister. When I met with the Colville Lake leadership and they talked about the Fur Program, they are very pleased. Just before the opening of this Assembly, I contacted Colville Lake and I met some of them in Norman Wells and they are really excited. It was just like Christmastime because the snow was coming and they were getting ready and will be going out to the traplines and setting them up, and they said there’s a lot of excitement in the air. That attests to what the Minister says and what the department is saying about the furs that the...

Long term certainly will address a number of issues in Tulita for the health care facility, the residence accommodations and the proper storage facilities. I got that. I’m really pleased that the Minister is looking at the short-term solutions, working with the Sahtu Health Authority on the nurses residence. It is shoddy. It should be torn down. It should be off the site, really, and same with the storage shed. There’s no floor. It’s just gravel, and on the gravel we have a very expensive piece of health equipment. We had a palliative care bed lying on the ground. If we are to look at the...

The Minister is correct, and I look forward to some of the shelters that may be designated as a safe home maybe in the communities for families to go to. Sometimes these happen at 11 o’clock at night, sometimes two o’clock in the morning, sometimes four o’clock in the morning. These families, out of the goodness of their heart, allow them into their houses because they’re dealing with some family issue or something that’s going on in the family. Some of those could be considered. I mean, I was in Tulita and they were saying that there are a couple of empty houses and that it would be nice to...

Mr. Speaker, I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, October 23, 2014, it shall be adjourned until Monday, October 27, 2014;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to October 27, 2014, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister inform the House and inform the people in the Sahtu as to when will the baseline studies of the water use or the water monitoring in the Sahtu, because there are concerns about groundwater consequences of the technology of hydraulic fracking.

That’s an impressive list of monitoring for water quality in the Sahtu. The Minister rapidly fired off 13 sites in and around the communities that are looking forward to it.

I want to ask the Minister, in our land claims under Chapter 20 is the water rights and management of the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. Section 21.8, I believe, talks about the quality and the quantity of altering our water in the settlement area.

I want to ask the Minister, are there increases to ongoing funding to know that this provision of the chapter will be honoured and respected and enforced if need be.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to recognize the Aurora College students. We had a meeting some months ago and it was very informative, and I’d like to say how much I appreciate listening to them.

I’d also like to recognize Kevin and Wendy, Mr. Bouchard’s constituent and constituency assistant, in the gallery.

More importantly, I’d like to recognize the special guest we have sitting in front of us, Mr. Whitford. From time to time there are certain words that people tell you that continue to grow on you, and thank you, Tony, for those kind words that you gave me a long, long time ago.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to have the department before us today. They have quite a huge infrastructure budget. I want to make my comments specifically to the small communities I represent in the Sahtu.

I’m looking forward to the day when the infrastructure in the small community of Colville Lake will be improved, the renovations of the health centre. I know it took me awhile, with the help of the previous Health Minister, to have running washrooms in the facility in that community in the health centre. I had several Ministers in there before. They came, they saw and they left. They...

With the government and with the contributions that have been happening in the Sahtu with regard to the funding and the specific sites, I want to ask the Minister, given that Imperial Oil’s 10-year water application licence is going through, they are going to take out billions of litres of water, run it through their system, bring it back, pour billions more back into the Mackenzie River that will flow down towards Fort Good Hope and Tsiigehtchic and the other communities along the river system.

I want to ask the Minister, knowing this and knowing that 720,000 tonnes of hazardous material was...

In my Member’s statement I talked about the water, and I want to ask the Minister about the water usage. The oil and gas sector has over 100 applications for water permits. We know Canada has tried to cut back on the monitoring.

Do we have the capacity to take over these positions and who are our front-line monitors? ENR has the responsibility. I wanted to ask the Minister in regard to these two questions.