Norman Yakeleya

It was duly noted last night at the opening ceremonies that the Minister was preoccupied, and so that was understandable by the participants.

I guess what I wanted to say was there were so many people out there – coaches and athletes and volunteers – that it would be nice to have some type of a book so that we could start reading about the traditional games, because that’s kind of where things are going nowadays even though they’re handed down orally. We kind of understand that in our smaller communities.

I want to ask the Minister, for the support of these traditional games, is there is long...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the amount of dollars going into the Sahtu and people having that type of opportunity, those are some good things that people are doing with the money. There are also some things that people are not doing so well. With this type of readiness session sometime in the future, hopefully it will be in the next five months, we want to look at the social impacts.

Recently, we’ve seen lots of liquor being confiscated by the RCMP. We need to talk about some of the social issues. Will that be part of the forum?

Mr. Speaker, going back to the two ladies, the chief and the lands director from Fort Nelson, they talked about striking a balance. Certainly we hear the benefits that Mr. Ramsay indicated. Now we are talking about striking a balance of the economic benefits plus looking at the sustainability of our land, water and animals. Mr. Ramsay communicated with the Minister of ITI. We are actually on the verge of a huge turning point in the Northwest Territories.

Is there some type of discussion with his department and ENR, saying we need to look at balance with the land and with the economic...

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize a young Page that was serving us. His name is Ben Karstad. Ben and my son Chase practice karate together, so I want to recognize him. I would also like to recognize the chief from Aklavik, Charlie Furlong, and his partner, Joanne Deneron. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. I want to ask the Minister, within our settlement in the Sahtu Dene/Metis Land Claim Agreement, we negotiated chapter 12, I believe, on the economic measures.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to this chapter, what is the interpretation or what we agreed to in chapter 12 with the Government of the Northwest Territories with this chapter to help out the Sahtu business in regard to the economic opportunities.

Thank you. I’m just looking at the situation here for a medevac. Quickly as possible is probably two days in this situation to get this young lady out in a life and death situation. Then when she gets to Edmonton, the doctors give a different assessment. Are the assessments communicated with communities when there are serious incidents like this? Are these doctors notified and saying, get this person out as quick as possible? In this case it was two days.

What type of situation is there with the health centres when a situation is an emergency where the person needs to get out as quickly as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I spoke about the young person who was hit by a skidoo and I wanted to ask, after she was taken to the local health centre and assessed, it was only after two days.

Do you know any reasons why it took two days to get her medevaced out of that community?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have another motion. I move that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation submit its annual report within 90 days of the fiscal year end; and further, if this does not prove to be possible, the Housing Corporation should seek appropriate approval for an extension to their deadline and provide the House with reasons for the delay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion speaks about this government, past governments and the state of our communities. Ten communities in the Northwest Territories do not have a resident RCMP in their community and I happen to represent one of those communities. Other Members also have their communities. But more importantly it talks about nine communities that do not have resident nurses.

In the Northwest Territories, safety and health are very important to our people and we have have and have-not communities in regards to policing and nursing. So, I’m calling on this government to bring forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the communities of Fort Good Hope, Deline and Colville Lake, most of the action right now is happening around Tulita and Norman Wells, so there are plenty of opportunities, but also for the other Sahtu communities. Specifically Fort Good Hope, Deline and Colville Lake there isn’t much activity happening there.

With programs and infrastructure that goes into those communities, is the Minister following the intent and the spirit of chapter 13 in working with the communities on any type of infrastructure projects that would be going into those communities?