Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a good weekend to think about what I said and I will tone it down here.

I do want to conclude my opening comments to the Minister, the department and the government. I would ask them if they would seriously consider the issue of decentralization with regard to looking at the regional offices in the Sahtu with the decision-making type of authorities by our superintendents being in this position for 10 years. I thought by now that the government would start seriously considering putting in our own superintendents for airports and highways in the Sahtu region.

I have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI has committed to having a Sahtu exploration readiness forum. We certainly need the information from the Sahtu oil and gas needs assessment to be part of the forum so we can discuss and start putting plans down to start training our people. Things are happening in the Sahtu, it’s going on now, things are going to be happening more so in the next couple of years. We really need to help these 500 youth with skill development and capacity building in our communities, in all the five Sahtu communities, so will the Minister have that report ready should...

Thank you. The 500 youth that we have in the Sahtu, they’re ready to work, they want to go to work, but they need the support to develop the capacity and the skills for themselves. I’m very happy that the government is looking at a Sahtu training institution for the Sahtu, the feasibility study is happening, I’m glad for that. The Education, Culture and Employment office is looking at the labour pool needs. The Minister said it’s available. When is it going to be complete so we can start to look at working with ITI to bring this type of training forward to the next Sahtu readiness exploration...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The oil and gas exploration is going to slow down sometime at the end of this month, so we need to jump on this opportunity as quickly as possible. When the Minister says sometime in the future, I’m hoping that between the end of March and sometime in September that we will have a training program offered to the people in the Sahtu based on the needs assessment and what’s needed now to help our people get jobs, get the training and build capacity. Can the Minister commit to having this forum prior to September?

Just for clarification, the funding went to the schools. They are continuing working closely. This is not about working closely; this is about putting in a project that I’ve been harping on for a long, long time. The funding went to the schools. They have the funding. Does the Minister know today from the school boards how many elders are in the schools?

I want to ask the Minister how many schools and school boards on record have elders in schools. I know he provided funding. I appreciate that. That’s a drop in the bucket. I want to know how many schools today. What are his plans? Can he provide the plans to us?

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on February 27 2014, it shall be adjourned until Monday, March 3, 2014:

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to March 3, 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 its business as it has been...

Mr. Chair, I just wanted to comment on this. It is a very important department for us in the Sahtu region. I’m very happy to say that I have three words: Bear River Bridge. It is something that we’ve somehow bumped off the rails there. I’m looking forward to seeing the department work as hard as they can to move this up in the construction phase. It’s going to be an important infrastructure with the winter roads past Tulita to the activity of the oil and gas exploration that wants to move into another phase of this oil and gas development.

The Minister talked about the Corridors for Canada III...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize a young fellow and one of our Pages here. This young fellow and I do some physical activity in the evenings. His name is Ben Karstad. He’s one of the Pages. I just wanted to recognize him because he’s a pretty good little fellow.

I appreciate that. I am certainly looking forward to any type of correspondence from the board of governors or the Minister himself. We know that we approve the funding for Aurora College, we approve this, this is the money that they are going to get for infrastructure. They don’t come to us and ask for money, they go through the Minister. We know that. It’s up to us and that’s what I’m asking. The buck stops right here with this Minister and Aurora College. That’s a given.

I want to ask for more, stronger, I guess you can call it, commitment, or working together or working closely, but we see...