Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister, in light of the exchange that I heard between the Minister and some of the colleagues in terms of the teachers’ qualifications, that is something I want to raise here with the Minister. When we implement the Junior Kindergarten Program, which is something I support fully, you have my support. We have people in the communities that could be also equivalent to a teacher but just don’t have the degree or diploma. These are four-year-old children, not Grade 10 or 12, just young ones. This is a voluntary program, not mandatory, voluntary. In our schools...

I think we’re moving somewhere. I would have to think about this. I can’t think very well on an empty stomach. I will think about this and we can come back for a discussion. I appreciate what the Minister is saying. We’re moving somewhere. I’m glad the government is thinking this way. I’m happy we can go this way for our discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The whistle is getting dry there. That is a lot of booze in our communities and regions. Again, I understand the Minister, and I believe we are talking optics on the profits, I understand what he is saying. He is saying it for symbolic. For us in the Sahtu, we can put aside a percentage, even 1 percent or even a half percent, symbolically that this money from the Sahtu sales go directly to our small communities – Colville Lake, Good Hope, Tulita, Norman Wells and Deline – and we are going to do something directly to work with alcohol abuse and prevention promotion...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was involved with earlier discussion on the program review office concept. Some of the Members in Cabinet were also in this discussion. We thought it was a good thing because we were going to look the whole operation of the government and see where some of the programs make sense in our operations. Coming from a small community and jurisdiction, I thought this was good. A lot of the programs that are operating in the communities, the left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing and have efficiencies in our communities.

One of the programs I thought was going to...

Mr. Ramsay gets my point and that’s, for example, building a moose skin boat. When I saw that the other day with some of the Members here, I certainly had a sense of sadness and pride in a skill that was once and was our means of survival and our love of the land.

I want to ask the Minister, in the collection and the documenting of our artists and their stories, to date there has been a collection from Yellowknife, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Ulukhaktok, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson, and over 100 registered artists from these communities had the opportunity to share. Are we going to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the artists and the stories behind their artwork and where we live and what my mother has told me in the stories. I can fondly remember her telling me about putting my jacket together and there are many stores out there in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI in his document on supporting the local artists in the Northwest Territories, there is an accounting collection project that’s happening within this department that’s about going to the communities to collect stories. I see there are some communities. Is there going to be an...

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the government allocate from its existing resources additional funding to support existing daycare facilities and assist in creating new daycare facilities in small communities.

I’m going to wait patiently and see how this program rolls out. I certainly support you, you have my support for junior kindergarten in the communities. I don’t have a question, I’m just asking for some clarification.

I also want to ask the Minister what type of support is this budget here under these items, $241 million, is given to preschool programming for child care and daycare centres. There are child care centres without licences in 10 communities in the Northwest Territories. Why types of resources are being looked at to support these 10 communities without child care daycare centres?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These are interesting exchanges between the Minister and my colleagues. I wanted to ask the Minister, in regards to junior kindergarten, when we are looking at staffing these positions for this specific group of children, junior kindergarten, is the Minister also open to the flexibility of the small communities that we are going to be putting these programs in, to look at the strong Aboriginal culture component? We have teachers; they may just not be qualified in the eyes of the Department of Education and Culture. That could be into these schools, some of these...

I look forward to seeing if anything can come forward from working with his colleagues, like productive choices through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, so that people in the small communities can go to either the Department of RWED or to Education, Culture and Employment and say we want to take our family on the land, this is what it’s going to cost us to bring our families out, so that we have support from the government.

Would the Minister come forward within the life of this government, so maybe by next year we can have a program that would be offered to all people in...