This is page numbers 909 - 930 of the Hansard for the 12th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.

Topics

Supplementary To Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 915

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Minister of Safety and Public Services, Mr. Nerysoo.

Further Return To Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 915

Richard Nerysoo Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I don't have the information for that particular technical question

. That would probably be a written question. I will provide, though, a written answer to the oral question.

Further Return To Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Question 403-12(5): Update On Colomac Mine Situation After Safety Inspection
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you, Mr. Nerysoo. I believe it is the responsibility of the chair to determine whether oral questions should proceed or whether they should be written questions. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just to follow up on what Mr. Koe asked regarding the Minister of Renewable Resources. Madam Speaker, I do travel a lot on highways. I always get the opportunity to see wildlife in its natural state, but the message that the Minister is sending to a lot of the people who are fighting this government over wildlife furs may differ because, in his statement, it certainly implies maybe that I, as an aboriginal, am not conservative, and that, because of my disregard for the law, I have disregard for the land or the animals on it. I would like to ask the Minister, for the record, whether or not he can make some corrections to this statement since perhaps I don't have a lot of regard for the law, but I still have a lot of regard for the animals and the land.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Kakfwi.

Return To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

Stephen Kakfwi

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Madam Speaker, I did not get the exact question that the Member was asking, but again, in response to some of the concern, I think the issue that I was trying to drive at yesterday, when the Member was asking what it is we need in order to hunt and receive tags, was perhaps the highest law of aboriginal people is that people closest to the resource, that need it the most, have the highest priority. That has been the case with the Dene and the Metis throughout history. That is, if I live in Yellowknife, I don't have the same priority with regard to exercising my right to harvest moose as the people in Good Hope, since that is their source of food, so they have priority.

It doesn't deprive me of my right, but there is an unstated law that says, those people who need it the most, who have the greatest need of it, should have priority. My statement yesterday was to reflect the suggestion that we can make laws in Ottawa and we can make laws in Yellowknife, but unless the people at the community level feel it is a just law, that they are part of it and that the law respects their place, their access and their right to a renewable resource, they would not hold it in the esteem that they should. That is the suggestion that I was making. Thank you.

Return To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary. Do you have a supplementary, Mr. Gargan?

Supplementary To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister plans on travelling to Europe within the next two weeks. Anybody who picks up this unedited Hansard and reads this will get a strong message from the Europeans as to what the aboriginals feel about the laws we create, but it doesn't talk about anything beyond written laws that the aboriginal people live by.

Madam Speaker, I had a buffalo tag that I didn't use. There was a reason for that. Last spring, on my travels to Yellowknife, I saw about seven moose. I didn't shoot at them or anything like that, mainly because I didn't think I needed one at that time. Those are the kinds of messages we should be sending out to people in Europe. If you pick up something like this, I am afraid we send the wrong signal to the people about aboriginal people and their feelings about the laws.

So I would like to ask that you maybe go beyond just making such a statement and also say that the unwritten laws of aboriginal people would probably say the same thing and that the respect is there.

Supplementary To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Kakfwi.

Further Return To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

Stephen Kakfwi

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Madam Speaker, it is all semantics, and we can blow any particular word out of proportion if we want. My answer is in response to the suggestion made by Mr. Allooloo who was suggesting that there is a difference in that the Inuit see it as a privilege to harvest and not a right. I was suggesting that there is not a great difference but that the highest law of the land is the right to survive and that people, for thousands of years, have seen it as a right to harvest the wildlife of this land and their duty to manage it. Then I suggested that if we want to fool around with the words "right" and "privilege" that, in my view, it would become a privilege to harvest if the resource was mismanaged and dwindling and no longer there as a certainty.

But in no way was I suggesting that people are lawless and have no regard for the law. We had a case just recently where Members of this legislature were extremely concerned with a federal law that was going to be proclaimed April 1 which suggested all Canadians would have to complete and pass a firearms safety course before they would be able to acquire a firearms acquisition certificate, which would have been expensive and, in large part, no use to the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories. There was concern that the law was not appropriate or relevant to the majority of our people and people did not want to be breaking the law or to show disrespect for it, but at the same time, because they had no part in formulating it, they were expressing extreme concern with it. We have rectified that. Those are the examples we were responding to. Thank you.

Further Return To Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Question 404-12(5): Aboriginal People's Respect For Wildlife
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 916

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife North, Mr. Ballantyne.

Michael Ballantyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a question for the Premier or for an appropriate Minister, I'm not

sure what Minister could respond to this question. The Premier is aware that the Royal Oak/CASAW labour nightmare is slowly receding into the past and Yellowknife is slowly getting back to normal. But, there's a problem on the horizon in negotiations between the United Steelworkers of Canada and Miramar Con Mine. Many of my constituents are worried about where this dispute is heading. Could the Premier give us an update on what is happening with those negotiations?

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Madam Premier.

Nellie Cournoyea Nunakput

Madam Speaker, I will have to take that question as notice. Thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for High Arctic, Mr. Pudluk.

Ludy Pudluk High Arctic

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Housing. I have a question about Kheraj Enterprises Limited requesting local status under the BIP. Your deputy minister said on December 8, 1993 that the organization would be reviewed again to determine whether they could have local status in Pond Inlet. That was in 1993. Has the review been done? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Minister for Housing, Mr. Morin.

Return To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

Don Morin Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my knowledge, the review has not been completed yet. Thank you.

Return To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Supplementary, Mr. Pudluk.

Supplementary To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

Ludy Pudluk High Arctic

How long does it usually take to make that review and how much longer will we have to wait? Thank you.

Supplementary To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Minister for Housing, Mr. Morin.

Further Return To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

Don Morin Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I don't know how long it will take, so I will have to get back to the Member. Thank you.

Further Return To Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Question 406-12(5): Status Of Kheraj Enterprises Under Bip
Item 5: Oral Questions

Page 917

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 3, oral questions. The honourable Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark.

John Ningark Natilikmiot

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the honourable Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. Madam Speaker, we know that Akaitcho Hall is going to be closed in late spring or early summer. My question is, since there are students who wish to continue their education here in Yellowknife -- I have two boys who want to continue their education here -- will the Minister assure the House that the Department of Education will continue to pay for home boarding as well as air travel to and from communities for those students who want to study here in Yellowknife? Thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Programs, Mr. Nerysoo.