Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to acknowledge my wife Betty who is here. I think she is very excited to be here today because she told me this morning that it's very exciting that she gets to come and watch her son R.J. today. And she asked us to be nice to him. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And no, I wasn't in the conversation, and I was just talking to some people up around Inuvik, so. And they just raised that question to me.

The other thing about the you know, we talk about going green. We talk about, you know, electric conversion. So, yeah, I look at the four ferries that we have out there and the Abraham Francis ranis probably being the smallest. I would like you know, it would be interesting if we were to possibly look at turning that into converting to electric because it would do two things. It would reduce fuel consumption thus reducing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'd be remiss not to mention ORC. I'd just like to know what is happening with that contract, if it's coming up for renewal or is there an extension on it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And has there ever been any interest shown from any of the Indigenous organizations with respect to looking for funding for the Michif language? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to, I guess, talk a bit about MTS, and I'm hoping this is the right section, or maybe we passed it. But nevertheless, I've got ten minutes so.

There was a loss shown for MTS of around $5.8 million and of that, about $4.3 million, I think, was with respect to operating losses. Can the Minister just talk a bit about that, and I think it was partly because of the properties and that, just give me an explanation to, you know, why that loss was there. Can we expect something in the future with the number of properties that they took over from NTCL? Thank you, Madam...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at these numbers, and I notice that if you add up the arts council support to northern performers, arts organization operating fund, and there's one more in there. But anyways, they come out to about $1.6 million. And then we have heritage centres. Like, I understand, you know, putting a lot of money to the a lot of funding to the art councils and to the performers and organizations. I think it is very important. But just as important as well is heritage centres.

You know, we have in heritage centres throughout the territories, we have, you know...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I will.

The next item is Students Against Drinking and Driving. You know, we talk about drinking and driving. Is there any I guess program that's equivalent to that for drug use? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I think it's important that, you know, that we we try to ensure that we're using northern businesses and we're using northern labour, we're maximizing that.

The other thing, I guess the question is, when we do bring it over the top and we transfer it to other barges there in Tuk, are we using MTS barges, or are we using somebody else's? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The next one is the energy guide for houses. I see that again it's at $190,000 and then continuous. Has there been an uptake in that over the last two years considering people have been home and the increased cost of goods and building material and utilities as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the next thing then is that, you know, we've got we've got MTS sitting there and whether it's we're fully utilizing their assets or not, would it make any sense to if we're paying for the assets and maintenance and that, would it make any sense to you know, not to bring it around from Washington over the top but continue to bring it down by rail for any cost savings? Thank you.