Rylund Johnson

In favour.

Mr. Speaker, your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on the review of the 2021 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations has reviewed the 20202021 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Health Information Act require the IPC to prepare an annual report. The report includes information on the number of files the IPC opens to review complaints. It can also include recommendations...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I guess it's my political opinion that I would rather spend $180,000 on almost anything else. So my question is I was also somewhat surprised that during this tour no one none of our leaders anywhere seemed to suggest that we should stop having power passed down through family lineage, which seemed odd to me. So I guess my question for the Premier is will we stop hosting the future royal family, and maybe we could save some money there, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin today's statement with an apology in this House.

On Friday, I referred to His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales, as "ole Chuckie Boy." The Rules of the House do not allow us to speak disrespectfully of the Monarch, or any Member of his royal family, and I withdraw those remarks, Mr. Speaker.

But with all due respect, I will now deliver a statement, Mr. Speaker, that I believe it is time for Canada to end its relationship with the monarchy, and I think a good start in that House would be to remove that rule, Mr. Speaker.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'd like to begin by I'd like to thank the Premier today who tabled the GNWT's territorial principles and interests, and I'm going to speak to that a bit in that in conjunction with this report. I think that's a great step, and I think this report is a great step in bringing some transparency to this issue.

I have spent lots of time, both in this committee and otherwise, trying to figure out and get to the heart of why we are not settling, I'm going to speak specifically and start with land claims, in the NWT most specifically the Akaitcho, Deh Cho, and Metis land...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think there would be one last step in that perhaps is to just give it five official names and we could knock "Mackenzie" off the list there.

And similarly, I'd propose that for the mountains. I actually don't think many people know that the Mackenzie Mountains is not Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer; it's Alexander Mackenzie, the second prime minister, you know, well known for the Indian Act, an architect of Indigenous people's genocide. So I'm wondering if there are any plans to work with I recognize that one, it borders with the Yukon so we have to work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that. And I think it's an important discussion to have with the people of NWT. And along those same lines, you know, I think there's been consistent work to stop using the term "slavey", to stop referring to things and, you know, the use of "slave", but obviously our lake, Great Slave Lake, is named after that history. I'm just wondering if the Minister can speak to whether we can put forth the same plan to rename Great Slave Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd just like to recognize two of the pages who have been helping out this week, from Yellowknife North. Asfa Arshad and Jaedenz White. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I look forward to the Minister providing a bit of an update on how that naming process goes.

And I guess I'll just carry up the valley, and I'll start with the river named after Alexander Mackenzie. Fine explorer. You know, he did some good mapping. But ultimately his claim to that river is that it wasn't leading to the Pacific. So I'm just wondering if, you know, many of us don't refer to the Mackenzie River by that name. We use Deh Cho already. I'm wondering if there are any plans to remove the Mackenzie River name? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I spoke about renaming places. And the first one I'd like to ask about is our Heritage Centre, which I believe is timely, as the Prince of Wales, whom it's named after, was just recently visiting it. And Mr. Speaker, I think it's long overdue that we rename this place. And I just don't really believe there's much connection to the Prince of Wales and our history and culture. And as a bit of a sidenote, I note the Welsh independence movement is gaining steam so maybe one day there won't even be a Prince of Wales and we'll just be forced to...