Steve Norn

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. This motion is news to me. I did prepare what I'm about to say hastily and I want to say, you know, that words that were mentioned here, you know, that were referred that everybody's referring to were in no way, shape, or form meant to be a physical threat. And if I scared anybody, I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart.

This has all been twisted all out of context, all of it. I am a very passionate person when it comes to my work. I'm fiery. I'm militant. If I see unjust things come happen around me, I report it. Throughout my service in public service, I have...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, yeah, point of order, my apologies.

Just going back to what I was saying, the Member for Frame Lake mentioned my lawyer, and he can't be here to defend himself. So I'd ask that he retract what he said about that.

Mahsi cho.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to call a point of privilege on the Member for Frame Lake. When he was speaking, he did mention my lawyer, Mr. Steven Copper, as we met an agreement earlier that we would wouldn't speak about third parties at all because they're not here to defend themselves. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

And going back to, you know, the point of privilege and the words that were said, like I said, I'll say it again, they were taken out of context, and I apologize. Like everybody else here, I think we spent enough time on this that we just want to move on and continue on with our business. But what I've experienced because of all this is if there's any price that had to paid, I think I paid twice over. And that's all I have to say, Mr. Speaker.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about the welcomed news from the NWT Housing Corporation regarding new houses set to be built within the riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh and across the territories. Last week, Minister Chinna, along with MP Michael McLeod and the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, all made a joint announcement about the allocation of funds to construct 60 new homes for several NWT communities. That's awesome.

Mr. Speaker, of those 60 housing units, 10 will be constructed within my constituency, which includes four for Lutselk'e, four...

Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. A difficult message for my constituents today: I want to send my sincerest condolences to the communities of Deninu Kue and Detah. Sadly, in Deninu Kue, we lost two elders, Henry Calumet and Mary Beaulieu. Loss is never easy, and to lose two of our knowledge-keepers in that close together of a time period is especially tough. The funeral service for Mary will be taking place this afternoon. I wish I could have been there. I send my prayers out to the Beaulieu and Calumet families.

Mr. Speaker, sadly, we also recently lost a young man from Detah, David Sangris. His...

Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to consider Committee Report 9-19(2), Report on the Chief Electoral Officer's Report on the Administration of the 2019 Territorial General Election. Marsi cho, Mr. Chair.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk about GNWT's Emerging Wisely Plan today. This document, which was released last spring in May, laid out the government's plan in how to deal with the pandemic response. First off, I want to say what a great job our medical teams have done in mitigating the spread of this virus and a big marsi cho to all our residents who have done their part by following all the current restrictions. At the moment, we have zero active cases, and this is definitely something to be very proud of.

Mr. Speaker, since last spring, a lot has happened. This pandemic is a fluid...

Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. When we did some of our committee deliberations and we heard some of the feedback from the public, one thing that was brought up was having some on-call interpreters. I think it's really important that we have a good pool to draw from and also make sure that the right training is provided, have those supports in place. I just thought I would speak to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.