R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have a conversation with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change who has oversight of this file and see what can be done. But, again, it's a matter of people working together and coming to a consensus in order to conclude this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do my best. This is more of a question for the ECE Minister but I understand, you know, from the Member's statement why she's directing this to me. So I will say that currently the area is protected under a land withdrawal until 2028 I believe, and there are a few steps that need to take place before it can move from a candidate to a protected area. The majority of those are internal to the working group. There's a number of Indigenous governments and the GNWT who are all part of this process, and there needs to be some agreement, as the Member mentioned, on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as the Member mentioned, staff have reached out to have conversations with the YWCA about ongoing funding. I recognize the important work that NGOs do, and they do it at a fraction of the cost that the Government of the Northwest Territories can do it. So we always want to make sure that we are supporting them to the extent we can.

The program that has sunsetting funding is a federal program and so, you know, we see this quite often in the territory where the federal government will see an opportunity to fund something that's their flavour of the day I guess, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So from what I understand, a lot of work has been done. There hasn't been I guess delays to the work for the sake of delays. Any delays are the result of some disagreements on the composition of the management board, and the other work that can happen has happened. So going forward, the ideal would be that we would have consensus from all of the groups involved on how that management board would be established and its composition. And so we really need to get through that process, and the GNWT has very limited ability to accelerate that type of collaboration and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And EIA does work with NGOs. We have a very, very small unit, extraordinarily small unit with only a couple people in there so it's difficult to overcommit ourselves. Right now we are focusing on service integration with a specific focus on homelessness and people who are at risk of become homeless. And so that unit doesn't have a lot of additional horsepower to take on other roles. That being said, I am happy to speak with the other two Ministers who are involved in this and have a conversation because I do see the value in having some sort of coordination. When you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this is an issue that cuts across a number of different departments. Housing NWT is actually responsible for the coordination of the homelessness strategy although EIA does continue to play a role in there, and health and social services, as the establishment policy of that department, gives it authority over family violence and family violence shelters and the funding. So it goes beyond just EIA, and I wouldn't want to make a commitment and commit the Minister of the Status of Women and the Minister of health to something without having a conversation first. So now...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand that the bill that the Member is referencing in the BC legislature was handedly defeated. I believe it was 86 votes against and 3 votes for. So even there I think there's a clear understanding that residential school denialism is not appropriate, and it's not factual obviously. And so here in the Northwest Territories, I say we are the leaders in Canada in reconciliation, working with Indigenous peoples. Specifically, when we speak to how we are going to educate the population, one of the things we do, of course, is we have northern studies courses in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I can speak to what I saw in that sort of pre-procurement notice, and that is that it is for things within those forward operating locations, so runways, hangars, etcetera. It does not speak to major projects. That does not -- that's not to say that the federal government's totality of their expenditures related to defense in the territory will be limited to those two communities. So I'm still very, very hopeful and optimistic that there's other sources of funding from the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And we are well aware of the opportunities that exist, and we are treating this as essentially another major project that could be advanced. And so there's great efforts being made to ensure there's coordination, coordination across government. We're working hard to coordinate with the federal government although they have their own processes, and the Department of National Defence, I believe, kind of does things their own way regardless. But I know that there's efforts to change that culture because from my discussions with the Prime Minister, with the Minister of...

Mr. Speaker, we gather today at a significant moment for our territory and for our country. It is a moment of change and uncertainty, but for the Northwest Territories it is also a moment of opportunity.

The world is rapidly changing before our eyes. We can no longer count on the traditional international rules, norms, and alliances that have helped Canada prosper over the past 80 years. We are witnessing unprecedented efforts at economic coercion and foreign interference in our political systems, a blurring of lines between allies and enemies, and internal threats to our national unity on...