R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll have to take that on notice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, I'm always here in the House to answer questions, so that's a transparency method that works across government. But the results are going to be -- or sorry, the accountability is going to be in the results. I hope to be able to show this House and show Members that, with the support of the envoy and the entire GNWT, we're actually getting things done. And so I don't have -- you know, I don't have a framework to parse out, you know, what percentage of that success is attributable to this role. But the fact is that, you know, I am here to be held to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be able to attend that conference, and so we're still looking at options to ensure that there is some sort of presence there from the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no committee at this point. I'm not sure what the working group proposal looks like. So I can't really make any commitments around that. That being said, obviously there's a lot of value in ensuring that everyone's on the same page and everyone's communicating. And so we're in the early days of this interest in the North and talking about investments and Arctic security. And my officials are working with officials from Joint Task Force North and the Department of National Defence, and we share information as required. And I know that officials from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd have to see those terms of reference and figure out what exactly the Member is talking about in terms of a joint working group, what that would look like, who would be involved, what the subject matter would be, and so on. And so after I see that, I'll be able to speak to the Member about it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 22, Legislation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Member might be talking about the Arctic security working group, which is an officials’ level working group. They meet twice a year. I believe it's once in Yellowknife, once in the Yukon, and so this time it's in the Yukon. And we are not organizing that, the Joint Task Force North. I believe the Yukon might be co-hosting it so they might have a role in it. But we're not in a position to invite anyone to attend this event. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're using all the tools at our disposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this was announced about a year ago, I've had numerous meetings with Minister Blair, the Minister of National Defence and with other federal Ministers, and we have -- along with the other northern Premiers, we have been lobbying the federal government to enlarge and advance more quickly their investments in the northern operational support hubs. I believe it was $218 million is the number that was in the original plan, and that was mostly to be spent in the final years of that plan. And so we've been advocating to get that money spent sooner than later. In the...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, I will present Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Family Law Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.