Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear there is no evidence for concern about the water quality at this time. Enhanced testing of water, drinking water in Fort Chip, where the water is typically drawn from the Lake Athabasca show no evidence of contamination. There is no denying that the truth of Indigenous governance, community leaders, and our government has been affected by the failure to provide direct notification. So we are working with it down in Fort Smith as well to keep the monitoring of this, and we will provide information if we have concerns moving forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with regret, I have to inform the House, no, we didn't hear anything. I didn't hear anything. We didn't even get notified by any level of the Alberta government and we had to actually find out through, I guess you would call it the telephone system where somebody provides something else and then they cut to our staff and then this is how we found out. So, unfortunately, no, we did not find out the way we were supposed to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is committed to strengthening the Northwest Territories emergency management by improving response to emergency events and assisting residents and community governments to be well prepared when faced with an emergency. I will outline for Members the lessons learned from the 2022 flood and how we apply these lessons to prepare for the 2023 flood season.

Mr. Speaker, before I do that, I want to acknowledge the difficult journey for those people so heavily impacted by the 2021 and the 2022 flood. These events...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on February 28th, the NAG council stated it was continuing with its mandatory COVID vaccination policy. The NAG council stated the priority is the safety and wellbeing of all 5,000 athletes, participants, coaches, and chaperones participating from 756 nations. This includes elders of the Mi'kmaq host territory who have shared that they are not comfortable with unvaccinated groups coming into their territory. NAG council indicated they respect the territories of the nations and wishes of the elders. So, Mr. Speaker, I also respect the wishes of the NAG...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that both the Arctic Winter Games and the Canada Winter Games did have the policy in there. But on November 18th, 2022 the international committee, in conjunction with the host community, decided to withdraw or revoke the policy for mandatory COVID19 vaccination reports, as well with Canada games on November 23rd, the host society and the Canada games council revoked it there. So in my conversations with both ministers, both societies in Charlottetown, PEI and Fort McMurray, both ministers and the host society said that that was the public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today it saddens me to stand in this House and speak about the passing of a wellknown man from the community of Fort Simpson.

John Moreau was a hard worker, told it like it was, and was an honest businessman. I watched him work and his commitment to his work was excellent. Nothing was too small or too big for him to take on.

John was born and raised in Winnipeg, a '50s greaser that use to race Tbirds down the Pembina Highway. John was always a very independent man who raised his children with his wife Louisa, who were married for 54 years.

John was an avid...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member's frustration. When I heard about the vaccine requirements being dropped, I did reach out to both ministers and had that conversation and the international committee and saying hey, we had a process. We, in the Northwest Territories, to select our teams had to follow the process that said you had to have vaccination requirements done and report it in. That didn't happen. They changed it and so we weren't able to do that. So unfortunately, we as a government don't intervene, but Sport North and the TSOs have that ability so we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was getting jealous of Minister Archie in answering all the questions here, so I appreciate the Member from Hay River South asking the question.

So some good news for the Member, and hopefully it'll be the last time he has to talk about COVID in this House here. We don't require any COVID vaccination requirements for sporting events in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Short, Mr. Speaker, we're hoping to have it something here in the House by the end of this session. Not this Assembly but the end of this session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we started the process, we had to work with IGC in that process there. So we're hoping to have it done by the end of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.