Colleagues, today, I would like to recognize an individual that received the Life Member Award (formerly called the Honorary Life Member) from the NWTRPA this past October. This award is not something given out annually but recognizes a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the recreation and parks field, who has significantly served the NWT Recreation and Parks, and is nearing or has reached the end of their career in the recreation and parks field. This past October, it was given to Colin MacPherson.
I have had the pleasure of working with him when he took the recreation coordinator position in Fort Liard. I can tell you he made a huge impact on the community and the youth. To this day, people in the community speak highly of him and the things he did for the community. One of the biggest highlights, besides the swimming pool, was the speed skating program. He worked hard to get youth engaged and to try out for the Arctic Winter Games. After leaving Fort Liard, he moved to the Yukon, then to Inuvik, and then to Norman Wells where he became the regional recreation development officer for the Sahtu region. Years later, he moved to Fort Smith and then to Yellowknife, where he is the manager of community services for the sport and rec division.
During his time in Norman Wells and Fort Smith, I got to work with him on various projects such as northern youth aboard program, the youth ambassadors program which takes youth to the Canada Winter and Summer Games, Arctic Winter Games, Pan Am Games, and Winter Olympic Games and on the development of sport and recreation policies that we are still using today.
Colin was our guys when it came to aquatics, whether it was facility side or the staffing part of the program, he was the one you'd call. He could come into a community, hear the problem, and provide great advice on how to fix it or where to get the necessary part. He was an asset for the communities that he worked with daily and a strong component of the team we worked with. I have included his nomination form at the end of my statement and ask that it be deemed as read and printed in the Hansard.
Nomination for the Life Member Award – NWTRPA
Nominee Colin MacPherson
Location Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Career in Recreation Over 20 years with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT)
Nomination Summary
I am honored to nominate Colin MacPherson for the NWTRPA Life Member Award in recognition of his outstanding career in recreation, his strong mentorship, and his dedication to fostering community well-being across the Northwest Territories (NWT). Colin’s work has been (sometimes) quietly help guide the recreation field in varied NWT regions for years.
Outstanding Contributions to Recreation
Mentorship
Colin’s commitment to mentoring others is very well known. Over his lifetime in recreation, Colin MacPherson has guided many people into successful roles in the recreation field. There are a lot of recreation leaders across the North who can attribute their knowledge and professional growth to Colin’s mentorship. His willingness to share his expertise in community recreation has empowered people to excel and brought strength to the recreation sector across the NWT.
Leadership in Games and Events
Colin’s leadership through volunteerism and participation in major games have left a lasting impact on athletes, youth ambassadors, and staff alike. From the Arctic Winter Games and the North American Indigenous Games to the Pan Am Games and even the Olympics, Colin has worn many hats: athlete, coach, mission staff, administrator, and always, Mentor. Each role he undertook with dedication, representing the NWT with pride and professionalism.
Promoting Healthy Living
Colin embodies and promotes a healthy, active lifestyle. Through his unwavering 100% effort, he inspires others to embrace challenges and prioritize active living. He has helped ensure communities across the NWT have the programs, facilities, and opportunities to stay active and healthy, helping make recreation accessible for children, youth, and adults and elders alike.
Advancing Youth Development
Colin played an important role in the development of the NWT Youth Ambassadors Program, helping establish its principles and criteria. This program has provided countless opportunities for youth to gain firsthand experience in recreation, leadership, and community service. The program’s lasting impact is a testament to Colin’s vision and commitment to empowering young people.
Workshops and Training
Colin has significantly contributed to the professional growth of recreation workers across the NWT. He has delivered workshops on all aspects of community recreation and safety training, ensuring individuals are well-prepared to serve their communities. His efforts have built capacity in most NWT communities.
Recreation Facilities and Programs
Colin has been a part of the development and operation of recreation facilities in various NWT communities, ensuring their long-term sustainability by training staff and fostering local ownership. His hands-on involvement extends to grassroots initiatives, like starting the speed skating club in Norman Wells, which continues to today.
Commitment to Excellence
Colin MacPherson exemplifies the values of dedication, leadership, and community spirit that this award honors. His contributions to recreation in the NWT have been wide reaching, fostering growth, opportunity, and resilience across the North. As Colin approaches the finale of his career, this award would be a fitting tribute to his long-standing service and enduring impact.
In closing, there are many stories that I want to share with you but being reflective of the time, I would like to congratulate him on receiving this award.
Colleagues, you just heard me give a statement about a friend of mine. He's up here in the -- sorry, I'm getting a little emotional here. I'd like to recognize Colin MacPherson as well as my friends and colleagues Damon Crosmann, Alicia Korol, Alison Brown, Conan Donahue, as well as the deputy minister Gary Brennan and, you know, my former MSA but he was also the executive director of the recreation and parks. Welcome to our Assembly.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I feel you stole my list. I want to echo the recognition of visitors in the gallery, same people there, but I would also like to add the YK city councillor Tom McLennan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Hay River South. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a fellow photographer in the House, Vincent Ret. Wanted to say a big old hello to him. He's an incredibly talented northern artist, and it's always lovely to have people in the gallery, especially ones as talented as him. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Kam Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have one of the younger residents of Yellowknife South in the House today, young Finnigan Gosselin has been spending the day job shadowing with his mom. Thank you.
Finnigan, thank you very much for keeping your mom working hard, so. We appreciate you being here. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [Translation] Masi, Mr. Speaker. Today we have -- we have Lucy Lafferty. She's a wife, and then she was a principal. She was also a director of education and also the -- and also she is the coordinator. She is very active for our language, Lucy -- Lucy Lafferty. The interpreter -- the interpreter here Jonas that isn't here, Jonas Lafferty, his wife is also here, as I'd like to say -- I would like to say thank you to Lucy Lafferty. And also the young people from Chief Jimmy Bruneau School here are also here, Shiloh Simpson and Nicoli Grosco, they are the page from the Chief Jimmy and Lucy Lafferty is from the community of Behchoko, the wife of Jonas Lafferty, interpreter.
[Translation Ends] Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also recognize Tom McLennan who is one of our city councillors at the city of Yellowknife. So thank you, Tom, for being here today.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives great pleasure to recognize, through you, to the House; I have several guests to acknowledge. First of all, I'd like to recognize Todd Cook. He happens to be the president and CEO of Northview Residential REIT. He's up there in the gallery. Sitting next to him is Linay Freda. I believe she is the vice-president of operations. And she's there as well. And next to her is a face many of us will know around this room, but certainly in the community, is Ms. Colleen Wellborn. She is the local, so the northern regional director here for Northview. And I want to give thanks quickly to Ms. Wellborn for her use and support of the community organization with Tony Foliot where they brought clothes from the South Slave to Yellowknife, and they've facilitated that and made sure that NGOs could benefit from that situation. Thank you, Northview REIT, and certainly Colleen.
And lastly, Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that every time my good colleague on my side, the Member for Range Lake, sounds like he knows what he's talking about well, there is the source of all the brilliancy in that relationship. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'd like to recognize the source of my brilliance, as my colleague said, and my favorite constituent, my lovely wife Colleen Wellborn.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the Dene Zhatie translators here from the region. In the House are Sarah Gargan and Mary Jane Cazon and to thank them for their contribution to keep the language alive. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do want to address a small technicality on the recognition of visitors in the gallery today and congratulate councillor Tom McLennan on his purchase of a new home in the Frame Lake riding. Very excited to welcome him to Frame Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker; I appreciate it very much. Mr. Speaker, my question will be directed to the Minister of Finance regarding most recent bid on the liquor operations here in Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, a local bidder had bid on this project, and they -- their scoring seems to be quite subjective. I wrote an email because of the significant urgency on this. By the time they closed this contract, we don't want it to turn into a legal problem.
Mr. Speaker, by way of example, under northern experience, they got 50 out of 50, Mr. Speaker. But under local BIP, they got 1.8 out of 50. And under NWT BIP, they got 5 out of 150, Mr. Speaker. There's some mysterious concerns with these numbers, and I wish some urgency. Would the Minister pause this awarding of this particular contract to ensure these numbers are correct and all the numbers are correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did acknowledge the email that I got this morning from the Member and thank you for bringing this to my attention.
As with any other procurement matter, I'm not going to be putting these details on the floor of the House. I have already tasked the department to look into it and when we to get a matter where there's some concerns around a procurement scoring, much like a human resource matter, there are avenues and channels by which we can have our staff review it, can have it go through a review. And certainly, until that's been done, Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to be in a position to say one way or the other what may have happened or didn't happen or did happen, but I can say that we will review this urgently. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, although I would like to influence the outcome, that's not my question. My question is about pausing this to ensure there's a rigorous review before an awarding of a contract so there will be no necessity for legal action to work their way through this because, as I highlighted, the details are a little questionable. Would the Minister clarify for the House that she'll ensure the official awarding of the contract won't be done until there's a rigorous review of the numbers and their calculations? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the advocacy on behalf of constituents. I certainly want to ensure that our procurement review -- or procurement processes are accurate and fair. We are subject to procurement processes that maintain our obligations under trade, our obligations for open procurement, and, Mr. Speaker, I'm simply not in a position here today to say where we are at in this particular procurement process. I don't have it in front of me. As I said, this came in this morning. Happy to have it brought to my attention. It's not the first time I've had procurement brought to my attention. But it's -- so it's gone to the procurement shared services now and it really is not one that I want to be interfering with on the floor of the House. I recognize it's an important issue for many residents, and so I want to assure them again that we've sent it forward to procurement to make sure that it's done, and any award is done fairly and that any review is done fairly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, all the Minister would have to say is that she'll issue an email or instructions or whatever language she wants to use -- I don't care, it's fine, I'm fine with that -- that she'll issue some awareness that they need to ensure before they officially award the contract that these numbers are reviewed because it's taken four months, in January to now, for them to find out the details of why they weren't successful, would she be willing to issue that direction to ensure it's issued in the most fair and reasonable way? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the intention around fairness. Mr. Speaker, I -- again, without -- I don't have the details of the procurement here in front of me, as I normally wouldn't. That is a level of operations that Ministers would be inappropriate to get my hands involved in and certainly not here. So, again, I do appreciate the concern for fairness. I certainly can commit that I'll double down on saying to the department that we want to ensure that we are being fair and that we are maintaining and adhering to all of the procurement principles that we have. But beyond that, Mr. Speaker, I'm certainly not going to be, here on the floor of the House and without a fulsome awareness of the procurement details, issuing any directives to the department on this one. I will commit to the Member that we'll follow up as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the news broke of the potential contamination in the Range Lake North School, my constituents have reached out to me who are nearby in the neighbourhood very concerned about the quality of their own drinking water. Can the Minister of education just reassure my constituents that there's no risk to contamination in the wider Range Lake neighbourhood. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have received information that the city of Yellowknife does regular testing of their water, and there is no concern. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, constituents are also wondering why we haven't historically tested schools for safe drinking water. Can the Minister explain why this has been a pilot project and not just ongoing work for the department. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly as a parent share the concerns of many residents of the city of Yellowknife as well as the residents of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, it is worth me saying right now that I was notified of this project and the results on Monday evening. Immediately from there was able to ensure that that drinking water and cooking water was no longer able to be used been those schools that were advised were experiencing concerns. Mr. Speaker, I can also advise this House and the Member that given the extreme concern with this situation that I have provided direction to the GNWT, because it is multiple departments and through the Premier's office, to do a third party investigation so we can understand the details of how we got here and how we're going to ensure that we are moving forward in a fulsome way. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife -- or sorry -- Range Lake.
Yellowknife Range Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that. I know the Minister is taking it seriously. I have no reason to doubt that. My intention is get the information out to my constituents. But if they do come back and find a problem with the school, who's going to pay for that? Will the Minister provide funds to replace whatever needs to be replaced to ensure there is safe, clean drinking water for the kids in my riding? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the schools in Yellowknife are interesting in that they are different from schools across the territory. So the schools in Yellowknife, for the most part, are owned by the education body themselves, but we have mechanisms to work together within the city of Yellowknife. First and foremost, we need to ensure that the water in our schools is safe and that kids in our schools are safe, and so as per usual, I will continue to work with our education bodies. I have a very close working relationship with the chair, and we will continue to work forward on this. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member's statement today regarding the recent work done by the Department of ECC on the developing materials for the Indigenous governments around land leasing. My first question for the Minister of ECC is how would the department, I guess, define Indigenous traditional use cabins and who they are for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think that, you know, as we talk about traditional use cabins, traditional activities, traditional use of the land across the NWT, it's important first and foremost to identify that as the Minister and I stand here, it's not my place to identify how an Indigenous government or an Indigenous organization's defined what a traditional use cabin or what their traditions entail amongst the Indigenous governments and the Indigenous organizations. There are many differences in tradition in how they define lifestyle and what their -- how things were done by their ancestors. What I will commit to standing here is to work with all of those Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations to ensure as we move forward, the policies and the work that we do together formed by those traditions and that we respect those in the path that we take. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And that's a good answer, Mr. Speaker. And I know that the Minister is well aware of what's happening here and what needs to be done and the length of time it's taken many years to get to where we are today. Following up on that, Mr. Speaker, one of the things that come out of the forum was the develop -- follow-up materials for Indigenous governments. Can the Minister speak to the timeline now as when we're going to follow up on that and, indeed, start this -- continue this consultation, gets that information out to Indigenous governments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to report that the work has started. It's well underway. As the Member indicated, there was a meeting on the 20th and 21st of May that was very well attended with some really good work done by all participants. There was also a follow-up meeting this morning, actually, between ECC and the technical working group to, again, advance this initiative, and ECC is working very close with the technical working group through the Intergovernmental Council on land and resource management and under the development protocol to amend the NWT act and regulations. So this work is very collaborative. You know, we're very committed to following a process that is really working together to ensure that all of our interests are represented at the end of the day and that they are truly informed by the traditional knowledge within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. I think we're starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel here, and I know it's going to take a continued commitment from the Minister to keep pushing this issue forward and getting this work done. Follow-up question, Mr. Speaker, you mentioned the amendments to the Northwest Territories land regulations. Do we have a timeline for that? Has the department come up with a schedule and timeline to get these amendments done so we can move this forward? Thank you.
