Colleagues, Asger "Red" Pedersen was a respected leader, public servant, and former Speaker of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly passed away on May 30, 2025. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 19, 1935. He came to the Canadian Arctic in 1953 with the Hudson's Bay Company and went on to dedicate his life to the people and communities of the North.
Mr. Pedersen was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1983, representing the Kitikmeot West constituency during the 10th and 11th Assemblies. He served as a Member of the Executive Council, holding numerous portfolios including culture and communications, renewable resources, status of women, the science institution, and later personnel and equal pay. In 1987, he was appointed Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and served in that role until 1989.
I had the pleasure of first meeting Red Pedersen in December 1987 at the hockey rink in Kugluktuk. It was clear from that first conversation that his passion was the people of the community. He truly considered them his family. Over time, I came to understand just how deeply woven he was into the fabric of the North. He served not only as an MLA and Speaker but also as mayor, councillor, and board member on nearly every organization in Kugluktuk and the Kitikmeot region. Yet, if you asked him, he would say his greatest accomplishment was his family. Red's life was one of service, love, and humility. His passing leaves a tremendous void, but his legacy will continue in the lives he touched and the lessons he taught. He was more than a colleague; he was a beacon of hope and strength.
Red Pedersen brought decades of experience in community development and northern governance to his work in the Assembly. He served as an area administrator in Kugluktuk, Pangnirtung, and Fort Res, and was deeply involved in local governance and volunteerism. His leadership was instrumental in organizing the first settlement council in Kugluktuk, where he also served on various community committees and was active in Boy Scouts and Canadian Rangers.
In recognition his unwavering dedication to the Inuit people and their community, Mr. Pedersen was bestowed the honorary title of Inuk, a distinction that held immense personal significance for him. Despite not being of Inuit descent, he played a pivotal role in establishing Inuit institutions, always advocating for their autonomy and ensuring that membership remained exclusive to Inuit beneficiaries. His commitment to the North was not just professional but deeply personal as he devoted his life to the people and the land he came to cherish.
In 2003, Mr. Pedersen was made an honorary lifetime Member of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the first person to receive this distinction in recognition of his longstanding contributions to the region. He was also a member of the Order of Nunavut and the Order of Canada.
Like most individuals, it is hard to speak on his impact on the residents of the North, so I have attached Freddy Pederson's Celebration of Life and Denis Patterson's news article, which I will deemed as read.
The family would like to thank everybody for their support and kind words during this difficult time. Red will be sadly missed but not forgotten.
Thank you all for coming today as we say farewell to our father, grandfather, great grandfather and great, great grandfather, Red Pedersen. He lived a good long life, he was born in 1935, he was 89 years old when he passed. He got to experience a new life when he came here from Denmark in 1953. He lived with, then lived and worked with Inuit, becoming "adopted" by Steven Angulalik and his family. Emily, thanks for coming and spending this time with us, and Gwen for your beautiful words. He learned much during that time about how to live and survive in the North, and to apprentice with the HBC at various posts.
After getting married to our mother and having a family, he moved to different parts of the North with new job opportunities, to support his family. We lived in Cape Dorset, Pangnirtung, Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife, before settling back here in Kugluktuk. This was where he felt "at home". He tried to move a few times but always returned to where he felt most comfortable, here in Kugluktuk with family and lifelong friends.
You all know of the things he has accomplished in the different public, community and private positions he has held throughout his life. We as a family know that too, however, we have also known him as our dad. And, as our dad he was many things to us. We will miss him dearly. We have the support of a big family, he has 108 descendants, plus all of you, our friends, to lean on when times are tough. That "family" togetherness will help us all cope with his loss.
He is now resting and has met up with his parents (Otto and Ebba), his sister (Sanne), his daughter (Vera) and his son (Hans), and the many other friends and relatives that have passed before him. We can be happy knowing that they have all embraced him and are happy to be together again. We can yearn for the day when we too will meet up with all of them again, but at the same time we want to make sure that until then we take the time to be with our families and friends here, where we live and work. We will keep that strong family tradition alive that he had in his long life.
We have been fortunate enough to have him around to see great great grandchildren, and we still have our mother. Both of them have lived the longest in their families, we can only hope that many of us will move that mark ahead. He always said that there is nothing so bad that something good doesn't come out of it. We'll wait to see what that good thing is that comes from losing him. It's something that's hard to imagine right now.
We miss you already dad and it hurts that you are now gone, but we will keep your spirit alive in our hearts and remember all the great times we've had, the good memories we've made, and the memories still to come. We know your spirit will be with us.
From all of us here today, we say farewell to you Dad, we'll keep you in our hearts forever. Rest in eternal peace, we'll always love you.
Asger 'Red' Pedersen, an Order of Canada and Order of Nunavut holder, honorary Inuk and lifetime Member of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, died in Yellowknife an hour and a bit away by plane from his beloved home community of Kugluktuk in May at the age of 89 after more than 70 years in the Arctic.
Red was a soldier for the Nunavut cause because he fought the forces that would have hived off the Kitikmeot Region to remain in the Western Territory. Red understood very well that the people of his region were connected in history and geography to Yellowknife and Edmonton.
With his lifelong home community of Kugluktuk just 55 kilometers from the NWT boundary, 601 kilometers from Yellowknife and a daunting, expensive two days away by plane from Iqaluit, which was to become the capital of the new territory, many Kugluktuk residents and those in other western communities feared being forgotten as the distant rump of the proposed new territory in the Eastern Arctic.
But Red Pedersen had a long-term vision of a homeland for Inuit that would make the Inuit language and culture strong and give his beloved Inuit control over their lands and resources.
He was so successful in persuading Kitikmeot residents to set aside their doubts and support Nunavut that in the second plebiscite to affirm the Nunavut boundary in 1992, 78 percent of Kugluktuk residents and 70 percent of Cambridge Bay residents voted Yes to a boundary proposal which would see their communities remain in the Nunavut territory.
To understand the change of sentiment in favour of Nunavut that Red's leadership encouraged in the 1982 plebiscite asking should the NWT be divided, Kugluktuk was split with a dismal 25 percent turnout and 51 percent voting No. Cambridge Bay voted 58 percent No.
While we can now look back on the creation of Nunavut as a result of a unified march toward self-determination where all three regions were united in common cause, the Kitikmeot could have been the weak link.
Cambridge Bay vied to be chosen as the capital in the public vote of 1995, and later threw its support behind Rankin Inlet as an alternate to a distant capital in Iqaluit. Leaders like Charlie Lyall, president of Kitikmeot Corp., once famously said the Kitikmeot was better off under the NWT: "I've always maintained that Iqaluit people think the western boundary of Nunavut is the airport runway in Iqaluit!"
The challenge of ensuring the far western region of the Kitikmeot is not forgotten exists to this day. Red Pedersen himself acknowledged that challenge only 18 months after the creation of Nunavut, famously telling CBC North: "At the extreme tip of the tail of any good prime white fox, there are always two or three black hairs. We sometimes think of ourselves as the two or three black hairs at the very tip of the white fox; sometimes we feel very little wagging!"
But Red Pedersen nonetheless always strongly supported Nunavut.
He earned the respect of the people he was twice elected to represent in the NWT legislature. They knew Red as the loyal worker who came to Canada from Denmark at the tender age of 17 to work for Angulalik, the unilingual, legendary Inuk business tycoon who owned the trading post at Parry River and traded up to 2,000 valuable prime white fox furs in a season.
This was where Red learned Inuktitut and became a mentor and lifelong friend of his mentor Angulalik and pioneering Inuit leaders like Norman Evalik.
They knew Red as a devoted, lifelong community Member who was instrumental in forming the first settlement council, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. He was also a Canadian Ranger (a tradition carried on inter-generationally in his family), and a pioneer businessman (taxi and hotel and outfitting).
They knew Red as a strong supporter of youth, who once said we need to be more supportive of the younger generation: "There's only 14 inches between a kick in the assessment and a pat on the back!"
It was the respect Red Pedersen earned among his people that persuaded them to set aside their doubts and overlook their historic ties to the NWT and instead vote twice, in 1982 and 1993 (and increasingly in favour) for the creation of a new territory for Inuit that followed the treeline boundary all the way to the Arctic Coast and even included the farthest west community Red's hometown of Kugluktuk.
Red is one of those exceptional people who won the esteem of his peers by being a modest, gentle giant whose devotion to community marked his reason for being.
His impact on his community and our territory revealed itself in many ways, large and small. He dismantled and moved houses from outpost camps on the land into Kugluktuk to form the basis for a now-thriving community which he later served as acclaimed mayor.
He was also a champion for Inuit during his political career.
When Red was a Cabinet Minister, he persuaded the NWT government to appoint Helen Klengenberg as the first woman and first Inuk as regional director, recognizing her stellar leadership and later achievement as the first Inuk to earn an MBA.
Recently, at a public event held to honour Kugluktukmiut who earned university degrees where Helen was recognized for her two degrees, Red surprised Helen by presenting her with a caribou antler carving made by her late mother, Lily Angnakak, in 1965. He said he thought it was time the carving was returned to Lily's family. She was surprised and overwhelmed, since that precious caribou antler carving is the only memento, she has from her mother.
As the government's Minister of renewable resources, as a native Dane with credibility in Europe where the animal rights movement festered, Red Pedersen and his late deputy minister Jim Bourque led the drive in Canada to switch to humane trapping. Red pitched himself with vigour against the animal rights movement in Europe, which threatened to decimate Canada's fur industry.
As the Minister of culture and communications, he insisted traditional knowledge must be given as much weight in the NWT government as modern science. That stance presaged the recognition of Inuit Qaujimajaqtuqangit, which is now embedded in the Nunavut regulatory processes. His daily diary entries are a treasure of the history of his beloved region and home community.
And he was elected unanimously by his peers in the NWT legislature to be its Speaker after also being acclaimed as MLA for Kugluktuk in the election of 1987.
As Speaker, Red elevated the position in many ways. He scrapped the formal robes of the British colonial era, insisting on wearing a traditionally designed Speaker's robe reflecting his pedigree as an honorary Inuk. Red even persuaded the Assembly to resurrect a venerable Cadillac limousine out of mothballs for ceremonial occasions and visits by dignitaries and established the Speaker's residence in the penthouse suite of Yellowknife's first high-rise apartment building, Fraser Tower.
For all these reasons, I say this Danish-born giant of a man who married a Greenlander and leaves behind 108 descendants at last count "family was everything to my Dad," his son Baba said.
He was a soldier in the Nunavut cause, a champion of Inuit self-determination and the exemplar of a devoted community resident.
Gone, but never forgotten.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act.
Bill 23 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 13th, 2025 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.
The standing committee held a clause-by-clause review of the bill on October 20th, 2025, with the Minister of Justice. The committee moved to amend four clauses in Bill 23 at the clause-by-clause review. The Minister of Justice concurred with all four motions.
Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act, is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Reports of committee on the review of bills. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Family Law Act.
Bill 24 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 13th, 2025 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.
The standing committee held a clause-by-clause review of the bill on October 20th, 2025, with the Minister of Justice. The committee moved to amend one clause in Bill 24 at the clause-by-clause review. The Minister of Justice concurred with this motion.
Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Family Law Act, is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Reports of committees on the review of bills. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act.
Bill 27 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on May 28th, 2025 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.
The standing committee held a clause-by-clause review of the bill on October 20th, 2025 with the Minister of Justice. The committee moved to amend five clauses in Bill 27 at the clause-by-clause review. The Minister of Justice concurred with all five motions.
Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question will be to the Minister of Health and Social Services today and, of course, I hope I have time for other Ministers to enjoy a great and fun question period. Mr. Speaker, my question is the challenge about housing. Now, believe it or not, this is a health issue.
So I was visiting constituents at a public housing place last week, and the smoke in this multi-unit was so difficult to breathe, I thought I was actually chewing it. It was that thick and disgusting. And my understanding is housing won't declare these public housing units non-smoking or they insist new leases can only be done. However, we could approach this particular problem by change, the Minister of Health and Social Services leading by making some adjustments and declaring them smoke-free. Would the Minister of Health and Social Services be willing to look into this situation so all public housing in the Northwest Territories, which wouldn't be unique to other places in Canada, are smoke-free? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my colleague and I, Minister of Housing NWT, have had ongoing conversations on the best way to move forward, and I believe on April 1st, there will be a blanket policy for no smoking in all housing units in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the Minister isn't defending smoking in public housing units. I said I'm glad you aren't defending. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I guess two parts to it is why are we waiting, and is there exemptions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as throughout the Northwest Territories, some of these homes, people have been living in them for almost -- like, I can honestly say in my community, there are some families that have been living in the same home for 30 plus years. So they're just giving them the time to, you know, offer up, you know, the information first, give them the information, give them time, you know, those information on quitting smoking because we know in the Northwest Territories that we do provide smoking cessation for all Northwest Territories residents and all those types of things. So we're setting a start date as to when this will take effect. And all new leases, my understanding, are going to -- that are currently happening are for non-smoking. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, in a multi-function building or multi-unit building, you can't have one smoker and one non-smoker right next to each other through airness.
Mr. Speaker, what will the department of health do in order to step this up to support these people? I believe the carrot to stick approach, no smoking is the new rule. Can she be very clear on how the full weight of the department of health is going to come in there and support individuals who have smoked for years, if not generations, Mr. Speaker, because we can't leave them hanging, but the workers in there need this protection as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as most landlords, and we did the -- like, I think throughout the Northwest Territories already have it in their leases that there is no smoking in their units. Housing is changing their policy to create that now. What we'll do as health is we'll continue to, you know, monitor what is going on in those units that are multi-units. We'll work with housing. I think that is the biggest thing that we will be able to do is to see moving forward in the future if there's more work that will need to be done through legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the Member from Nunakput's statement today and given the fact that certainly my community in Inuvik is on the Mackenzie River, we've often had flooding, not as serious as what has happened up there obviously, but considering the community experienced a post-cyclonic storm surge on August 30th, I have a question for the Minister of MACA, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister of MACA confirm, has the community been offered or did they receive any financial assistance from the government to help the community remove the debris and certainly get the roads back into working order? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has not offered the community any disaster assistance arrangement to rebuild any of the roads or remove any driftwood or debris as the disaster assistance policy has not been applied to this event with the information that MACA had received. After our most recent meeting, MACA's still assessing the situation to understand the full scope of damage.
Mr. Speaker, no additional funding has been provided to the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk for the clean-up or the road repair from the department. The hamlet does not have to apply for funding or identify specific projects to receive community government funding. Community government funding is distributed evenly and equitably through all the communities, and it's up to the hamlets and the communities to decide how they spend it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that MACA did council the community to -- not to declare a state of emergency but to apply through the NWTAC through their insurance program to help build roads and remove the debris. Can the Minister -- I wonder if the Minister is aware how successful they were in receiving that insurance funding from NWTAC. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Declaring a local state of emergency or not declaring a local state of emergency doesn't always provide access to disaster assistance policy. It all depends on the type of emergency and the scale of the emergency.
In regards to the hamlet of Tuk, accessing the insurance, the Member would have to contact the hamlet to get that information as it's through NorCIP with NWTAC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I know the community of Tuktoyaktuk, similar to other communities in my region, are already struggling with infrastructure. I know the community of Tuktoyaktuk are now paying down the debt for their new water treatment plant they've had, they've built there, and they've also -- there's a major shore erosion project going on up there, Mr. Speaker. So then I guess, you know, is the Minister suggesting that the community do rollbacks? I mean, is it something that -- I mean, obviously, we have limited funds in municipalities and in hamlets in our region. How does the Minister then feel that the community can pay for this if the existing funds simply isn't there? Thank you.
Again, Mr. Speaker, you know, municipal and community affairs applies all the funding through the communities and applies -- or distributes it equally through all the communities. The hamlet does not have any debt with the new treatment plant that they put through as it was part of their community planning. The plant's been operational since the commissioning last summer. So a little bit of information in regards to the cost, so total cost of the plant was estimated to be about $4.9 million. It was about $4.7 million. You know, the hamlet funded this by their community funding. So any of the community funding that they received could be used any -- essentially anywhere they want when it comes down to some of this stuff. Tuk still has about $2.8 million in CCFB holdbacks that the GNWT can pay if they receive their reporting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member's statement, Northerners are sick of paying for power bills that are the highest in the country, and it's not just households; it's businesses as well. I've received letters from businesses in my riding that are complaining about the power failures in particular, not only the costs that results in tens of thousands of dollars annually in equipment damage, lost sales, and reputational damage. They want the Minister responsible for NTPC to answer this question: Why has reliability failed to improve, and in fact has gotten worse over time, despite repeated funding from this government into the power system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister responsible for NTPC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a couple different types of funding that we see here frequently, one of which is the subsidies that we provide through territorial power support programs and also direct subsidies on the water events, for example, to keep affordability where it is. But the other type of investment, Mr. Speaker, is in the infrastructure component and in this case, Mr. Speaker, we have systems that were built in the '60s and '70s that have not been brought up to speed that we're now having to catch up on and in the meantime we do wind up with isolated grids here in the north, an isolated grid down in the south, and isolated community grids all around the Northwest Territories. So that creates a problem for reliability, it creates a lack of redundancy, and it creates a lot of catch-up for the people of the Northwest Territories. So it's going to certainly take quite a lot of effort and quite a lot of time to catch up on a system that is this old. And certainly the money that we put into the subsidies to maintain affordability, that doesn't help us catch up where we need to be. So this should be an issue that is front and centre. It's one that I raise frequently with the federal government. We need to be brought up to speed with where the rest of Canada is, and that certainly remains a commitment of mine and of this government to continue to do that, to continue to advocate for that, and make sure that it's not being done on the backs of our residents and our consumers alone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased that the Minister is aware of what -- the diagnosis of the problem; what we need is the solution. These businesses also want to know what specific infrastructure upgrades are planned to prevent on going surges and blackouts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are different things planned for different communities and different regions, as I said. And as we all know, we have a number of isolated grids across the system. So I can say one of the things that they've been working on in the Taltson zone, for example, is to make sure following -- and actually this is true, really, across the territories right now is that following a lot of the wildfires, just by way of one example, it creates a situation where there's a lot more risk to the power lines, to the different power systems, where there is a lot more deadfall that can impact on power line systems. And so there's a lot of effort going in to making sure that they're doing the work to clear areas and to make sure that the areas that would be at risk as a result of the wildfires are being maintained so that the poles and the wires aren't likely to be at risk. Beyond that, Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of work happening to try to -- in a broad sense, to connect our grids, to create transmission connections, and to bring a greater redundancy to our system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, while we're waiting for those infrastructure improvements, you know, we've seen businesses that have had to close because of blackouts and power equipment failures that have led to fires. I have a constituent who's out of home because of that. We have the community of Fort Smith that started court proceedings to recoup money. So what does the Minister suggest for people who are financially impacted by these outages; what recourse do they have? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is part of what gets approved by the public utilities board are the term and conditions of sale both for the generation component that tends to be exclusively done by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation as well as the distribution that is done both by NTPC as well as Naka Power, and regulated utilities in Canada are not permitted to reimburse customers for damages. That is one of the standard situations that everyone in Canada does find themselves at. Regulated utilities in Canada are only allowed to charge customers for the costs to operate their system, which is then what unfortunately leads to folks who have experienced extreme or other kinds of claims outside of that process. But, again, it's the one that is -- it's one that is regulated all across Canada and for us by the public utilities board. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the circumstances, can the Minister of housing confirm that installation of a backup power generator would be considered an eligible expense within Housing NWT's programs for the seniors' home in Fort Providence? Thank you.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think a conversation with district staff at this point and looking at the facility itself to see if a backup power generator is warranted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Will the Minister support community-led proposals to install backup generators in the seniors' independent living home, and can NWT Housing provide technical and/or financial assistance to help communities develop these potential solutions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from the Deh Cho, a couple questions there. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Of course I think Housing NWT would be happy to lend some technical expertise if we're going to look at potential power solution, power generation solutions within the elders' facility. And once we have a technical type of review, then we could talk financial assistance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are there any other specific funding streams, either territorial or federal, that Housing NWT can access to support installing a backup generator in seniors' homes? Thank you.
