George Nerysoo

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 13th, 2025, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review. On October 20th, 2025, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Justice and completed its cause-by-cause review of the bill.

I thank the committee for their efforts in reviewing its legislation. Individual Members may have additional comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to bring forward an emergency measure that I feel requires immediate attention. In smaller communities throughout the Northwest Territories, when the community residents are faced with unexpected emergencies, the uncertainty of how long the problem will last puts a strain on the whole community.

On Friday, October 17th, the power in Fort McPherson unexpectedly went out around 10 o'clock am and was not restored until 2 o'clock p.m. The power outage shut the whole community down. Also, there was no communication between NTPC personnel and anyone from the...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Committee Report 28-20(1), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on a Review of Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, be received and adopted by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Social Development is pleased to provide its Report on Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, and commends this report to the House.

Report on Bill 27, An Act to Amend The Protection Against Family Violence Act:

The Protection Against Family Violence Act has been in place in the Northwest Territories since 2005, offering emergency and long-term legal measures to support individuals experiencing family violence. These protections go beyond what is available under the federal Criminal Code. The Act outlines what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Lillian Elias. Lillian is the interpreter for the Legislative Assembly and provides an excellent service to the Legislative Assembly and to the Inuvialuit, and she also is a good friend of mine, and I would like to just welcome her to the Assembly.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I've been receiving calls about their drainage system not being adequate enough to keep water out of their -- off their roads. So I'll have to make them aware that you said this year's allocation, you could see it's 2027-2028 some completion dates, so I don't know -- maybe they can start working on a plan or they can allocate funds for this program to fix their drainage system. It's more a comment than a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all I have.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you give me some examples of what kind of programs would be under this program here so I can look at -- reach out to the leadership of Tsiigehtchic and see if in the future that they do have programs that they would like to apply for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. With that answer, my two other questions wouldn't be relevant, so I'll find another way of adding it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be more specific, I was contacted by three organizations within my riding and asked to advocate on their behalf, and I did. How successful were the interested organizations from Tsiigehtchic and Aklavik been conducted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The infrastructure within the affected communities of the closures of the community centres could and should benefit the community and its residents. There are a lot of aging infrastructure within these communities, and these buildings could help in that area. With all the affected communities within the Northwest Territories, how many organizations have expressed interest for the use of these buildings for the benefit of their respective communities and its residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.