R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The only practical benefit I can see is being in alignment with Alberta as a jurisdiction where we have lots of medical travel and we do lots of trade with. Other than that, I don't see any benefit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. In 2022, the Government of the Northwest Territories put out a survey about ending time change. I think it's probably the most popular survey we've ever put out. There was about 3,000 responses in two days. 87 percent of the people who responded are in favour of ending seasonal time change. The reason that we haven't done it yet is because we are so closely tied to Alberta that we want to ensure that we can maintain the same time as them because we have lots of medical appointments, we do lots of business with Alberta, there's flights...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to thank the interpreters for being here with us into the wee hours of the night every single day and getting our message out to the people of the Northwest Territories. And I also wanted to remind everyone in the gallery to slow down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member snuck one by there, switching topics for the second question. But we're back on track now. The mandate letters are public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. So the question is how are we going to stimulate population growth? Well, Mr. Speaker, there's a number of reasons that, you know, someone -- many people want to move to the Northwest Territories. It's a great place to live. And if you like outdoors, if you like this kind of lifestyle, then this is a great place to be. You know, I am from Hay River, so I might not be able to go home after saying this, but Yellowknife is actually a great city. There's a lot to do here. And that being said, there are challenges. We need to make more land available for housing so that we can build more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there are capacity challenges in that, especially in the French language drafters. Drafting legislation is a very specialized skill. Not any lawyer can do it. You really have to have that background and that type of education. And as a territory, we do have a number of official languages, and because we are a creation of the federal government, we are legally required to present all legislation in both English and French. And across Canada, there are very few French language drafters, and it can often be difficult to procure those services. When we can, we go out and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think people in this House are aware that the Department of National Defence had a pre-procurement announcement to allow businesses to get ready, that there could be up to $10 billion invested in forward operating locations in the Northwest Territories. I don't have further details on that right now, but we are trying to reach out and work with the Department of National Defence to get an understanding of what those might be. But the possibilities are endless. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I doubt there is a database of all the issues MLAs have brought up. We would need a department to do that kind of work. It's quite extensive. Just today we've had hours and hours of debate where we've heard probably thousands of different ideas. So no, I don't think there is a comprehensive database. That said, the way the consensus government is supposed to work is that Members raise issues in the House, Members raise issues in standing committees, governments hear those issues, governments bring forward proposals, they get feedback on that, and that all of this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The drafting of legislation is really done within the Department of Justice, but I can speak to the general process.

There are a number of issues that might hold up drafting, and as Minister of Justice, I did become familiar with those. I would often have other Ministers come to me and say, why is the department so slow. Well, it turns out there's more than just the drafting. There's also the drafting instructions, and sometimes when you're drafting legislation, a policy question comes up and you need to go back to the department and figure out that policy question.

And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I think that there are certain things where we do need an all-of-government approach. It's important that all of the departments, when making decisions, are aware that this is an important issue to the Legislative Assembly, to the people of the territory. So I definitely see the value of it, which is why we have the framework. And the Member's questions really have sparked my interest in this so I will be looking at this going forward and looking at what we can do to ensure there is more consistency. We do do a lot across government. That being said, I find things...