R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish I could say that we would never go to court again, but I think every jurisdiction in Canada is engaged in ongoing court cases with their respective French first language education bodies. I made attempts with the regulations. I admitted the students that were at the centre of the last court case. And I will say that we actually did win that on appeal. But it's a difficult subject. I understand where the school board is coming from. They want to protect their rights. They want to advocate for their students. And there's French first language school boards across...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those portables, they are old. I believe they were supposed to be in place for two or three years but here we are 13 years later. And we have had issues with them. There's ongoing maintenance issues that we've been dealing with. So we would all love to see those replaced. Unfortunately, like I said, we have 49 schools. Many of them are in worse condition than the facilities in Hay River. And so it's difficult to make a case to, you know, renovate or build new facilities to replace facilities that are in better shape than other facilities around the territory.

So I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to double check with the department but we definitely, there was no consultation on the amendments that are really the cause of the controversy here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when Bill C21 was introduced, there wasn't a lot of controversy around it. I mean, it is a bill that's banning certain firearms, but the real controversy was the amendment that the government put forward in November that would prohibit a number of firearms that are used by hunters in the Northwest Territories. As I've stated in this House, we are not in support of those amendments. I had a conversation with the Minister of public safety on Tuesday, and I explained to him the history of the Northwest Territories. You know, the fact that in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we're at the tail end of this Assembly. We have maybe six months left where we can actually get things done. Right now, the Department of Justice is working on the policies and legislation that we've been working on for a number of years and trying to wrap that up. So as of today, there isn't the capacity to go about and do that; however, times have changed. We're seeing new drugs. We're seeing new types of criminals in the territory. We're seeing a lot of interest from criminal organizations outside of the territory in the Northwest Territories. So we have to change...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now the tools that are being used are the tools that are the RCMP's disposal their ability to do investigations, to get search warrants, and the like. So what we don't have access to are a lot of the tools that other jurisdictions do, that are not criminal law but civil law tools, like the SCAN legislation that the Member is talking about. So unfortunately right now we have a limited set of tools in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the primary issue that we ran into was with the amendments to the bill. The initial Bill C21, it spoke to handguns, making efforts to reduce family violence with red and yellow flag laws, and things like that. The amendments are what introduced a number of rifles that were not prohibited previously. So we don't even know in the territory how many of these rifles are out there. We've made some estimates but there could be thousands of rifles in the territory that were affected by that bill. One model is the SKS. That seems to be the most popular one. And so just that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So last week I spoke to the federal Minister, Minister Mendicino. He is the Minister of public safety, and he is the lead on this bill. And I did my best to explain the context of the Northwest Territories, the history of the Northwest Territories. And he was fresh off a trip to the Yukon where he heard the same things, and he had been hearing the same things from Nunavut. So I know that he got the message. And I wrote a letter back to him thanking him for pulling that amendment and inviting him to come to the territory and engage with the people of the territory. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Question 117819(2): Grade Level Outcomes and Data for Northwest Territories Students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do what I can, but sometimes we learn about federal engagement after it happens. So it's hard for me to commit to doing that. But this is an issue that is close to the heart of many people in the Northwest Territories. So despite the fact that it is a federal bill, we are on top of it and we are paying attention, and I will continue to share information with the Members and I will continue to advocate for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.