R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to announce the establishment of the Bobbi Hamilton Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Achievement. The Department of Justice is establishing this award to recognize individuals who demonstrate the principles that Bobbi embraced in her daily life.

Bobbi Hamilton was a dedicated and respected community justice coordinator in Hay River for 15 years during which time she worked with hundreds of youths and adults in the community justice program. Sadly, Bobbi passed in November last year. She leaves a legacy of championing restorative justice, helping others, and...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 22, Legislation Act, be read for the second time.

The proposed Legislation Act sets out comprehensive rules about the processes for enacting, certifying, and publishing laws in the Northwest Territories and for ensuring laws remain up to date. This will consolidate existing provisions about these processes that are found separately in several statutes and will update and modernize current practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 22, Legislation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Member might be talking about the Arctic security working group, which is an officials’ level working group. They meet twice a year. I believe it's once in Yellowknife, once in the Yukon, and so this time it's in the Yukon. And we are not organizing that, the Joint Task Force North. I believe the Yukon might be co-hosting it so they might have a role in it. But we're not in a position to invite anyone to attend this event. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're using all the tools at our disposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this was announced about a year ago, I've had numerous meetings with Minister Blair, the Minister of National Defence and with other federal Ministers, and we have -- along with the other northern Premiers, we have been lobbying the federal government to enlarge and advance more quickly their investments in the northern operational support hubs. I believe it was $218 million is the number that was in the original plan, and that was mostly to be spent in the final years of that plan. And so we've been advocating to get that money spent sooner than later. In the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be able to attend that conference, and so we're still looking at options to ensure that there is some sort of presence there from the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no committee at this point. I'm not sure what the working group proposal looks like. So I can't really make any commitments around that. That being said, obviously there's a lot of value in ensuring that everyone's on the same page and everyone's communicating. And so we're in the early days of this interest in the North and talking about investments and Arctic security. And my officials are working with officials from Joint Task Force North and the Department of National Defence, and we share information as required. And I know that officials from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd have to see those terms of reference and figure out what exactly the Member is talking about in terms of a joint working group, what that would look like, who would be involved, what the subject matter would be, and so on. And so after I see that, I'll be able to speak to the Member about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not tearing up contracts. We're ensuring that as we move forward and contracts end and where we can get out of contracts at no cost to the people of the territory and at no -- and in a way that doesn't impact the safety of residents or staff, that we're doing that. So all of that said, the direction that has been given to departments has not changed. I don't want to flip flop back and forth depending on what the news of the day is, and so the direction remains the same. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.