R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're lucky to have a number of distinguished guests with us today in the gallery, and so I would like to recognize them. I'd like to recognize President Marc Whitford from the North Slave Metis Alliance, of course; Major Tony Brushett from the Salvation Army, a strong partner with the Government of the Northwest Territories; as well as from the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, executive director Matthew Miller who was the president in the last term, and I worked with him closely, and current president, Ms. Rita Mueller, my former deputy minister and a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we are expecting the report back from the camp operator in the coming weeks, so we'll have a look at that and see what it says.

I will note that a number of the participants at the camp appreciated that it was a sober camp, and that helped them in their journey. So I think that's something that we need to consider, is that there are spaces if you -- you know, you aren't sober, but there really wasn't a lot available if you were, and so this offered people that opportunity. There is going to be a working -- there's going to be meetings coming up in March with the city...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe it was in the last fiscal year there were two positions added to the detachment in Behchoko. Last year -- this fiscal year I think there was one in Whati, and next year there's another one. And so there's a number of positions going into the Tlicho region. What we -- the way we work with the RCMP is that they identify the pressures in different communities, and we work with them to resource them as necessary. And so there are pressures around the territory, but we have recognized those in the Tlicho region and responded.

The RCMP have also implemented their new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member is correct, I have announced that we are looking to introduce three pieces of legislation to help with public safety. So the first is the SCAN legislation, and that stands for safer communities and neighbourhoods. And that's the type of legislation that allows for buildings to be temporarily shut down and if there's residents there, those residents would have to find somewhere else to go if those buildings are causing harm to a community and that can be proven on a balance of probabilities in court. So it bypasses the Residential Tenancies Act and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I also think the NGOs in Yellowknife are well placed to reach out to the Indigenous governments. We can provide phone numbers, contact information, and they can make those connections themselves. What is needed is alignment between the NGOs and between the Indigenous governments so that they can actually work together. And so once we have all of these discussions, there might be opportunities to put together an Indigenous government with an NGO as in try to get them together. But it's really not up to the GNWT to do that type of work. I think the NGOs are more than...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The camp did not reach its maximum capacity continuously. I don't believe it reached its maximum capacity ever, actually. But it did not prevent people who needed a home from having a home because there was still -- I know the Member asked about a home but there was shelter space available in Yellowknife, and so there was always shelter space available even for those who could not go to the on-the-land camp. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And probably a question more suited for the industry Minister because I know that work has been going on in this area, especially up in the Beaufort Delta region, and there's a lot of hope about what that could bring. The resource that we have right now is that a lot of the world's attention is on is critical minerals. And so I'm having lots of conversations at the first Ministers' meetings that I just mentioned as well as virtually everywhere I go, because we recognize we need secure supply chains in Canada. If there are tariffs from the United States, that disrupts...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm sure everyone has heard that the Prime Minister spoke with President Trump yesterday -- or sorry, I believe it was Monday. They had a discussion, and President Trump said that he was going to delay the implementation of the tariffs by 30 days. And so that's where we are right now.

Across Canada, governments -- provincial and territorial governments were going to enact measures, just as ours was; for example, removing American products from the liquor stores, stopping procurement of American goods, and any other tariff measures that we can define to help support...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Cabinet does have a position on this one because this is a recommendation for government and so when there's a recommendation for government, we do abstain. We want to ensure that we can actually look into these issues before we put a vote to it. So we'll be abstaining. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the honourable Member for Kam Lake, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Arctic 360 conference in Toronto, Ontario. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.