Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realize there are lots of people there and it’s good to see them all. I just want to recognize a few people: Mr. Byrne Richards and Lydia Bardak who is very involved in the community issues and especially on homelessness and addiction issues in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take, also, a few minutes to say a few thanks. I'd like to thank the constituents of Range Lake for sending me back to the Legislature for the third time with another strong mandate. I want them to know that I will continue to work hard to be their voice and to represent their issues and concerns in this House. It's such a great honour and privilege to serve them as a Member. This is a time in my life I'm certain that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Mr. Speaker, I'd also like to express my appreciation to the Members of this House...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I have the permission of this House when I say we collectively pray and sincerely ask that they will stay in the North, live and work, raise their families and retire here. Mr. Speaker, I also know that Jay’s family and especially his wife, Pam, was at his side before, during and after law school. They share every bit of Jay’s accomplishment today.

Mr. Speaker, as someone who has had the firsthand experience of going through our wonderful NWT education system in the North, going through law school, which is often compared with the military boot camp, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to mark my final Member’s statement in the 15th Assembly by honouring the accomplishments of an outstanding young man from a family in my constituency, Mr. Jay Bran. Mr. Speaker, Jay was called to the Bar of the Northwest Territories on August 10, 2007, becoming one of the few but ever growing group of northern grown and aboriginal lawyers from the NWT.

Jay and his family moved to Yellowknife when he was three years old. He attended St. Joseph Elementary School, William MacDonald Junior High School and Sir John Franklin High School. He...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the people associated with the United Nations Association of Canada: project officers, Saad Omar Khan and Mara Brotman, both from Toronto.

---Applause

I think, actually, Saad might be from Ottawa. Sorry. Jeff MacKie, who is a national board of director for the NWT of the United Nations Association of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May I seek unanimous consent to finish my paragraph? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We, as a committee, have filed a very extensive report on this bill in the House a couple of days back. It is as a result of a quite extensive public hearing process. We appreciate the Minister bringing forward a number of amendments that he feels would address some of the issues that were raised in the report. However, Madam Chair, I need to state, as committee chair and as a member, that there were a number of issues that were raised in the report that would not be, in our opinion, able to be addressed by way of amendments. So, for that reason, and specific to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to just take a few minutes to give my thanks to many people who make it possible for me to be here today. First of all, I would like to thank my constituents for giving me their trust to serve them as their MLA for the last eight years. It is an honour like no other. I don’t think there is any other…I don’t even think you can call this a job. It is something that is possibly a democratic system that we have where on election day, the people across the NWT go out and put an X next to the names of people that are here. It is a complete...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of WCB and it’s in following up to the commitment he made last week in answer to my question that he would provide us with stats on the long outstanding cases from WCB, how much progress the WCB has made since the introduction of the policy in April. With a day remaining, I have not heard anything from the Minister and I’d like to check up on him, with him, before the time runs out. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to say this model UN will simulate the activities of various UN bodies and be a significant opportunity to help northern youth realize their own sense of global citizenship.

I commend the work of UNA-Canada and Centre for Northern Families and I ask this House to do the same and recognize them in the in the audience later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause