Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Excuse me, we're going to have to start replacing our water with red bull if we keep having these long days.

Mr. Speaker, as one of my colleagues have said, my colleague from Range Lake, we spent over 20 hours on -- 22, sorry, yes. So I'm going to touch on some of the negotiated items in my response today. I won't go through them all; I'm going to leave that to the Minister as she's going to obviously articulate those when she speaks to the bill. But I want to talk a little more about the process, Mr. Speaker, and how we got here and why are we here, I guess, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first I'd like to recognize two hardworking pages from the Inuvik Boot Lake riding, Ms. Caitlyn Wright and Mr. Wilhem Jellema who have been here working all this week, and I'd like to thank them for their hard work. And I'd also like to recognize Mr. Loutitt. I had an opportunity to work with Mr. Loutitt a little in a previous life, and maybe we never always saw eye to eye but certainly always had great respect and appreciated all the hard work he had done on behalf of GNWT. And to echo my friend from Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Loutitt, go Packers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've had a lot of conversation around this issue. We've taken it back to our ridings for sure. I've had conversations with members in my riding. It ranged from agnostic, where it doesn't matter, it doesn't work anyway, to we want to see Northerners first, it should be about Indigenous people, and I've had also some people who are P2s coming in, and P2s, I've had a conversation with who have, by the way, been gainfully employed because they allegedly have letters after their name where they've got the education, they've been working in the North a long time...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're coming to the end of a very long session. But it's been interesting to say the least. We've had some interesting discussions in this House, and we've had some interesting discussions in our committees as well. But oftentimes we forget the backbone of what allows us to do this work, and that's our staff and I'd like just to stand today and to recognize the hardworking staff both on with Cabinet, I'm sure, but certainly from our AOC side, from our committee side, all our committee clerks, and the staff that work behind the scenes to ensure that we get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize; I was getting ahead of myself as we often do.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to again thank the -- certainly thank the Members of AOC. I mean, it's been an interesting couple of weeks for sure as we've deliberated on this budget and negotiated on this budget and, as the Minister said, I'll certainly speak more to it once we have the main estimates in front of committee tomorrow.

I would like, again, to thank Members of AOC for their direction, for certainly working collaboratively to work towards our common goal and thank Cabinet for their support as well. The housing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Department of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that. Yes, and, you know, earlier the better when it comes to getting those dates out for sure. But I appreciate that they're are factors in that.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke in previous Member statements about the need to maybe look at logistically looking at Inuvik and/or Tuk or both kind of ramping them up a little more given that the difficulty we're having getting through the ramparts and sailing now and to maybe do some of that barging from Inuvik or Tuk all the way up to Fort Good Hope and certainly the coastal communities. Is that something that the marine...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, spring is around the corner. The sun is shining, and we all know that means things will soon start to melt. Mr. Speaker, that also means that communities around the North are busy getting ready for their yearly orders, for their barging orders again. Mr. Speaker, we're looking at construction materials, equipment, household items, vehicles, and, of course importantly, most importantly, the annual retail restocking in the coastal communities.

Mr. Speaker, given the disaster we looked at last year in Norman Wells and with the low water, I would hope that right...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now that we've all caught up, Mr. Chair, I move that consideration of Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, be now concluded, and that Tabled Document 275-20(1) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an Appropriation Bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.