R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act, will be read for the second time.

This bill will amend the act so that a name registration, which is under judicial review, is not stayed during the review period to avoid unreasonable and unpredictable delays in registering business names. In addition, the amendments seek to make the language more gender inclusive. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're honoured to be joined by some folks from Hay River here today, both on the floor of the House and in the gallery. I want to recognize Sonya Campbell, who is joining us in the gallery as a chaperon. For our page from Hay River North this sitting, Molly Campbell. We're happy to have them and look forward to working with them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act; and, a Statement of Consistency for Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Partnership and Business Names Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have an appetite to direct GNWT resources to this. This is the kind of initiative that would take significant consultation, in-person consultation in every community in the Northwest Territories, and so I'm the one who doesn't want to do this. I'll just put that out there. What I mean by having informal conversations with some of the leaders at the Council of Leaders table is I'll have informal conversations with them, and I'll see. If there's real opposition, then there's no point in putting it through the formal process of going to the secretariat and getting...

Thank you. Later this month there is a short phone or video meeting with the Council of Leaders just to prepare for the meeting in June. It's mid-June, I believe. I will report back to the Member directly on the results of any conversations. I don't want to necessarily commit to putting people's names to those conversations unless those people want to have their names shared with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a Member of the Council of Leaders, I would say that the resources of the GNWT are better spent elsewhere at this time given all of the challenges that we have. That being said, I'll start having some informal conversations with some of the other leaders at the table and go from there. Thank you.

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. As Minister of Justice, I provide the RCMP with their policing priorities. Priority number 1 is to address the impacts of drugs and alcohol on our communities, so illegal drugs and bootlegging on our communities. That's my first priority that I've given to the RCMP. So that's step one.

In this fiscal year, we funded a new crime reduction unit to be made up of RCMP officers who are going to focus on organized crime and drugs. They'll have the time and the specialized training to undertake investigations and hopefully -- well, not hopefully. They're going to make a dent in...