R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And in a way, these are champagne problems as they say. We have been working on increasing immigration and so we've seen those numbers go up. As well earlier in this government, we introduced some more liberal regulations, expanding access to French first language education to nonrights holders so this is sort of a situation of our own making. And in terms of the conversations about facilities for CSFTNO, I wouldn't say they've started, I would say they've never ended. They've been ongoing for many, many years.

The way that our process works is that each year school...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when I spoke to the Minister, I said that there needs to be consultation; people need to come to the territory and they need to talk to people on the ground, not just to us and Indigenous governments, but to the hunters, the residents, who are going to impacted by this. So I have made that strong recommendation to the Minister.

First, the Department of Justice of the Northwest Territories is not going to go out and do consultation on a federal bill. That's the fed's job. But I think that they got the message. They're aware of the push back; that's why they removed the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Question 117819(2): Grade Level Outcomes and Data for Northwest Territories Students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do what I can, but sometimes we learn about federal engagement after it happens. So it's hard for me to commit to doing that. But this is an issue that is close to the heart of many people in the Northwest Territories. So despite the fact that it is a federal bill, we are on top of it and we are paying attention, and I will continue to share information with the Members and I will continue to advocate for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do my best to stay up to date with our own legislative agenda so I can't give too many specifics about it. But Bill C21 was introduced, and it is now with the committee. So committee is undergoing a review. I believe it was in November, there was a government amendment to the bill which added a significant number of firearms to the list of prohibited firearms, and that has since been withdrawn. So that's where we are with the bill. The committee stage is continuing. And I expect that there will likely be movement in the next few weeks on this bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the primary issue that we ran into was with the amendments to the bill. The initial Bill C21, it spoke to handguns, making efforts to reduce family violence with red and yellow flag laws, and things like that. The amendments are what introduced a number of rifles that were not prohibited previously. So we don't even know in the territory how many of these rifles are out there. We've made some estimates but there could be thousands of rifles in the territory that were affected by that bill. One model is the SKS. That seems to be the most popular one. And so just that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So last week I spoke to the federal Minister, Minister Mendicino. He is the Minister of public safety, and he is the lead on this bill. And I did my best to explain the context of the Northwest Territories, the history of the Northwest Territories. And he was fresh off a trip to the Yukon where he heard the same things, and he had been hearing the same things from Nunavut. So I know that he got the message. And I wrote a letter back to him thanking him for pulling that amendment and inviting him to come to the territory and engage with the people of the territory. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, the Member is correct that the school boards have paid for some of those services, and that is with the funding that comes from the department of Education, Culture and Employment under the heading of inclusive schooling, and those funds are restricted for the types of things that the Member is talking about. So we are providing the funds, and we're letting the school boards determine how they use those funds.

And so there are those types of partnerships, but they're not at the territorial level. They are at the school board level. That being said, I think...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think there's a straightforward simple answer to that. There's a number of different things you have to factor in. Probably four minutes worth of things that you need to factor in here. So you need to look at you need to look at the capacity within the department of Education, Culture and Employment. If we are talking about ECE managing clinical staff, you know, we don't have that capacity at this point. The Member pointed out the fact that the department of health has a mandate to serve all residents, whereas ECE focuses on the schools. So there is an argument...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was actually a pilot ready to go in the 20212022 school year, but like many things, COVID derailed that, and there was just it was not a possibility to do this work. The department's efforts were elsewhere unfortunately. Since that time, the approach to integrated services has changed across government, and so we are looking at new ways to integrate our services in that new approach. Thank you.