Shane Thompson

Please be seated. Thank you, Karen Mitchell for the opening prayer today.

Before we get into today's business, colleagues, I will now bring my ruling on the point of privilege raised last week. The Member from Yellowknife South rose on a point of privilege regarding a social media post made by the Member for Range Lake. I will not rehash the social media post in question or the debate in this chamber on the point of privilege. However, for those who participated in the debate, thank you. You have given me many things to consider.

When a point of privilege is raised, I must consider two things...

Colleagues, I'd like to recognize two pages from the Nahendeh riding, Jackson Martineau and a special one, Serena Gargan who is the granddaughter - granddaughter - of our translator Mary Jane Cazon. So I think this is a first. We've had a father and son in the Assembly. Now we have a granddaughter and a grandmother helping provide services to our MLAs. So thank you very much for your commitment to us here today. Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Oh, Member for Yellowknife North.

I would like to thank Ms. Cleary for the opening and blessing today.

Colleagues, before we get into our daily business, we have a bunch of Grade 5 and 6 students from Weledeh Catholic School. We'll behave ourselves really well, so these young people will say they want to be here in this House in 10, 15 years. So thank you very much for coming and attending.

Colleagues, on Tuesday, November 5TH to Thursday, November 7th, NWT Tourism held their annual 2024 AGM, conference, industry awards recipients and fundraising auction in Yellowknife. They had over 160 attend the AGM, conference, awards ceremony, and auction. I am proud to say one of the awards winners is from Fort Simpson.

The company is -- and I apologize, if I say this wrong. Mary Jane, you can get mad at me later -- K'iyeli Tourism Services. The owners are Gilbert and Mary Jane Cazon. Some of you recognize that name - Mary Jane Cazon's, and you would be correct. She is one of our translators...

Colleagues, today I found out I'm now a senior. Today, I'd like to recognize Mr. Roger Pilling on being selected as the 2024 elder volunteer. He moved to Fort Simpson in February 1988 from Fort Reliance where he was a weather observer for 18 months. Roger quickly became part of the community joining the curling club right away, then the slo-pitch league in the summer, then the Fort Simpson fire department in February 1989.

I had the opportunity to meet Roger in Fort Simpson at a ball tournament in the summer of 1991 and in Hay River in 1992 while my team from Coppermine was participating in the...

Please sit. I'd like to thank Ms. Gargan for the reflections today.

Please be seated. Thank you, Mr. Lafferty, for the opening prayer and reflections.

I'd like to thank Bertha Catholique for the opening prayer and reflections today.

Colleagues, before we start the day, there's a couple things I'd like to stress. Remember, we have the dignity to be able to speak in this House but make sure we do not bring other people's names into this place or businesses because they don't have the right to defend themselves. We do have some autonomy here but make sure we have the information that we say in this House that it's very clear and as truthful as we can be so that we don't impugn integrity of that.

The second thing is on Friday somebody scheduled it...

Colleagues, this past summer, the Deh Cho First Nations celebrated its (audio) the 15th. I had the honour of being invited to the Assembly. It was great to see them work together in how they included youth and elders with the leadership and decision-making. I can tell you the 30th Assembly for the Deh Cho Nation marks a significant milestone in its journey of Indigenous self-governance and cultural resurgence in Canada. Established in 1990, the First Nation -- Deh Cho First Nation represented a collective of ten communities in the Deh Cho region of the Northwest Territories, each with its...

Good afternoon, Colleagues. Please join me in thanking Elder Shirley Elias for the opening song today.

Colleagues, before we begin today, I would like to take a moment to thank the grade 1 and two students from Itlo Ecole who visited us earlier today. As a part of Indigenous languages month, these students were here to sing a special rendition of I love you, in Wiliideh dialect, dedicated to our incredible interpreters. It was wonderful to see these young people and hear their beautiful voices early this morning.

The students were gifted a book from our Inuktitut interpreter Susie Napayk-Short...