Shane Thompson

Come again, sorry, Madam Chair?

You want me to do it again? Deputy Minister Laura Gareau.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The only person that can speak for the Government of the Northwest Territories is the Premier. What I can say, though, from ENR's perspective, yes, we want to work with our Indigenous governments. We need their input to move forward. It's very much about engaging and consultation with our Indigenous governments. So if he wants an government overall approach, he needs to ask that question to the Premier. But from ENR's perspective, we think participants need to work together we need to get money to work for it to address our issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I explained in this House the GNWT can't try to influence decisions. Regional studies unfortunately fall under the federal government's authority under the MVRMA, I believe that's what it is too many acronyms some days. The GNWT has not developed a position on the regional study. Cabinet will seek input from regular Members on potential positions once input has been received from Indigenous governments. So we're more than willing to work together collaboratively with our Indigenous partners to come up with a position. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. First and foremost, you know, we focus on what the government does, but there's also own community- sourced funding that they be able to allocate, or generate. We also have gas tax. We also reach out every time the federal government comes to us with additional programs out there, we try to tap into that. Unfortunately, you don't see it into the capital plan but there's been lots and lots of money from the federal government that's come into the communities, but because it's only a onetime opportunity, it doesn't show up and it doesn't also show up in a deficit. So for further...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Raymond Deneyoua was born on November 17th, 1955 and passed away on August 21st, 2021 after a long battle with his illness. Raymond was 65 years old.

Raymond was one of eleven children to Denise and Baptiste Deneyoua. Even though Raymond never married, he was a forever loving brother, uncle, and cousin. He was about adventure, travel and work, but he still had unconditional love for all his family and friends.

Raymond was a caring, passionate, loving, good spirited, patient, great worker, and an outstanding person.

Raymond had a great respect for the land...

It went all to the communities. Thank you. Based on our formula.

First of all, I disagree with the Member that the communities know what they want. Communities understand what their needs are. They make some choices. So we need to be very respectful of that. I have a problem when somebody says, well, we need to tell them what to do. No, we need to work with them, we need to educate them, we need to also make them understand what the challenges are out there. So we work with the municipalities. I know the Member represents Yellowknife North. I represent small communities and they tell me what they need, whether it's a pool, whether it's an arena, whether it...

Thank you. We may not agree with what the numbers are, but we are working with NWTHC. We've reached out. We're having conversations. And that's the extent of what I can tell you right now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Members have asked us to work with NWTHC to look at what that gap is and we're working with them on that presently. Thank you, Madam Chair.