Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak about an amazing opportunity for youth in the Deh Cho thanks to NWT Judo Association and the DDEC. As I witnessed in a couple of the schools in the Nahendeh, there is a great deal of excitement growing around this program for the youth. I can say the youth get so excited when they see the instructor in the school.

With the incredible support of the DDEC, the NWT Judo Association has created a judo program for the entire region with fulltime coaches currently in Fort Simpson and Fort Liard with a third on the way for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Oh man, I don't know, another yes. Don't say no, okay. I will make the commitment that I'll work with all my colleagues because it's just not health and social services, it's ECE and housing. So we need to have that approach. My colleagues have heard the question here and the staff that are hearing this, we'll be reaching out to my colleagues, the staff there, and we'll start working on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I'm in housing now? Okay. Youth housing. Can the Member reask the question because I thought it was going to housing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated just on the last question, this policy defines how the GNWT works internally for the project assessments. Again, it's an internal document. The policy is, again, about the GNWT's - on how the GNWT organizes work together among departments for environmental assessments prior to making any submissions to comanagement boards. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I could quickly say yes but expand it a little bit further. The Member is correct; the Department of Lands had completed an initial review of the Project Assessment Policy when we merged lands and ENR. Further work on the policy has continued through the Department of ECC. And as I've said the Project Assessment Policy will be revised before the end of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize the athletes, coaches, managers, and mission staff who will represent Team NT at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games that will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from July 15th to the 23rd. The North American Indigenous Games’ mission is to improve the quality of life for Indigenous people by supporting a well selfdetermined approach to sports and cultural activities. The goal is to encourage equal access to participation in the social, cultural, and spiritual fibre of the community in which they reside. This event also...

That I cannot make a guarantee on. We're going to have work on it. I mean, she got a couple yeses out of me, this one here is going to be the reality is we're going to work on it. If we are able to table something, we will. But right now, it's some work that has to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Gee whiz, I'm going to have to say yes to this. It's a very good suggestion by the Member; I greatly appreciate that. But it's just not going to be the Minister responsible for Youth. I'm going to have to work with my colleagues from housing, my colleague from health, and my colleague from ECE. And I have ECC on my plate. So, yeah, we are more than willing to work on this. This is something that's going to be an allofgovernment approach. So I thank the Member for making this great suggestion, and we will work on doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. The government is committed to evidencebased decisions. There is nothing in the Project Assessment Policy that prevents the presentation of evidence or expert opinions in the comanagement process. Currently the GNWT, led by the Department of ECC, is working to define how the GNWT can be more transparent in environmental assessments, including decisionmaking of the GNWT projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, the 2026 Arctic Winter Games, because of the situation in Ukraine, Yamale wasn't going to be hosting the games. So the international committee came to the Northwest Territories to see if we could move up our request. We're supposed to be doing the 2028 games.

So, Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that the NWT has considered hosting these games in Yellowknife, and I can confirm that the GNWT has communicated to the Arctic Winter Games International Committee that it's not proceeding with hosting the Arctic Winter Games in 2026. We're not...