Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With your permission, I'll turn discussion to Ms. Wickens, please.

I do.

Colleague, you know every once and a while, you find a person that loves a job and stays there for their whole career. I had a constituent from Fort Liard that did that. Mrs. Corinne Sassie had spent more than 35 years of dedicated service to the youth of Fort Liard at the Acho Dene School. I can imagine that she is looking forward to her welldeserved retirement. As the principal said, she leaves behind a legacy of unwavering commitment to education, her culture and tradition.

When you look at someone's employment story, you get a good picture of who that person is. Corinne began as a student...

Please be seated. Colleagues, I'd like to thank Evelyn Parry for the opening guiding words.

Colleagues, before we get going, I'd just like to reiterate that during question and answer period, if we could be succinct with our questions and succinct with our answers that would be greatly appreciated moving forward. Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues. Today is going to be a very difficult time for myself as I say goodbye to a friend, who has been a big part of my family's life. Whether it was a boss to my son, bus driver for my kids, sponsor of numerous events and trips for the youth of the community, key driver of sport programs, businessman, you name it. Pat was that person.

Pat was born September 20, 1959, in Fairview, Alberta to John and Anne Rowe. Early on in his life, the family moved north to Hay River and this is when I first met the family. Finally in 1971, the family moved to Fort Simpson. Pat joined the...

Colleagues, I want to thank Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, for delivering our opening guiding words today.

This is the first time in history of our Assembly that we have an opening Hindu prayer. Mr. Zed has encouraged interfaith dialogue worldwide. He's read invocation in US Senate, the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC, and has been bestowed with the World Interfaith Leader Award. He was invited by the President of European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, for a oneonone meeting to promote interfaith dialogue. He has been a panelist for on faith at...

Colleagues, I would like to recognize a constituent of mine. We don't get too many from the Dehcho, but I'd like to recognize Julia Erasmus here and welcome her to the House. Thank you very much for being here.

Colleagues, I'd like to thank Jonas Lafferty for the guiding words this afternoon. I hope everybody had a good weekend and get ready to rock and roll.

Colleagues, during the youth parliament, the Member from the Dehcho, Willem Kanigan, did a Member's statement on the issue of lack of maintenance and pavement of the allseason highway that connected Fort Simpson to Fort Liard. I would like to share it here today.

A concern that many of the residents of the Dehcho region have raised to me is the condition of the route that connects Fort Simpson to other communities during all times of year.

The road that links Fort Simpson to Fort Liard is extremely difficult to navigate during many of the winter months due to snow buildup and icy conditions...

Colleagues, I'd like to thank Mary Jane Cazon for the guiding words here today. She's also a constituent of mine from the Nahendeh region. So I'd like to thank her very much.

Colleagues, before we get started I'd like to recognize a special guest in the House today, the former Member from the Sahtu who was the Minister -- I'll get this right -- Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and Minister responsible for housing, Minister responsible responsible for Public Utilities Board, and the Minister responsible for Worker's Safety and Compensation Commission. There we go. Welcome, Pauline...