Shane Thompson

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to share with you a success story from the Nahendeh riding. 18 years ago, the business arm of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation, Fort Simpson Metis Nation, Nahanni Butte Dene Band, and Sambaa K'e First Nation came together to form Dehcho Regional Helicopters. The core of a business plan was to secure, with their operating partner Great Slave Helicopters, the contract for the helicopter services that supported the Fort Simpson fire base. It is a source of pride for the Dehcho Regional Helicopters Limited partners that every summer, since its...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is kind of a MACA and ENR question. So I'll give him kind of an answer from both as the Minister for MACA and the Minister for ENR. Some communities have access to fulltime or visiting veterinary service for their pets. But access to veterinary service remains a challenge in many small communities, as the Member talked about. In areas where rabies is common, including parts of the Beaufort Delta region, ENR has worked with the Department of Health and Social Services to help support access to rabies vaccination to communities that don't have local or visiting vets...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the vast geographical scope of rabies in the NWT, vaccination of wildlife is not currently a practice or an efficient option right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I rise in the House to talk about a Secret Santa who gave some youth late Christmas gifts this past January in the Nahendeh and Deh Cho ridings.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell you I received a phone call from a friend to see if I would be interested in receiving two pallets of toys worth approximately $20,000 for some youth in the Nahendeh riding. Of course I said I would be interested. I did ask who donated these toys and was advised that, in true Santa fashion, they wanted to remain anonymous.

As the January 16th News North article stated, "Christmas came and went...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 74, Forest Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Member for the question. Getting your dogs vaccinated for rabies is an important way to reduce the risk for you and your community. Responsibility to immunize your dog with a rabies shot or provide any other vaccination is the responsibility of a dog owner. To date, MACA has not heard from community government leadership that is an issue. If this is a concern for community governments, Municipal and Community Affairs would work with NWTAC and LGANT to understand the community's desire to make rabies immunizations mandatory. Depending what we heard, MACA...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Member for the questions. Rabies, as the Member said, is a natural occurrence occurring, and it's always present in Arctic Foxes in northern Canada, particularly above the treeline. The disease goes through cycles, and more cases seen in some years. We have more cases in the BeauDel this year and a case in the Sahtu. ENR regularly monitors rabies in wildlife across the NWT and will continue to track numbers of cases where they occur if rabies occur. Cases are confirmed near communities or in domestic animals; ENR provides information and support to the...

Yes, for that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister.

Thank you. So when we first started doing this process, we said it's not a cost saving measure. We will amalgamate it, it's A plus B, as the deputy minister said. But then we're going through the process of optimization. So it's going to take us a bit of time to do the optimization. We don't want to, in the past, just cut. We're not just cutting to cut. We're trying to make sure that we do it right moving forward. So that there is where we have our staff in place, having our conversations, where we need to see things and where we need to be able to put our programs and our staff. And that's...