Member Frame Lake

Mr. Morse was elected to the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly to represent the constituency of Frame Lake.

Mr. Morse grew up in Yellowknife and graduated from Sir John Franklin High School. He studied political science and economics in undergrad, has a diploma in environment and natural resources technology from Aurora College, and a master’s degree in conflict analysis & management from Royal Roads University.

Mr. Morse has a diverse professional background, including ten years’ experience working in the NWT’s regulatory system. He has worked as an environmental technician, policy analyst, executive director of an NGO, and constituency assistant at the Legislative Assembly. He has also worked a variety of trades and labour positions over the years, including a season working on the Snowking’s snow castle construction team. He is licensed to operate commercial watercraft, and works as a zodiac driver and polar bear guard for an expedition cruise company in the summer.

His dedication to public service extended to a two-term tenure as a city councillor in Yellowknife, where he worked from 2015 to 2022. He served on the board of directors for the Yellowknife Housing Authority from 2021 to 2023.

In his spare time Julian enjoys various outdoor activities, and has extensively explored Great Slave Lake in his sailboat. He is an avid hunter, and has participated in expeditions for moose, caribou, and muskox across the varied landscapes of the Northwest Territories.

Prior to his political career, he contributed to the Boards of Folk on the Rocks and the Somba K'e Paddling Club. In his personal life, Julian shares his home with his girlfriend Rhiana and their pets – Beatrix, the dog, and Loki, the cat.

Frame Lake Electoral District:

Committees

Julian Morse
Frame Lake
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to be very clear that, you know, I -- I'm not necessarily suggesting that that needs to be the case with this contract. It's more just ensuring that we've got robust controls around our contracting. Just knowing that, you know, we see costs overruns a lot. And it's important to note that, you know, a lot of the projects that the government does, virtually all of them, are for essential infrastructure, like this, like a school. Like, this is not something that MLAs are going to turn around and say, you know, we're just going to have to cancel this. Because...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are about the overage on the Mangilaluk School project in Tuktoyaktuk. I just -- it's quite a large overage, and just noting a lot of the concerns that were raised, you know, about the Stanton project and the auditor general report on that one, you know, spoke to our need to control the costs of contracts better, I guess and, you know, this is quite a large overage, so I'd just like to hear a description from the Minister as to how we got here and how we're continuing to improve our contracting and our budgeting and project planning to ensure that...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, and certainly I just want to, you know, be clear in that my hope is that we are, you know, going to find ways to stabilize this fund because I think it's important that youth have opportunities not just to attend games but perhaps even more importantly just engage in activity and sports in their communities as much as possible. And I know that the funding from these -- the lottery revolving fund enables that and enables a lot of fantastic crucial programming in our communities, and so I want to see that continue.

Can the Minister enlighten the committee as to whether...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

So what is the current position of the lotteries revolving fund? Because I understand that that's typically where money for Arctic Winter Games and other such sport-related activities comes from. So can the Minister discuss how we got to the point we're providing supplementary estimates to afford to send kids to the games.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to keep my comments brief today. Certainly, as a Member of this committee, I see merit in investigating this issue further. Times change. Social media has been around for quite a long time now. I'm happy to refer this to committee for further investigation. I'm supportive of the motion as such. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Premier started to touch on the answer to this question already, but he noted that the GNWT has already taken some action. Can the Premier detail for the House what has been done to date in response to this report or to the 2023 wildfires and lessons learned? Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Premier agree that rebuilding trust needs to be a key goal of the government response to the after-action review on the wildfire season in 2023? And, Mr. Speaker, what does he feel is needed to achieve that goal? Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at my recent constituency meeting, I had a good discussion with Frame Lake residents about their reaction to the after-action review of the 2023 wildfire season. One of the key concerns we discussed was the lack of trust and confidence in GNWT communications during the event, and I do want to take a second to acknowledge that the report made a point of noting that NWT Fires' regular updates were received positively.

My constituents were clear, Mr. Speaker, that it is important to them that the government rebuild trust with residents, as it's crucial that...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly, why did so many of these projects have to carryover? It just striked me as a large number of projects as opposed to -- I mean, it's a fair amount of money, but just so many of them and so many across the territory, why so many? Does the department simply not have the capacity to complete the number of projects it's budgeting for, or what's going on? Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, some of these reforms to the way that we're managing contracts, have we considered -- or maybe we already do -- consider looking at previous performance on contracts when awarding subsequent contracts. So if a vendor has gone over budget frequently or if the vendor has gone over budget previously, does that affect their point rating in terms of their being awarded contracts in the future? So what I'm looking for is can we demand accountability not just from ourselves but also from contractors as they bid on contracts.