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 33)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And so, you know, I appreciate that answer from the Minister. I'm very glad that they are considering the O and M for these. You know, that does bring me some comfort.

So I want to speak a little bit -- I mean, we heard from the ECE Minister just today detail the magnitude of costs for infrastructure for the college, for example. And of course, there's only so much federal money we can seek. The same can be said for housing, which MLAs have been clear is a priority. And so one of the problems we have is we can only seek so much federal funding. We can only...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, my questions are around kind of the -- all three of the big kind of planning projects that we've got here. To be clear, the Taltson, Mackenzie Valley Highway, Slave Geologic Province.

So it appears that the fiscal responsibility policy does not require any kind of assessment of O and M implications for proposed capital projects and whether the government could even afford those costs going forward. So I guess I'm just kind of curious how this much -- how planning for building of this kind of -- this much infrastructure all at once fits within, you know, the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Respectfully, I believe the Minister was looking to refer to her deputy.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have some questions -- or a question about the Aurora College student housing unit in Fort Smith. There's renovation of a couple units there. So my question is not so much about that project but, you know, the capital plan indicates repairs for those but there's no funds for other Aurora College capital needs proposed this year. So what are the timelines, priority levels and expected funding for other critical areas or need across the Aurora College campuses? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you for those answers, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how will the NWT Medical Association, the nurses’ union, other organizations like that be engaged and have input into the decisions being made by the health care sustainability unit?

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just spoke about the health sustainability unit, and I think probably my questions are best directed towards the Premier on this one.

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, can the Premier just reassure the public and reassure people watching that, you know, the sustainability unit is going to be looking at more than just service system cuts. If the Premier would like to share some more information about that on the record, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So yeah, I'm kind of curious in particular on -- to get a bit deeper into kind of O and M costs. So any of the projects will do, really. I mean, any of them have implications for that. So how do we propose affording to operate additional infrastructure like this? I mean, looking at our fiscal outlook, looking at the infrastructure we've got, it seems like we're having a very difficult time kind of affording what we've already got. So who are we envisioning is going to pay for the operations? Are we anticipating developing cost sharing agreements with other governments...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's it for questions for me on this item for now.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, I appreciate that answer. I would appreciate some more detail on how discussions are going with the federal government. And, you know, if the Minister can kind of speak to expected capital items coming forward in the next couple of years that this Assembly will likely be looking at for Aurora College capital needs, I'd appreciate that discussion. Thank you. So I'll frame that as a question, thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you. Yeah, I guess to get into some more specific questions, I would encourage the Minister -- I mean, I prefer making information public as much as possible. It helps the public do their own scrutiny. Even if they don't read it, the information's out there. And I think that substantiations are important for helping them understand why Members may make the decisions the way they make, why Members may not oppose projects, but it's a little bit hard to say when all you have is the name of the project and nothing more to go on. So I would always encourage transparency where possible and...