Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to stand and support this motion. It's a shame that we continue to have to raise this issue time and time and time and time again. So I'm very much looking forward to this motion being the final motion that we need to raise to fund our communities according to our own formula financing. So if you care about communities, you support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Got to change these riding names, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to talk about the film industry rebate program. This is a really good program, and I support it fully, and I think the film strategy has come a very long way and it always has a lot of success. But it's succeeding in a very -- like, it's scratching the surface of our potential. And I think the key is this rebate program and at this point, I think it's the -- the funding is useful for those kind of small northern driven films which deserve to be supported, but we're never going to see production companies choose to base their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a bunch of regulatory improvements that would greatly help the industry. I know the Minister has spoken about this before in her Minister's statement. But apart from the mining Mineral Resources Act, how is she working with her colleague, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, to streamline environmental regulations so we can get these projects moving quicker towards the larger regulatory stage? Get exploration projects moving quicker. Thank you.

Thank you. Is the Minister aware of how many other jurisdictions, provincial and territorial jurisdictions, rent their courthouses? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2014, the Government of the Northwest Territories released its mineral development strategy. It's a document -- this document was a result of broad engagement with industry, Indigenous governments, and other stakeholders and moved the industry forward by creating incentives to keep explorers exploring, evolving its legislation, mapping more geology, including more ways for Indigenous participation in the industry, and creating a strong local workforce. We haven't had an update to this in some time. Can the Minister speak to what the department is doing...

Thank you. So I would suggest that this -- it is a significant amount of money, and I know that the department has undertaken studies in the past on this lease and whether or not it is good value for money. And it is not, and yet we continue to operate -- or to -- we continue to hold on to this lease and to spend millions of dollars on improvements, on tenant improvements, when we could just be building a specialized facility that meets the requirements of a courthouse, which includes the secure environment for prisoner transports, for court security purposes. These are not new issues. I've...

Mr. Speaker, frustration continues to grow among my constituents who are stuck in the process of finalizing their recreational land leases years after the department indicated their applications were moving ahead. I've been working with several constituents over the last six months -- the Minister knows who they are -- to figure out how to move forward and along the way to progress. And what I have seen so far has been incredibly disappointing.

When I last spoke on the floor, the Minister responsible, he assured me that this process was consistent and transparent, and he would work to improve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to stand and support this motion, and I thank the Member for bringing it forward. This is -- as he stated very clearly, this is not one community's issue. It is not a small community issue; it's not a Yellowknife issue; this is an issue for everyone. Everyone in the Northwest Territories, regardless of where they are in -- which is shocking when you consider how far-flung and remote some of our communities are. When it comes to this K-9 unit, this is a very specialized unit of police that serves an essential role in helping combat drug trafficking...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can respect that because I could have a lot to say about decisions of his predecessors, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister have an answer for my constituents any time -- will my constituents have an answer, yes or no, any time soon? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I've raised the issue of recreational land leasing in this House before. It seems like we don't have a clear path forward. What has the Minister been able to accomplish on his end since I've raised this leasing issue in the North Slave? Thank you.