Richard Edjericon

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since June of this year Live Power, a Canadian exploration company with its head office in Vancouver, has been drilling for hard rock lithium on the mineral leases near Yellowknife and N'dilo and Dettah. Live Power has one of the most exciting exploration portfolios of hard rock lithium projects globally, with Yellowknife lithium project being the flagship project. Live Power commenced a 45,000-meter drill program, and the drill result for 40 drill holes. It illustrates extensive width and excellent grades of lithium in the Tu NedheWiilideh riding. The NWT...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In regards to this motion, you know, the last few days I have been speaking about treaty rights and Crown consultation and accommodations. And I just want to let people know that, you know, when we First Nation communities in my particular riding, we don't have settled claims. We rely on core funding that comes in from Ottawa directly to our First Nation based on population. And we also rely on the resources we get from the mining industry to offset some of these costs. And I keep saying that we signed an oath, and we swore an oath too as well, to respect the treaties...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, again, you know, I always ask myself how did we find ourselves in this situation? How did we get here? You know, communication is a big part of, you know, trying to get this information out to the public. And what went down here it was it was really scary for a lot of people, especially in my riding Tu Nedhe where I was in Fort Resolution. On one hand, we had fires happening in the south of us in Fort Smith and then you got the one in Hay River. Depending on which way the wind is blowing, Fort Resolution, we're caught in there. The roads get shut off, but we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister. Does the government have plans to support the critical mineral industry with green power to help ensure NWT resources will be competitive in the global market where low carbon products will prevail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Jackson Lafferty, grand chief of the Tlicho region. I just want to recognize him. Mahsi.

Also, Mr. Speaker, I also have with us today is Dr. April Hayward, the chief sustainable officer for Live Power. And Dr. Hayward has 25 years’ experience in the fuel environmental science. As well, and also, we have Mr. Daniel Gordon, the manager of investor relations for the company. Thank you and welcome. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As well, I agree with my colleagues as well that, you know, we if we can't have an emergency meeting on this, then to iron out the last details of this, I'm aware of what was being discussed on this bill. So as well, I will not be supporting this motion. Thank you.

Again, speaking to the motion, Madam Chair, I just was talking about communication. You know, when we talk about value at risk, etcetera, I know in our community in Fort Resolution, I was there when we had an intergovernmental agency meeting, and we talked about this. But any other time, you know, communication, again, has to come down to the leadership and shared with them. And I'm a little concerned that, you know, if we have one meeting, we only have one RWED officer there. But it didn't go far enough. There was too many questions. And, again, communication needs to be looked at for sure...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, I have a concern about what happened here, the fire here in the Northwest Territories. During the three and a half weeks in my riding, I listened to a lot of my elders, and the people in the community were talking about in the early days when fires happened they had a fire tower there. People were manned the towers manned by the RWED at the time.

And in those days, when they used to spot a fire, the guys would get on it right away. And they put out the fire. And they do it whether it would be three or four or five days, but they're on it; it's done, and it doesn...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the early days I was involved as a young councillor for YKDFN and impact benefit agreements with our community now, also with resource development agreements in our communities as well. So I've been involved with working with BHP, Diavik, and De Beers, and now we're getting to the point where these mines are going into reclamation. And so having said that, you know, our communities really are really in need of, you know, new mines to come up and to, you know, look for work for our young people in our community. And, you know, I was pleased today to talk...

Thank you. I want to really bring this one up as well. I mean, it's a 20242025 Capital Estimates budgets. You know, for what we're looking at housing this year, I'm not sure where to start, but I already voiced my concerns in March about this issue of housing. You know, I guess as the Finance minister and the next government coming in, they're going to have some tough decisions ahead of them. Overall, you know, we got a budget of $2.2 billion, we're $1.6 billion in the hole with this fire season as it is; we're going to be reaching that in no time. You know, we got grants and contributions...