Richard Edjericon

Member Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh

Richard Edjericon was first elected to represent the district of Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh in by election during the 19th Assembly in 2022 and was re-elected to the 20th Assembly later the next year.

A descendant of Treaty 8 Chipewyan signator Chief Oliver Edjericon, Richard Edjericon was born and raised in Little Buffalo River near Fort Resolution. He attended Diamond Jenness Secondary High School in Hay River and Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife.

Obtaining his journeyman carpenter’s certification from Thebacha College in Fort Smith, Mr. Edjericon has nearly four decades of experience as a journeyman certified carpenter working through out the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in residential and commercial construction.

Eventually his work in construction brought him to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation as the North Slave Maintenance Coordinator. He would also become the General Manager for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation Housing Division.

Mr. Edjericon’s dedication to his community led him to seek the position of Elected Head Chief for Dettah and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, holding that office from 1999 to 2003. He also became the Acting Grand Chief Spokeperson on behalf of the Akaitcho Chiefs for the Akaitcho Territory Government. He later joined the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board in 2007 and soon became chair, reappointed to this position in 2011.

Mr. Edjericon’s proudest moments include settling boundary disputes, signing political accords, creating fairer nation to nation relationships, and fostering economic development. As MLA he brings with him a passion for a fairer, more prosperous North, and a great depth of knowledge in housing, economics, and politics. He lives in Ndilo with his wife, Aleida.”

Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh Electoral District

Committees

Tu Nedhé - Wiilideh
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Phone
Extension
12185
Mobile
Constituency Office
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to apologize to the Premier for not getting my questions to you a little bit earlier. Since the Vatican announced announcement, I only found out this morning of this announcement. Today the Vatican development and education office released a statement formally reputing, or in other words to reject or untrue or unjust, the doctrine of discovery.

Going forward, Mr. Speaker and I'm sure the GNWT Premier and the federal Government of Canada will need time to review the Vatican's announcement to reputing the doctrine of discovery and how this...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm trying to  I got nine minutes. I just got one  I mean, a question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Simpson.

Now that we have the federal minister here for infrastructure, I just thought maybe I'll take this opportunity to remind you if we could work together trying to get a new school for Dettah. And it's been the 1970s when that school was there. And it needs to complete the school in Dettah. They've been asking and asked that question this year. So I just thought maybe if we could work together in trying to get the Government of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I go back into the communities, like we got a lot of community members and elders talk about that there is still probably a large uranium that's probably in the water and they're concerned about that. That's also on the land. So that affects the fish and the aquatic life and birds and everything else. So I look forward to work with the Premier on this. But this is going back to 1978. Giant Mine, you know, it happened in 1946, 56 years later it closed, and we had a public inquiry, a public inquiry which essentially is like an environmental assessment hearing...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the headwaters is the life and blood of our homeland in the Mackenzie River basin. Throughout the years, we have been forced to adjust to a confluence of industrial threats upstream from us, a toxic cocktail of deadly contaminants flowing past our camps, communities, and impacting our waters sorry, cocktails impacting our waters, lands and animals and the people. The health of the water and the land is connected to the wellbeing of our people. We face increased health problems from a rare disease and a climb in cancer rates throughout the North but, in...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Premier, for your response. Normally at the end of a public inquiry, through that process we also could look at, you know, compensation and also a public apology. So that's kind of what I'm hearing from the community, from the chief and council in Lutselk'e, and they brought that to my attention. So in our dialogue, I guess as we bring this out and look at it and how we're going to approach it, that's also something that the people are looking for. So just so the Premier knows about that so maybe if she could just add a comment to that as well. Thank...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for your latitude in extending me some time to conclude my Member's statement. And thank you to all my colleagues as well.

Mr. Speaker, whenever I go back into my riding in Lutselk'e or Fort Resolution, they keep talking about Cosmos 954 and the impacts and the cumulative impacts as well. And that happened in 1978. And I know bringing this up now, but I didn't give enough time to the Premier, and I do apologize about that as well. But I just wanted to see if there's a way we could work with this government and Government of Canada to start bringing this...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 151)

You're welcome to read that if you want. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Committee heard loud and clear that Indigenous youth are the future of the NWT. Incentives to attract, train, and retain Indigenous students by developing practicum and coop placements within vacant GNWT positions, and transitioning students from Aurora College into GNWT jobs, are essential to increasing Indigenous representation and retention across the GNWT.

Committee heard about the need to track the number of Indigenous youths seeking public service employment under programs such as the Schools North Apprenticeship...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 151)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday when we were looking at this bill and also talked about it, you know, we you know, in my riding, I've been here for just over a year, and I put forward ideas about how we could try to work to improve the lives of our people in our communities. I talked about winter road. I talked about housing, infrastructure. Again, you know, when I sat here yesterday listening to adding all these sups in terms of increasing these budgets and everything else, no problem. You know, it's like, we've been, you know, bang every time these guys want money in all these other...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 151)

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's been a long session. We're coming to the end of the session here now, and through the next few days we're going to be really busy here. And through committee work, we've been busy as he will. Earlier, I had mentioned that we're having our, you know, annual carnival in our community of Dettah and N'dilo and Lutselk'e as well, and the invitation is basically for everybody. But I'm just thinking as well in Fort Resolution this coming weekend there are also the Fort Resolution Metis government is also hosting a dog racer, and they're going to be one dog...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 151)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this year is the time of year when we celebrate spring and the arrival of spring and the animals and that kind of thing. This year we didn't have the Long John Jamboree, and it's something that, you know, we all bring our families out and enjoy a good time and that kind of thing. But this year in the Chief Drygeese territory, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation are planning their spring carnival from March 31st to April 2nd, 2023, in Dettah, and they're looking at, on Friday, they are looking at a fish derby, many hand games, and a talent show. I think this...