R.J. Simpson

Thank you. I appreciate those comments.

Thank you. As shared with Members and reported widely in the press, the title is senior envoy to the Government of Canada. Thank you.

Thank you. So we don't have a formal contract in place with such an entity but we have used services of, you know, firms in Ottawa, especially when we were travelling down for the -- with the Council of Leaders or as part of the Council of Leaders, and they helped, you know, set up meetings and even things like arranging media interviews and things like that. So, yes, we have used those services in the past. Thank you.

Thank you. And I know the Member is a fluent French Speaker, and so we do have Services TNO in Yellowknife which is sort of what the Member's referring to in some ways, a one-stop shop. But we are making incremental moves towards a -- potentially towards a service model like the Member is talking about. In different jurisdictions across Canada, they do have, you know, service, you know, whatever, whatever province you're in, that's the service department. And so that is an opportunity.

One thing that I didn't want to do here was try and overhaul everything all at once. You know, it's a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So one of the issues is that I want to have a chance to actually meet with the Indigenous governments, talk about negotiations, learn from them what their issues and concerns are, familiarize myself with our mandates and our positions on the concerns from Indigenous governments or our positions on their positions. And, you know, we've been through a full year now. We've had a number of those meetings. And we are actively working on looking at ways to adjust our mandates, if necessary, to ensure that we can make some progress. And so I'm confident that in the first half of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so it sounds like the Member's aware that once you start renovating something, once you open those walls, you never know what you're going to find, and there could be extraordinary costs that you don't expect. That being said, if there are units that lend themselves to potential renovations, we can have a look at those and do our best to figure out whether or not we might run into some of those issues, and then they go from there. So we don't want to write anything off without even looking into it.

When it comes to the transitional housing piece -- I don't want to...

Minister of Justice, thank you. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 12, Business Day Statute Law Amendment Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I never like to speak ill of my colleagues or the work that they do, and I know that when we speak in those types of terms in this House, it can cause disorder and it can cause the public to lose faith in our institutions, and so I want to apologize to this House, to all of my colleagues in this House, and I withdraw my remarks. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I received this request about SCAN legislation and civil forfeiture legislation quite often because there is a real concern about what's going on and people want more tools to move things forward. So I will ensure that we're working as fast as we can on this, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up that we're going to be able to get this done and introduced prior to the next sitting.

SCAN legislation has proven to be controversial in the Northwest Territories. It was brought forward once before, and it did not make its way through this House or out of this House...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the honourable Member for Kam Lake, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, will be absent from the House for the remainder of this week to attend federal/provincial/territorial committee on internal trade meeting in Toronto, Ontario. The Minister will also be away Monday and Tuesday next week to attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Conference in Toronto, Ontario.

Also, Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the honourable Member for Hay River South, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, may be absent for a...