R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And not me personally but our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment has been engaging industry all across Canada. This was mentioned earlier by my colleague. But she has discussed this at the -- at PNWER, the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Conference, at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers Conference, at the Arctic Energy and Resources Symposium that's coming up in March; I believe she's the keynote Speaker there. And so she is out there engaging with industry, letting them know what the opportunities are in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to support the Member asserting the point of privilege. I think that when you make your decision, Mr. Speaker, I hope you consider the entire context of politics right now and social media. I was just down in Washington, DC, and I can tell you that, you know, when politicians say something inflammatory through social media, it puts a chill on speech, it puts a chill on people's ability to do their jobs. I spoke with lawmakers. I was there in the environment, and you could really feel that happening. That is the state of politics right now. And in this House...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there has been engagement between the GNWT and the significant discovery license holders, or the SDL holders, in the Beaufort Delta and specifically to discuss LNG related opportunities and considerations. These discussions included perspectives on next steps and the importance of broader collaboration. ITI has met with the main SDL holders in the Beaufort Delta on numerous occasions over the last few years. They are -- have been made aware of the Mackenzie Delta LNG project concept. They've all expressed interest in learning more about what we know from the pre...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one of the things that I do as Minister of Justice is I set policing priorities for the RCMP G-division, and one of those four priorities is to build and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities to understand and establish community-driven policing priorities and services. So the RCMP themselves in the communities are, on at least a month basis, supposed to be meeting with leadership, is my understanding, and they share information, they hear back from leadership, and they develop their own community policing plans using that information. So there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member's comments. I speak about this topic quite often, but it's good to get the information out there. Because there is a lot going on. I want residents to be aware that we are doing what we can to deal with these issues.

So the SCAN legislation, which is a legislation that would make it easier to close or shut down buildings that are causing public harm, like a drug house, is going to go out for public consultation this spring. We hope to have a legislative proposal drafted by the summer. That would then go through the normal process where it is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I believe that would be sort of a difficult task. The RCMP records some statistics about search and rescue. They provide incident command services during search and rescues, but there is no central body beyond that that records this data. So the cost that a community or individuals might spend on a search and rescue, that's not covered. You know, there might be individuals out there supporting efforts that don't let anyone know that they're supporting efforts, and so we can't necessarily record that information either. So because this involves so many different...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and it's actually the regional partnership that really put the focus on Yellowknife. And so, you know, we're already working with them, taking their advice and insight. Of course, when you work at an NGO and you are doing this work on a daily basis day in and day out you have a lot of expertise and insight and, of course, we want to leverage that and work with these organizations. So not every organization's priorities will align with each other’s, and so going forward there will be some -- you know, partners who are probably happier with what we are doing and some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All opportunities to expand our transitional housing stock will be explored, whether that is renovation of existing units that we come into possession of or whether it is the development of new units, we're open to doing whatever we need to do to make things happen. We're not going to limit ourselves to one, you know -- to one way of procuring these units. And so in -- recently, we've done some more temporary measures. So the on-the-land camp, we are looking to set up a temporary transitional housing unit until we can get something more permanent in place as well. And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, I mean, I don't even need to be involved in that conversation. That's a community-level conversation, and the community can have that. Through the Department of Justice, we can relay the Member's comments and the desires for such a meeting, but I think those are the types of things that can really happen at the community level.

Deninu Kue First Nation does receive $50,000 annually to hire a community justice coordinator. I understand that that position is not filled. But that's the position that would help coordinate these types of conversations among leadership...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, our Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs had to step out so on his behalf, I would like to -- I announced that earlier for those Members who were in the House, that they probably remember that.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Their Worships, Frank Pope and Peter Clarkson, and welcome them to the capital for the NWTAC AGM as well as to this House. So thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.