R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we're not supposed to get into hypotheticals here on the floor, so I'll leave that one alone. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's very complicated. So the legislation that would be required is a Police Act which is the type of legislation that would allow municipalities to set up their own police forces and things like that. So it's not a simple community safety officer piece of legislation; it's much broader.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the idea behind the envoy is to have a dedicated, proactive, and strategic link between the political offices in Ottawa and the political offices here in the Northwest Territories. That's what's often needed to get things moving. And as to whether or not the position is permanent, well nothing in politics is permanent, so I can't speak for the future of the position past this government. And even during the life of this government, we'll see things work. I think too often the government will make a decision and then stick with it whether or not it's working. I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no doubt that the focus these days is on the economy, and that's across Canada. You know, because we're facing a threat from an external actor who is really threatening our economic stability and viability of our country. So the economy is going to loom large with the role of the senior envoy. And the purpose of this role is to have a connection with Ottawa so that we can move things along. There's big projects that we can't do ourselves here in the Northwest Territories. Things like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, we'll definitely need federal support for that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're using all the tools at our disposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this was announced about a year ago, I've had numerous meetings with Minister Blair, the Minister of National Defence and with other federal Ministers, and we have -- along with the other northern Premiers, we have been lobbying the federal government to enlarge and advance more quickly their investments in the northern operational support hubs. I believe it was $218 million is the number that was in the original plan, and that was mostly to be spent in the final years of that plan. And so we've been advocating to get that money spent sooner than later. In the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be able to attend that conference, and so we're still looking at options to ensure that there is some sort of presence there from the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no committee at this point. I'm not sure what the working group proposal looks like. So I can't really make any commitments around that. That being said, obviously there's a lot of value in ensuring that everyone's on the same page and everyone's communicating. And so we're in the early days of this interest in the North and talking about investments and Arctic security. And my officials are working with officials from Joint Task Force North and the Department of National Defence, and we share information as required. And I know that officials from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd have to see those terms of reference and figure out what exactly the Member is talking about in terms of a joint working group, what that would look like, who would be involved, what the subject matter would be, and so on. And so after I see that, I'll be able to speak to the Member about it. Thank you.