R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a feeling that this is going to go on a while. I want to recognize the returning officers for Hay River, Ms. Marny Twigge and Ms. Heather Coakwell, who do great work as returning officers, but also do a lot of other stuff in the community as well. I want to thank them for, not just this work, but everything that they do. Then my constituency assistant, who hates being recognized, but it's the last day, so I am going to do it: Ms. Anne Peters. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

All those in favour? All those opposed?

---Carried

I will rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to support this motion. I think it is a way to hold the government accountable. If there are no standards, then they can do whatever they want and say they are right. I think it is also a way to protect those Indigenous groups that don't have settled claims yet like the ones in my region. I will be supporting this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be supporting this motion. I think that it is a good idea. The notion that there are no issues and no improvements needed with the procurement system seems to be institutionalized within the relevant departments. If we have a panel like this, and we stand up here and ask questions, the Minister won't be able to say that there are no concerns, because I am sure that such a panel would bring forth the concerns, and if they are not acted on, that's not an excuse. If there are no concerns, it would just be that they are ignoring the panel's concerns. I think that this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to provide the "Lessons Learned" Report of the Special Committee on Transition Matters. This report represents the work of the Special Committee on Transition Matters, the second of its kind. The report reflects the committee's shared commitment to make incremental improvements to the unique form of consensus government that exists in the Northwest Territories. Its intention is to offer the best advice and accumulated wisdom of the Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly to those of the 19th.

The terms of reference for this committee were more narrowly...

If a loved one gets sick or passes away and you need to be by their side or to mourn, he will help you get to them and ask nothing in return. If you had to spend Christmas at the hospital in Edmonton away from your family, he would make sure that you got your Christmas gifts free of charge.

Mr. Speaker, these are just a few of the examples of Buffalo Joe's acts of generosity, and, when you consider that he has been at it for nearly half a century, you know that there are countless more. These are the reasons that Buffalo Joe McBryan was inducted into the Order of the NWT. I want to thank him...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of the other Members have referenced last night. It was about six hours that we discussed this. At the clause-by-clause, there were another four and a half hours, and the committee itself spent days and days and days focusing on this act and how we could make it better. Even now, after all of that, as I stand here, I am still torn about whether or not I fully support this legislation, and there are a number of reasons for that.

There are a number of reasons to support the legislation. It is not, maybe, the world-class legislation that we were promised, but it does...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again, I want to thank our staff for putting together yet another report on top of all of the other reports they had to put together. The committee found itself in a pretty unique position at the tail end of this Assembly. We were tasked with reviewing a number of devolution-related bills from a number of different departments, and I think it offered us a unique perspective, and I think this report is important in highlighting that. It could be very useful for the future Assembly, future Cabinet, and future standing committees.

Because we looked at bills from...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I would like to thank our staff for putting this together. The committee had the idea of doing this report at a time when there wasn't too much of a workload. Soon after that, we received probably the biggest workload that any committee has received since the division of the territory. I was a little concerned this might fall to the wayside, but somehow, our staff managed to analyze the responses from the 19 different businesses and put it into a coherent report. I really appreciate that, and I really thank them for that.

I want to thank the businesses, as well. As...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to recognize a constituent in the gallery, who is also my girlfriend, life partner, spouse, and whatever other terms you can use, Ms. Chantelle Lafferty. She has rearranged her entire work schedule so that she can spend some time with me while I am up in here Yellowknife, even though I am mostly here. I'm never really at home, but I really appreciate it, and I want to welcome her. Thank you.