R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've reached out to all MLAs and encouraged them to organize constituency tours where the MLA would set up we would go to the MLA's riding and meet with whoever the MLA would like us to meet with. So if the MLA would like to organize that meeting, I will attend. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is collaboration across departments; however, if I have an issue as an MLA and it involves a senior and it's about income assistance, I'm not going to the Minister responsible for seniors. I'm going to the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment because that's where the authority and the money is. So if there's an issue, you should go to the Minister who actually has the ability to deal with that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there's a number of steps that need to be taken before there's a direct appointment. There's guidelines laid out for the department, how they're supposed to work through this. There is an assessment by the Cabinet secretariat, which is independent from the departments. There's the Ministers. So if the Member has some examples of things that we can do, I'm happy to hear about it. But from what I've seen, the direct appointment process works very similar to a normal HR process that we have in the GNWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I heard a lot of the comments. I don't know if there is a question at the beginning of those comments but if there is, I'd ask the Member to repeat it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't think this House is aware of people who are hired through the normal channels, let alone people who were direct appointed. So informing the Assembly of every individual that comes on board and is employed by the GNWT isn't something we do. We don't do it when someone enters a competition and is brought on or when someone is direct appointed. When terms of direct appointments, the only direct appointments I've seen come across Cabinet for quite some time are direct appointments through three programs: The Indigenous gateway program, the internship program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'm sorry, I'm a little dizzy from all that spin. I don't think there's any I don't think anyone here thinks that, you know, we value seniors less because we don't have a token portfolio. So I don't really know how to answer this. It's you know, I'll just leave it at that. I don't waste any more of the Assembly's time with my response. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize a few members of the team that we've recently brought on. Our new principal secretary, Dr. Joe Dragon; the deputy secretary, Kyla Kakfwi Scott; and Fredrick Bergeron, the executive administrative coordinator in the principal secretary's office.

I also want to recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, former Member, former Minister, former Speaker, Commissioner, sergeantatarms. We're always happy to see him in the gallery.

Another former colleague, Mr. Jackson Lafferty, of course the Tlicho grand chief, former Member, former Minister, and former Speaker when I was...

Mr. Speaker, I must begin by acknowledging the plane crash that occurred in Fort Smith on January 23rd. I send my deepest condolences to the families and friends who have been impacted by this tragedy, and to the entire community of Fort Smith. I visited Fort Smith shortly after the accident, and it was clear that the people we lost were loved deeply and will be sorrily missed. I hope the families are able to find some comfort in the outpouring of community support that I witnessed.

Mr. Speaker, I must commend and thank all of the first responders involved in the efforts that day, as well as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as I said, this is work we need to do. So they are I think they're well suited. I think they're designed to get that information. The reviews are going to include feedback from NGOs, the NGOs that were participating in the evacuation that were assisting the vulnerable populations. So we need to know the issues that they ran into, and we need to figure out how the government can better assist them going forward. One of the biggest issues that I saw during the evacuations was communicating and planning. Often people didn't have a plan. There wasn't a plan in place...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to task the department with a bunch of work at this point. Once we get those priorities in, then we're going to have the opportunity to do that work and we will be looking at positions all across the North, funded positions, unfunded positions, vacant positions, filled positions. We really want a good overview of the positions that we have and how they're working and how they're supporting the regions. Thank you.