Shane Thompson

I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess consultation is different in my books. I think we should be engaging. We should actually be going to the communities and talking to them, and not just downloading a whole bunch of letters to them and expecting them to understand what we are talking about, but I will take the Minister up on it and get to see the letter, and we will go from there.

When the government was looking at this increase, I was wondering why they didn't have an implementation over a period of time on that instead of just the one-time shot. Can the Minister explain why this idea...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for 31 years, Brian Jaffray has been teaching and working with the students of the Nahendeh/Dehcho region. It is with sadness and joy that I announce Brian's retirement after this school year. Brian has worked at the Echo-Dene School and the Dehcho Divisional Education Council office. He was awarded the Governor General's Medal for Teaching Excellence in History, and today he was inducted into the Education Hall of Fame. Brian, I would like to thank you for the positive impact you have had over the years, and I wish you the best in your retirement. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. After listening to Mr. O'Reilly with his motion and thinking about it long and hard, in one of the communities I represent we have a rationing system in place right now. So I thought about it and I think I'm going to support this. I understand the challenges there right now, but I think this gives the communities a chance to look at it after a twoyear period of time to see if this is what they want to do. This is a tool, and I thank him very much for bringing forward this motion, and I will be supporting it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Brian and Terry Jaffray. Brian received introduction into the Hall of Fame this year. As well, last year, Terry Jaffray was recognized. Both, I would consider friends and good supporters, so I thank them very much for being recognized, and good job. He is also part of the fire department and very active in the curling club, so thank you very much, Brian. As well, I would like to recognize again my CA, Debra Richards. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we travelled to communities, we heard over and over about the devastation caused by alcohol. Some people are worried that cannabis will bring more devastation. Others are hopeful that some people will switch from alcohol to cannabis, which they think is less harmful. We heard about the damage caused by bootlegging and the acceptance that prohibition does not work.

We heard repeatedly that the people of the Northwest Territories don't want to tempt people who are buying cannabis by putting booze in front of them on their way to the till. This is why the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair the committee developed this motion as a way to address the government's position that they would only grant cannabis vendor licences to liquor store operators for the first two years after legalization. My constituents want to see cannabis stores in communities that don't have liquor stores. The only way to make sure this happens is to put a requirement in the act that obligates the Minister to consider all eligible vendor applications, not just those from liquor store operations. That's what this motion would do. It gives the Minister the discretion to not...

I'm good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister making that commitment. I am hoping that we can find out what the product is. I guess, as we have been working on this bill and learning more and more, cannabis is a different creature than alcohol.

When we purchase our products, do we have storage that is being properly looked after, and developing that? Again, with this product, it gets mouldy. It gets outdated, from my understanding. My understanding is two to three weeks is the shelf life of this product.

When we talk about this, have we looked at these questions and come up with an answer? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm honoured to second this. I've seen the government with the Deh Cho bridge, and they audited that, and they came out with a good report, but also the Minister here in this House here said that, most likely, this will be audited, and I think we need to audit it.

I honestly think that we've heard the value of the importance of this project, and I think it was a good project that had a big benefit for the Inuvik and BeauDel region, but again, the importance of it is to audit this project. I will also say that we need to do the Stanton Hospital that's going...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Government of the Northwest Territories has several strong and successful programs to support entrepreneurship and economic development opportunities, including the Support to Entrepreneurs and Economic Development, SEED, Policy.

The government has done some really good stuff and good work on there. This motion here is to encourage the government to repeat that Northerners are eager to pursue the economic benefits of legalization and to target programming addressing cannabis-specific planning and programs that would help local businesses. Thank you, Mr. Chair.