Member Nahendeh

Speaker

Shane Thompson was re-elected to the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly after serving in the 18th and 19th Assemblies representing the constituency of Nahendeh. Mr. Thompson is the Honorable Speaker of the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Thompson was first elected to the 18th Assembly in November 2015 and served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development. Mr. Thompson was also a member of the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning, the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, and the Striking Committee.

Mr. Thompson was born on July 11, 1963, in Hay River. He has lived in Kugluktuk (Coppermine), Inuvik, Hay River, and in Edmonton, while at the University of Alberta. Fort Simpson has been his home since 1992.

Mr. Thompson previously served two terms (three years each) as an elected official with the Fort Simpson District Education Authority, spending the last four years as the chairperson. Over the past 35 years, he has served on various community and territorial boards.

Mr. Thompson was employed as the Senior Sport and Recreation Coordinator with Municipal and Community Affairs (GNWT) in the Deh Cho region before being elected as a Member.

Mr. Thompson completed the Community Recreation Leaders Program at Arctic College in 1989 and is currently working on a Masters Certificate on Evaluation at the University of Victoria and Carleton University. He also completed three years towards an Education degree at the University of Alberta.

Mr. Thompson is an active volunteer with Northern Youth Aboard, CBET and Fundamental Movement, and HIGH FIVE®. As well, he is a past member of the Sport North Federation Board, NWT Softball and of NWTRPA, and the past president of Seven Spruce Golf Course.

Mr. Thompson is the father of seven children - five daughters and two sons – and has nine grandchildren.

He has been a Justice of the Peace since 1991.

Nahendeh Electoral District

Committees

Shane Thompson
Nahendeh
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Constituency Office

9706-100th Street
Fort Simpson NT X0E 0N0
Canada

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about Nutrition North. This will be my second part of speaking on this today. There is a continuous issue of limited access to proper nutrition in my riding. In my riding, there are two other communities, Jean Marie and Wrigley, that do not have stores. Mr. Speaker, as stated previously in this House, community members must rely on retailers from surrounding areas to get their supplies.

Mr. Speaker, the commute to the nearest retailers causes an additional cost for members of those communities, and it is not always possible due to...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Sorry, to me, or to Minister Moses? Sorry, confusion here.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister and Ms. Gardiner for the answer. Having a logic model and actually implementing something and knowing what you're looking for? It is great that you have a logic model, but you do not have an evaluation tool in place. You've developed this program. You've developed this RFP. Now, you are sitting here talking about how you are going to develop an evaluation process. If you are going to do something, you should have an evaluation process set in place before you implement this. You guys have been working on it, so it is a concern. I understand you...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister did not answer my question, so I guess four years from now we will probably be in the same boat. It is unfortunate because we could have learned something from it. I guess I will go to my next question. What was the government's response to the coalition letter dated May 10th? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm going to try to narrow down my questions because my colleagues have provided a number of good comments and questions. I guess my first concern is did not this, the coalition work with the original RFP and then what I've heard from the Minister is something, was different. Can you explain why the department works with the coalition to come up with RFP but then we end up in this situation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

I thank the Minister for her answer. I am pretty disappointed that we do not have a plan in place. We have built the program, done a pilot project, and now we still do not know if we will be able to implement it right away besides the internet access. In regards to the courses that were developed, what is the difference between the courses that they provide to other organizations? I am looking at the list, and this is the same thing that you go to councils with before, so what are the differences that is going to make this unique to designated authorities that happen to normal hamlets, towns...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs did a Minister's statement on designated authority council training. It is very exciting, and I am happy to hear this. I guess my first question for the Minister is additional funding to support delivery. If this delivery is going to be done by the internet, what additional costs are we looking at for this delivery of the program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess it has been a very long day. Mr. Chair, I move that this Assembly recommend that the government provide a comprehensive response to this report and its recommended actions within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

I thank the Premier for his answer. It is unfortunate the federal government is going to look after this program because it is hurting a number of northern communities, especially in my riding. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier work with his Ministers to come up with a plan that we can take to the federal government to address issues of communities who don't have stores or have challenges such as transportation and freight issues, or do not have stores at all if the federal government allows them to?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said previously, I did contact a number of people in the union and in the department and spoke about this. The union agrees. We need to do an evaluation and move forward and so has the department talked about their evaluation. What committee has done is remodeled our – modeled after the statuary requirement to review the Official Language Act, established options to formally engage a committee, the Legislative Assembly in reviewing of its items or significant changed interest.

We also picked the date of saying we wanted the sitting as of July 1st, which normally will...