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 55)

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. Once they've come up with the process, is he willing to share with us, the Regular MLAs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will try to just keep mine specific so we can get moving on this. I will try not to take the 10 minutes. I guess my first one is that I would have to agree with my colleague who just previously spoke about communication. This is probably the biggest challenge that we are facing out there, is the messaging and how we get that messaging to the general public, because there is a lot of miscommunication out there. I say we, collectively, are doing a bad job because we are not getting the information or asking for the proper information and getting it out there to the people...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

I thank the Minister for his answer. However, with decentralization today and the modernization of computers we can do things, and right now we've seen positions out there that actually are pan-territorial. So will the Minister re-evaluate this decision and actually put a position, which makes sense in the South Slave, into Hay River?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. It is still a little confusing here, though. We don't have a store in two of my communities, so the food basket is in, I would assume, Hay River or Fort Simpson, which, depending on the community and depending on the season, is either an hourandahalf ride to Fort Simpson or a fourandahalfhour ride to Hay River, which adds on to the costs of my residents. Will the Minister make a commitment to get his department to look into this unique situation for these two communities and come up with a subsidy that would help them move forward...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

I thank the Minister for giving us that information. That is very helpful, and I will be able to utilize that in my office and when I go on tour. One question that does happen to me, in my riding, is: why does not the department factor in freight into these calculations, especially in my riding?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to recognize Sharon Firth, Ian Legaree and Don Moses. I think the Minister of MACA brought him here, besides recognizing Sharon, to stop me from asking questions today, so I will recognize him and I will be nice to her, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that clarification. At this point in time, I have no further questions. Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Since the early 2000s it is my understanding, thanks to the mines and government projects, we have maintained a significant higher per capita income than the rest of Canada. This would be great if it was across all 33 communities. Unfortunately, the latest statistics show that we have a huge number of residents struggling with low income. There is a vast income gap between the major centres and the smaller communities. Do not get me wrong; the big centres do have lowincome residents, but they are not the majority, whereas the residents from the smaller communities are.

M...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. I understand it's more than the 19. The reason I'm asking this, and you talk about partnerships, in Fort Simpson last night they were talking about instructional hours. The messaging came across that this is a DEA responsibility. They're the one pushing this agenda. Then it becomes an issue of who is responsible for it. So the messaging is, as well as we tried to get it across, I understand the partnership, but we need to be able to get the message out there and need to be working together and the partners shouldn't be the ones holding...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 55)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to clarify it, and I apologize to the Minister if I wasn't getting my message across. We just went through two things that have been brutal, the best way to describe it. It's been bad for your department, bad for everybody. So what I'm asking you is, you're working on developing the strategy to get the messaging out. Are you willing or able to share that strategy once it's all said and done, the policy or the direction that you're developing to get messaging out with us here? Thank you, Mr. Chair.