Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today it saddens me to stand in this House and speak about the passing of a wellknown man from the community of Jean Marie River.

Eddie Gargan was born on November 10th, 1945, at Kelly Lake to his parents Celine and Charles Gargan. Eddie was the third oldest of his family. He passed away on October 20, 2022, with his loving family around him. The family told me about the day he was born. His grandma told his sister Beatrice and brother Phillip that he had walk to his mom when he was born. They were so excited to see the tracks outside their grandma's home...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our budgets are out there right now. However, as I had the conversation with the Member and as the process and I have to give credit to the finance minister. She's more than willing to have these conversations on how we can work together and how we negotiate so part of the ask can be from committee to see if we can see that. But right now I can tell you we have our budgets in place right now, and this is how we're moving forward on it. But if the negotiation process comes up with the money, then we're more than willing to help the communities out. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member is correct. We have a working group with NWTAC members and LGANT members sorry, I shouldn't say the acronyms. Local government administrators. So they're working with that. So we were hoping to have it done by the end of this fiscal year. Unfortunately, we've had a couple hiccups so it will be done sometime in June, which means our contribution agreements, which we are signing with our community governments, will be signed using this year's numbers but with the new ones, then we're communicating that with the communities as well, that when we come up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, $250,756. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess the Member's not listening. I guess I'm not speaking properly here so I'm going to try this one more time. The staff reach out to the communities. The communities reach out to the staff. We work on a plan. So if the Member wishes us to reach out to his community, we will reach out to his communities again. But we work with them. That's our process. We work with them. When they ask us to get in there to help, we do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I represent six small communities as well. I know my communities have reached out to the assistant fire marshal's office. The office is more than willing to come into the communities and work with them. We're also school of community government, we've had the ability to go into the community and work with the community specifically. So if we have volunteers that need first aid training, if they need fire training, we're more than willing to go into those communities to work with them. So the community, we can have the staff there. So that's what we're willing to do. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I get into my Member’s statement, I’d just like to wish my two daughters, Nancy and Deborah, a Happy Birthday today.

Mr. Speaker, Brian Kotchea was born on June 7th, 1970, in Fort Liard, to Frederick and Martine Kotchea. He was one of 11 children. They raised their children at the family's traditional camp at Francois, British Columbia. This is where Brian gained many traditional skills from his parents and spoke fluent Slavey. At the camp, Brian developed his traditional skills and knowledge to become a successful hunter and trapper. Over the years...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, each community builds their own capital plan. They provide what facilities they want. Each community sometimes have just only a small community gym. In my riding, I have a community that has a small community gym. That's it, a small hall. So each community provides that opportunity, builds their own capital plan to provide that opportunity to build facilities in their communities. So we work with the communities. We have staff that work with them on their budgets and capital plan. We move forward on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is rec facilities in every community, whether it's a community hall, small gym, gym, rec centres, curling rinks, hockey rinks there. So if that's what the Member's looking for, yes, that's what's in these communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I need to clarify. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, that's their regional job, is to get into the communities. The communities, as soon as they ask, we get in there. The school of government's willing to come in and offer courses there. The school has a calendar of events but if there's specifically one area that they need, we work with the community to do that. So we're more than willing to do that. The staff go in there. They are working with the communities. As soon as the communities ask, the regional offices work with them to get...