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 , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the receiver has not submitted a reclamation plan because they're awaiting for the outcome of the sale process. A process for the plan will begin once the sale process is completed and, unfortunately, the receiver hasn't provided a timeline for the conclusion of the sale process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community operation division is the one that works with us. Again, we have 15 staff there but it's not all 15 are allocated to that one specific topic. But the Member has to understand, and the people have to understand, this is a shared responsibility through other municipal and community affairs. Divisions, like the community governments, sport and rec and youth, corporate, but also other divisions which is Infrastructure and Finance. So it's a government approach to working trying to get funding from the federal government. We work together. It's...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department works with the federal government to try to identify funding pots there. Unfortunately, it's a onetime shot that we were able to get money from the federal government, but it doesn't help shrink the funding gap.

The Member talked about looking at transferring land. We are working with the Department of Lands. We've reached out, developed a process that was looked at by the City of Yellowknife. They accepted it. So we are working with the City of Yellowknife to transfer land. Not bulk land, but small chunks to help them move forward. We're also...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The security for the land use permit and water licence is at $2.9 million. In addition, OROGO holds an additional $1 million as proof of financial responsibility. The financial securities that have been converted to cash are being held in trust accounts. To date, the receiver's costs have been approximately $3.0 million which has been funded fully by the Department of Lands. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the receiver is working through the results of this sale process. There is one bid for a portion of the site. The department is reviewing the bid and will provide comments back to the receiver. However, it is in the hands of the court and the receivership process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you. I think here we're telling people that we're interested; please reach out to us. We don't know all of the time what camps are out there and that, so we encourage them to reach out to not just, like I said, the on land unit but our regional office. We're more than willing to work with them, work with the schools to do this. So the Member is right; this is very much about, you know, being able to pass on traditional knowledge, and that's what we're all about, is trying to be able to do this. So if the Member is aware of certain things, please have him get them to reach out to our...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, educational bodies and schools have programs in place to bring in cultural programs to the schools. ECE has some funding for cultural programs and often gets funding from other departments, organizations to supplement school or communitybased initiatives. ENR and ECE recently launched the hunters education as a high school credit program, as the Member talked about and I said in my Minister statement here today. The implementation of this pilot project can inform the development of other future harvesting programs.

ENR has also provided funding to schools...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Mr. Speaker, it saddens me to advise this House that Germaine Deneron Betthale passed away on January 25th, 2022. Ms. Betthale was born on May 1st, 1923, at Fisherman's Lake to Laurent Deneron and Marie Angel Colley. This is where she was raised. Germaine lived in a true Dene traditional way with her family.

She met William Betthale in 1949, fell in love and married him. They had ten children and lived a traditional life on their trapline in the MacCamish Lake area. She was known as amelie, translate "one mom", to her many grandchildren. She was a very skillful, talented, strong, and...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you. In my Minister's statement today, I talked about the land On the Land Collaborative. The collaborative supported eight specific hide tanning programs since 2006 for a total of approximately $195,000. ENR Takes a Family on the Land program can support tanning given its focus on mentorship. The next applications call for this program is expected to open April 2022.

Through ECE, the arts NWT Arts Council has funded individual handing time individual hide tidy or tanning projects and provides support to organizations such as the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith. All our application...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR is open to discuss possibilities for moose hunting and hide tanning incentives and training through our online program. I think we talked about it in Committee of the Whole yesterday, and we said that we'd look into that there.

We know tanning is often a family and the communitybased activity where knowledge is passed on to the youth. This is why ENR, ITI, ECE, and HSS have been providing financial and inkind support to the NWT On the Land Collaborative to ensure that these skills are retained.

ENR is happy to have conversations with organizations...