Please be seated. Good afternoon, colleagues.
[Translation] On behalf of the Assembly, I would like to thank Mr. Ernie Bernhardt for joining us today and leading us in prayer. Mr. Bernhardt now calls Yellowknife home, but he has spent most of his life in the Kitikmeot region of what is now Nunavut and was a Member for Kitikmeot during the 12th Legislative Assembly. Masi, Mr. Bernhardt.
I would also like to thank the pages we will have with us throughout this sitting. We will have students from Inuvik, Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nations, Fort McPherson, Yellowknife, Detah, Tuktoyaktuk, Gameti, and Yellowknife.
Welcome and thank you to all the Pages who will be with us during this session. Colleagues, it is our privilege to share this Chamber with these young people, our future leaders. Please join me in thanking them and welcoming them to the Assembly.
I would like to advise Members of this House and the public that, throughout this sitting, we will be providing interpretation in the following languages: Tlicho, Chipewyan, French, Inuvialuqtun, North Slavey, Inuktitut, Gwich'in, South Slavey, and Inuinnaqtun.
Colleagues, including English, we will be making use of 10 of our 11 official languages during this sitting. We do not currently have the capacity to interpret into all languages each day, but over the next six weeks our proceedings will be available in 10 languages. This is a great achievement, and I want to thank our staff and our interpreters for making this possible. Masi.
For Members who wish to listen in English, please remember to leave your dials on channel 2.
Colleagues, it is my pleasure to welcome you all back to the Chamber to resume the Third Session of the 18th Legislative Assembly. I also want to wish a happy and healthy new year to all of you and to all residents of this territory. Although we have been busy with the ongoing work of committees and government, this is the first time in 2019 that we have come together in this Chamber.
Colleagues, we are about to begin the final budget session of the 18th Legislative Assembly. The weeks ahead will be long, and we will not always see eye-to-eye. However, we must remain respectful, professional, and mindful of the rules of this Assembly.
In our unique form of consensus government, we hold ourselves and each other to a high standard for our conduct and decorum. The people of this territory who we represent expect this of us. I look forward to the debates and discussion that will take place over the next few weeks. However, I ask that you choose your words carefully, thoughtfully, and respectfully.
Colleagues, it is with sadness that I inform the House of the passing of Mr. Mike Ferguson, the Auditor General of Canada. In addition to serving as the Auditor General for Canada, Mr. Ferguson also served as the Auditor General for the Northwest Territories. On behalf of this House, I wish to extend our condolences to Mr. Ferguson's family, friends, and colleagues.
Finally, I want to take a moment to reflect on the recent passing of two Air Tindi pilots. In a territory such as ours, where many of our communities are accessible only by air, a tragedy such as this impacts us all. On behalf of this Legislative Assembly, I offer our most heartfelt condolences to their family, friends, coworkers, and all those impacted by this loss.
Now it is my duty to advise the House that I have received the following message from the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. It reads:
Dear Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise that I remind to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories the passage of:
- Appropriation Act (Operation Expenditures), 2019-2020;
- Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2018-2019;
- Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operation Expenditures), No. 4, 2018-2019; and
- Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2019-2020
during the third session of the 18th Assembly. Yours truly, Margaret M. Thom, Commissioner.
Masi, colleagues. Orders of the day. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The Honourable Premier.