Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements.

Colleagues, Wesley Marcellais was born on November 23, 1980, to Adilene Marcellais. He was raised by Elsie and Jonas Marcellais. I can tell you that he loved being on the land, especially when he was out hunting thanks to his parents. The family and community witnessed his skill, and they said that he was a true bush man.
With the tools and skills that were passed down to him, he loved to travel the South Nahanni and the Liard River especially with his brother Steve by his side. They were inseparable growing up together. The community members would say that they were either looking for some fun or for their next adventure.

As I said before, he loved being out on the land and providing for his family. In his early years, he like to spend time at Swan Point with his family. His love of the land was evident in the fall, especially being on the river and in the forest. Thanks to his love of hunting, he had an amazing knife collection. He could spend hours talking about each knife and showing them off.

Wesley was a man of few words and many talents. A lot of time, you would find him outside working on his next project, creating any type of furniture he wanted or sketching incredible drawings. To say that he was known for his carpentry would be an understatement. All you had to do was visit his mother's house. He was able to use limited material and wood supplies at his disposal to repair and improve things at her house.

Wesley was always down for the next adventure that came his way. He took it with great humour and wit.

His two joys of his life were his daughter Emily Marcellais-Hardisty and his partner Synthea Hope. As well, he had the patience like no others. People loved to watch him interact with each other.

Unfortunately, on January 14th, he passed away with his partner in Jean Marie River. He was a caring, loving, talented and exceptional person. His passing will forever change his family. As the family said, it is not good-bye, but it is see you later. He will be sadly missed.

Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by the member for Yellowknife Centre on February 10, 2025, regarding the budgeting process for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority.

The department provides a dollar value and service expectation to each of the three health authorities to develop a detailed budget. The authorities must submit this budget to the department by February 15th of each year concurrent with the main estimates process. The department works with each authority to review their budget aligning details with what was presented to committee. This ensures that the authorities' budgets are ready for final review by the department once the main estimates are approved.

Further, to comply with Financial Administration Act, this work must be completed by April 1st of each year. Once the main estimates in the authorities' budgets are approved, the department then enters into a contribution agreement with each health authority which outlines the dollar value for activities, spending parameters, and reporting requirements such as performance indicators and financial statements.

Lastly, the authorities are required to submit variance reports to the department which facilitates monitoring of expenditures. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two sets of visitors in the gallery today. I'll start with the shorter list but not anywhere less worthy. The NWT Literacy Council is represented by one of my constituents today, Ms. Katie Johnson. She's also an advocate for many other causes which I certainly endorse.

The other group I'd like to recognize is a bevy of ladies, very smart, charming, and hardworking volunteers, and they are as follows: Ms. Martha McLellan, Ms. Sandra Hockes, Ms. Mika Cameron; and, a special thanks goes to Ms. Linda Koe who helped me with my statement today. And I wish to thank each of them personally for coming today and enjoying our session as presented. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too want to welcome some of our guests today. Martha McLellan, she's a Range Lake resident; and, Kathryn Barry Paddock, and also a Range Lake resident. And I'd also like to recognize Mika Cameron. She was an important educator in my life coming up in the Northwest Territories. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you, member from Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize two pages from my riding of the Mackenzie Delta. Elijah Smith and Sandy Dylan are both from Aklavik and attend Moose Kerr School. I'd like to welcome them to the Assembly and congratulate them on a job well done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd also like to thank and recognize Kathryn Barry Paddock, the executive director of the NWT Literacy Council; and Katie Johnson, the program director from the NWT Literacy Council, for coming out today and for the work they do every single day and the passion they bring to their work. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I'd like to recognize Ben Morin and Elizabeth Money, both -- two-thirds of the team that is going to be working on our reconciliation plan for the Legislative Assembly. Welcome to our Assembly.

If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chambers. You put us here, and we thank you very much for this honour. I hope you enjoy the proceedings. It is always nice to have people in the Assembly -- or the gallery, sorry.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I acknowledge a very determined young man from Tetlit Zheh, Mr. Deeron Vittrekwa. While bringing up a young family with his spouse Natasha, who just completed her business management program, Mr. Vittrekwa is in his fourth year of a four-year teacher education program at Yukon University. He will serve as a great role model to the younger generation in pursuing a career path.

I would like to ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Mr. Vittrekwa on receiving an Indigenous language revitalization scholarship, and for his commitment to his educational goals. Congratulations and all the best, Mr. Vittrekwa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just to be clear, I had spoke with Indigenous governments after the decision was made to let them know what was going on, and I spoke with my Cabinet colleagues because, you know, when we make changes in that hallway where we all work, I want to ensure that Cabinet feels supported as all the staff down that hallway support all of Cabinet in one way or another. So that being said, this was a decision that I made in my office based on the experiences that I had over the past year. So I'm happy to consult with the standing committee on policies, on programs, on legislation. This was one single position out of the entire Government of the Northwest Territories that was reassigned. And so, you know, I always want to hear what the Members have to say, and I take this Member's comments very seriously, and going forward, I will look at our processes to ensure that if there are any changes like this in the future that I will engage Members sooner. That being said, I do have a responsibility to operate my office in a way that I think is efficient, and I will be making the decisions based on my experience. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to wave off a second question until the Premier had said the last piece. I was going to concede on maybe his contrition in the sense of he'll communicate better or work better. For the record, Mr. Speaker, we work here too, not just Cabinet, and in theory the Premier's principal secretary should be working with Members and, you know, whatnot. That said, how much is this office going to cost now that he's made this unilateral decision? Because we know how much they're paid because on the -- what's online, the GNWT website. They're paid the highest employee we have. There must be an office cost, support costs. Can the Premier elaborate on this unilateral decision he has made without consulting Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There will be no change in the cost of this position. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, can the Premier assure this House that there will be no office setup costs, there will be no staff costs, there will be (audio) sorry, the light went off. Maybe on the government too some days.

Mr. Speaker, can the Premier assure that there will be no additional costs to setting up an office because if we're setting up a special envoy that we will now be referring to his excellence or something or other, I mean, are we -- what is this going to cost the Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We already have an office in Ottawa. There's actually a desk and a chair there already so there may be an increased cost with pens, staples, things like that, but there's not going to be a significant cost implementations for this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member's statement, I spoke about Nutrition North and as it costs $2 billion since 2011 and half of that going to the communities throughout the three territories.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier. The GNWT needs to work closer with the federal government on food insecurities. What action is the Premier taking to assess the Nutrition North shortcoming and to advocate for change in Ottawa? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.