Our condolences goes out to the family. I had the pleasure of working with the man; he was amazing. So thank God my Member from Frame Lake did that statement here in the House. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to seek unanimous consent to move item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery, up to the current motion, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Member from Frame Lake's seeking unanimous consent to move item number 6 up to. And seeing no nays, Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my honour to recognize my constituent Shawna Lampi-Legaree and her parents, Richard and Jean Lampi's presence in the House today. And, Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge and thank Alexander Legaree for his help with today's eulogy and ensuring his father was appropriately honoured in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I'd also like to acknowledge the Member for Hay River South who helped me obtain a Team NWT pin as a small token of acknowledgement of Mr. Legaree's life's work.

And, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to acknowledge my constituent Colin Mahone, who is one of our dedicated pages in the House today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Member from Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Premier, I would also like to acknowledge that Ian's family is here with us in the House today. I want to welcome them to the House to share in this celebration of his life and accomplishments. And on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories, I want to extend my sincerest condolences. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Range Lake page Ms. *Tyra Ristow. I understand Ms. Ristow's family may be watching our proceedings today, so she's doing a great job; don't worry. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't go without saying an acknowledgement of Shawna Lampi-Legaree. I've had the honour of knowing her for decades, and it's always a great light to get to see her in person. So thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to extend Happy 94th Birthday wishes to Albert Taniton from Deline. Very blessed to have our dad, which is grandpa, uncle, and lots of friends. Mahsi, and that is coming from the Taniton family.

Additionally, Mr. Speaker, on February the 15th, it was my pleasure to, on behalf of this government, award and pass on two medals to Albert Taniton and Leon Modeste there who received the King Charles III Coronation Medals in Deline. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Shawna, welcome, and your parents, Richard and Jean. I haven't met you before, but you got an amazing daughter there, so welcome to our House.

If we missed anyone in the House in the gallery today, welcome to your chambers. Thank you very much for giving us the honour of representing the people of the Northwest Territories. I hope you enjoy the proceedings. It is always nice to see people in the gallery. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Motions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Appointment of Person to Investigate the Critical Incident of Avery Burke, Wesley Marcellais and Hilary Norwegian:

WHEREAS the ongoing effects of colonialism and anti-Indigenous racism continue to impact the healthcare system in the Northwest Territories;

AND WHEREAS an unnecessarily delayed treatment for a treatable illness contributed to the deaths of Avery Burke, Wesley Marcellais and Hillary Norwegian;

AND WHEREAS the families state that the treatment of Avery Burke, Wesley Marcellais and Hilary Norwegian are examples of substandard health care for Indigenous people;

AND WHEREAS clear immediate and measured actions from the Minister of Health and Social Services are required to prevent such incidents from happening again;

AND WHEREAS Section 25.3 (3.1) of the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act (the Act) states that the Minister of Health and Social Services shall, when directed by motion of the Legislative Assembly, appoint a person to investigate, in accordance with the Act and the regulations, a critical incident or an alleged critical incident.

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Member for Deh Cho, that the Minister of Health and Social Services appoints a person to investigate the incident of the treatment of Avery Burke, Wesley Marcellais and Hilary Norwegian;

AND FURTHER, that the Minister of Health and Social Services table before the Assembly at the earliest opportunity any recommendations that the investigator includes in their investigation report alongside a plan to advance such recommendations;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. The motion's in order. To the motion. Member from Great Slave.

I have been thinking about Avery Burke for two months. I have been thinking about my nieces and nephews when they were five or six years old, how fun and silly kids are at that age, how desperately heartbreaking it is to lose someone so young.

I have been thinking about this motion for weeks. The more I have heard from colleagues about the lack of basic health services in small communities, the more certain I am that this motion is the right thing to do.

In talking to my colleagues, I am so deeply saddened to hear of the challenges that the communities of the Nahendeh face, and since Avery passed, we have seen Wesley Marcellais and Hilary Norwegian pass away, causing great pain and loss to their families as well. Mr. Speaker, I want to put this motion into historical context.

Many years ago, before we were all here in this House, the Minister of health of the day came to speak to the community leadership in Fort Simpson, explaining that closure of the Fort Simpson Hospital was a good thing. The region and community would not see any impact on services if the hospital was turned into a health centre. The community was told that they would have two doctors and seven nurses, and the department had a medevac plan in place so those who became seriously ill or had an emergency would be sent to Yellowknife for urgent and emergency care. It would be all good. But it's not working.

In four of the Nahendeh communities, they don't have a health centre but a health cabin. The staff for these cabins, community health representatives, work about four hours a day. Health cabins are also scheduled to have a nurse or sometimes a doctor visit once a month if the weather cooperates for flights. If the weather does not cooperate, communities can go months without seeing a nurse.

Mr. Speaker, these communities do not have the same basic services that other NWT communities have. We have been talking about the equity of health services a lot so far in this year. I hear and believe that the Minister of Health and Social Services when she says that this is priority for the smaller communities. But systemic change is difficult. Access to medical services in Canada should be a basic right but it doesn't seem like that's where we're at, and these problems are most acute in our smallest communities.

Why are we making this particular motion? Well, the communities and families of those who passed want this issue to be finally addressed once and for all. These three individuals did not have to pass away. If the system worked properly, we would not have these highly preventible deaths. These communities feel that this system does not care for them. They feel that they are not important. They simply want access to appropriate care and to be taken seriously in times of an emergency.

I know that the Minister might say that they are following procedures, but I also know that there are examples that Members can point to that all too similar to these circumstances that we were facing in the first two months of 2025 that are addressed in this motion. Our procedures and our system continue to perpetuate the lack of equitable, accessible care. Mr. Speaker, I will have further comments to close off this motion at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. To the motion. Member from Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to support this motion in hopes that this does not happen again in our communities. Family relationships are very important in our communities. We treasure our children. We want them to be protected and cared for. Our elders watch our children, and, in most cases, they care for the community as a whole. Now we have three people who are gone from the community. It is a sad time for these families, and all the community feels the effects of the loss.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot stand here and say this did not happen. I wish we could have these three people at home with their families. But this did happen, and they are gone.

As a Member of this Assembly, it is my responsibility to assist where I can to change something that will serve the people we represent in a helpful way. The healthcare system needs to look at these deaths and address the issue of medevacs at the community level. The community health workers who work at the health cabins in these small communities need higher level training so they're able to help people they work for. They must be trained to know how to save a life by administering lifesaving meds or intravenous fluids. We need the system to work for our constituency we serve. Mr. Speaker, mahsi.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by acknowledging the immense grief and pain that these families and communities are experiencing. Losing a loved one is always heartbreaking. And when that loss is sudden and unexpected, the pain can be even deeper. I want to extend my sincere condolences to those affected and recognize their understandable need for answers, accountability, and meaningful change if necessary.

I completely understand the desire to know what happened, why it happened. I completely understand that, the desire to know why it happened and, most importantly, what we as a healthcare system can learn from these tragedies so we can create meaningful change and do everything possible to prevent other families from experiencing this kind of heartbreaking loss. It is critical that we examine these incidents thoroughly and use every tool available to strengthen patient safety.

Mr. Speaker, currently there are three investigations underway through quality assurance framework which the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services uses to identify and investigate patient safety incidents. This framework is designed to improve the quality of care within our health system and to ensure that lessons are learned and acted upon. I understand that these are not critical incident investigations; however, a critical incident investigation can happen at the same time. And I will ensure that this happens.

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the families and communities affected that their voices matter, and that these tragedies will not be ignored. We must take every possible step to improve patient safety and ensure accountability in our healthcare system. As this motion makes a recommendation to government, Cabinet will abstain from this vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes. To the motion.

Question has been called. Does the Member from Great Slave wish to close this debate?