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Track R.J.

Your Say

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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word is know.

MLA for Hay River North

Won his last election, in 2023, with 66% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. I believe it's in the procurement process. So we don't necessarily put the budget out before it has been approved. We want to make sure that the contractors are not bidding to the budget. They're bidding to the project. But the project itself is to create a website that is essentially a one window to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Right now, we have a number of different websites. We have a number of -- and the platform that's being used is actually quite old and not robust enough for today's modern internet. So just like physical infrastructure needs to be replaced, technological infrastructure needs to be replaced as well. And at some point in the future, if not now, it will not be functional and will have to be replaced. There are many, many orphaned web pages. I come across them myself where information's clearly outdated. It's very difficult to manage it, and so the idea is to create something that is much more user friendly for the users as well as for the people on the other end who are actually putting the content up. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. So I understand that some of the recommendations were implemented, but the report was ten years ago and I don't have a good handle on what's happened in the last ten years in relation to that report. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you for that, those comments. You know, comms, there's never enough communications, there's never enough information out there, and even when it's out there, people can't find it. So this is a -- it's been a no-win situation I found in my time here. There were discussions about centralizing in the last government. As the Minister of a department, a line department as they're called, I was not supportive of that given that there's the bread and butter communications that departments have to do. And, you know, I was a student when I was first elected and so I know that ECE did a lot of communications on SFA, and they were very targeted to me as a student, and I really appreciated that. And so I wanted to make sure that the departments were still able to do that. But we have needed to improve our -- I guess our political communications to get the word out there. And I appreciate the Member's comments about world class communicators because, you know, some of the people I work with, I know that they are -- that they're good at their job. So I will have a discussion with the department about the scope of this review. And I will leave it at that. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. So I believe that's in the next section so we can address that once we get there. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. We are just looking for that information right now. We should have it -- it's under Executive Council offices I'm being told. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. We do have a plan for that position. It has not been reduced. And we're just holding off pending the approval of this budget. We don't know how things are going to go with the negotiations with Members, whether or not we're going to need to find additional money and where we might need to find that money. So I look forward to staffing that position once we are through this process, if we make it through successfully. Thank you.

CHAIRPERSON Thank you. I'll go back to the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. The UNDRIP Implementation Act that was passed in the last government, as the Member said, we are legislatively required to co-develop an action plan to achieve the goals of UNDRIP with Indigenous governments. And so we are in the process of doing that right now. And that will help guide future investments that will be reflected in future budgets. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you. I appreciate those comments. I look forward to the Members on this. Thanks.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate the Member's concerns about the lack of target. This document and the mandate were prepared almost simultaneously and so we were including items underneath each of the topics, and they aren't necessarily all fully fleshed out yet. But the idea behind this here is around integrating the services and ensuring that someone who needs access to services is able to get those services when they need them. Often, the root cause of a lot of crime is addictions issues, and so if we can support people in a way that will actually assist them, you know, get them out of that lifestyle or the criminal justice system, then that is what we want to do. So there's no targets here right now. I'm happy to work with the Members to develop some targets. But that's where we're coming from with this. Thanks.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters May 29th, 2024

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize, I was just getting my business plan sent over to me. If the Member could repeat the item he was referencing. Thank you. I apologize.