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Speaker speaks: ‘I don’t want to see eyes rolling, or angry looks’
Three days into current sitting, Shane Thompson forced to give his settle down speech over actions of some MLAs
“Honestly, I am disappointed.”
– Speaker Shane Thompson, on the behavior of elected officials
It didn’t take too long during this sitting of the NWT Legislative Assembly – three days into it – before he felt compelled to lay down the law. Or, more precisely, cite the Code of Conduct for Members of the Assembly.
At the start of proceedings on Monday, the MLA for Nahendeh said some politicians have not been showing the proper level of respect for each other, the Assembly as an institution, and the voters who sent them there.
“When we are in this House, I don’t want to hear heckling and jeering,” he said. “I don’t want to see eyes rolling, or angry looks, being directed at one another. I don’t want to see and hear Members of this Assembly talking over one another or ignoring one another.
“This behaviour is below us and the standard to which we should hold ourselves. It does not show the level of respect that each of us deserve. It does not show the level of respect that this institution deserves.
“And it certainly does not show the level of respect that our people, who have elected us as their representatives, deserve.”
As the day continued, medical travel was under the microscope again either for people who have had to pay out of pocket for transportation themselves, or for escorts needed for a patient requiring emergency transportation for health services.
Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart reminded Health Minister Lesa Semmler of a motion passed last year calling for a compassionate medical evacuation policy and for standardized escort support in emergency situations.
“Yet, despite this call to action, the Minister has still made no plans to support Northerners facing these kinds of medical emergencies,” he said. “Far too often, our constituents are forced to pay out-of-pocket just to be by their loved one’s side. Families deserve support in moments of crisis, not confusion, stress, and financial burden.
“These are exactly the kind of broken policies MLAs are elected to fix, and I cannot tolerate these circumstances simply because the policy is the policy.”
He then asked about the Minister’s authority to approve exceptions for medical travel policies, and “what is the point of an exception policy if the Minister isn’t making exceptions to the policy? What is the point of this whole process if the answer’s always going to be ‘No’?”
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- Health Minister Lesa Semmler in the NWT Assembly on February 9th. (Image: Assembly Livestream)
Semmler said when it comes to exceptions, the policy is for medical travel for scheduled appointments.
“There is no escort policy for medivacs or ground ambulance or air ambulance,” she said, adding a current review of medical travel could find savings to re-direct to an updated policy.
“Otherwise, we would have to look internally and start to look at money that’s within the NTHSSA and reallocate that from things that are also important to residents of the Northwest Territories.”
Meanwhile, Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon Armstrong brought up the glacial process to have Dınàgà Wek’èhodì brought under the Protected Areas Act.
Dınàgà Wek’èhodì is a 790 square-kilometre section of the northern portion of the north arm of Great Slave Lake, including the mainland shoreline, numerous islands and the water of the lake itself.
The area has interim protection through a land withdrawal, but the process has stalled to have it full protected.
Said Weyallon Armstrong: “Dınàgà, in Denezo Yatìi, means this land; Wek’èhodì, (means) look after in Tłı̨chǫ language. Dinaga Wek’ehodi is a landscape of profound natural, cultural, and political significance. (It) has been a place of gathering, teaching, and sustenance for Dene and Métis people for countless generations.
“This land is a living foundation of stories,language, ceremony, and knowledge passed from elder to youth, rooted in longstanding relationships with the water, the island, and the wildlife that thrive there.
“Elders from the Tłı̨chǫ Nation and neighboring communities remind us that the North Arm is woven into their cultural identity, used as camps, fishing, and hunting areas, travel roots, and places of spiritual power. It has been said Dınàgà Wek’èhodì is a place of legends sharing, teaching, and learning. It is also a critical habitat for migratory birds, species at risk, and rich array of wildlife and flora, all of which contribute to its environmental and cultural significance.”
Premier R.J. Simpson agreed with the MLA, who said the delay comes down to a disagreement by the parties involved on how many seats each will have on a co-management board.
“There hasn’t been, I guess, delays to the work for the sake of delays,” he said. “Any delays are the result of some disagreements on the composition of the management board, and the other work that can happen has happened.
“So, going forward, the ideal would be that we would have consensus from all of the groups involved on how that management board would be established and its composition. The GNWT has very limited ability to accelerate that type of collaboration and cooperation and consensus building among the group, but we’ll continue to try.”
And about that nearly four-hour power outage in Yellowknife, Dettah, and N’dilo last Thursday night, that started at 5:30 pm.
Said Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins: “When the lights go out at these temperatures, the clock isn’t just ticking; it’s counting down to a potential catastrophe. Yellowknifers are demanding explanation, reasons, why such failure happened. Was it an unforeseeable failure? Was it human error? Or was it just simply the system is buckling because of the weight of inefficiencies and the process and programs and equipment is just too old?
Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation Caroline Wawzonek said it was an issue at the Jackfish substation.
“The challenges, and where typically our power outages get resolved fairly quickly, because we can go from hydro to diesel, in this case it was difficult to get the diesel units up and going, and that led to further delays. Eventually, they got the Bluefish back online. But there does take some time to go from where the staff are stationed out to Bluefish. So, between all of those things and different efforts, it took longer than has been typical for us. The first customers got their power back around 8:20 pm, and the later customers by about 10:20 pm.”
