The Northwest Territories now officially has a new set of MLAs, as the members of the 20th Legislative Assembly have now been sworn in.
Beginning at 10:30 on the morning of Friday, November 24th, members of the public were invited to gather at the Legislative Assembly Building in Yellowknife to witness the swearing in of the Territory’s new MLAs, who each had just won their respective election races for their areas.
(Photo taken by MyTrueNorthNow Staff)
The eighteen new and returning MLAs collectively swore their oaths to their new offices, and to the people of the NWT that they now serve, before each and every one of them signed the papers that made their new stations official.
(Photo taken by MyTrueNorthNow Staff)
The new MLAs are:
– Sheryl Yakeleya for Dehcho
– Julian Morse for Frame Lake
– Kate Reid for Great Slave
– Vince McKay for Hay River South
– R.J. Simpson for Hay River North
– Denny Rogers for Inuvik Boot Lake
– Lesa Semmler for Inuvik Twin Lake
– George Nerysoo for Mackenzie Delta
– Shane Thompson for Nehendeh
– Lucy Kuptana for Nunakput
– Kieron Testart for Range Lake
– Daniel McNeely for Sahtu
– Jay MacDonald for Thebacha
– Richard Edjericon for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh
– Robert Hawkins for Yellowknife centre, and
– Shauna Morgan for Yellowknife North.
Caroline Wawzonek for Yellokwnife South, Jane Armstrong for Monfwi, and Caitlin Cleaveland for Kam Lake each ran unopposed in their elections.
Speaking after the Assembly, Wawzonek share her feelings for the future.
“I’m excited to be back. Today is always a great day, everyone’s excited and happy, and I think we’ve got a good group of people and we’re all excited to get started. It’s the idea of just having that chance to get started after what’s been a tough four years, especially this summer with the fires and evacuations, I think everyone is excited to get back to work, and to have a bit of a restart after those events.”
The new Assembly’s first session will take place on Friday, December 8th.
