Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my question is for Minister Moses, Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Chair, public representation through boards has been an important part of ensuring that government hears from and includes representation of the public. This is a crucial part of our democracy, and to public openness and transparency that we have committed to as a government. The Minister decided to dissolve the board of Aurora College even before review of its operations. In the interests of democracy and transparency, and in the interests of public representation, I would like to ask the Minister: would he do anything different today if he had to make that decision again? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Previous to disbanding of the Aurora College board, we did meet with them on a couple of occasions, and moving forward with the questions and the work that was brought forward in the May-June sitting, and looking at the review of Aurora College and the suggestion to do a foundational review, I felt that it was in the best interests to put in a public administrator to oversee the foundational review and work with the Aurora College staff to make sure that we have the best programs in place to ensure the best outcomes and best services for our residents that want to take post-secondary education here in the Northwest Territories. No, Mr. Chair, I would not do anything different. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Questions to Ministers. Next on my list: Member McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm being mindful of the workload the Ministers have. Taking into account the many beyond-our-control challenges facing our mandate: the remaining term until the writ is dropped, our ministerial mandate, our physical position, and TFF income… Being mindful of all those factors really faces the energy of success. My question to all of the Ministers is on communications. What will you do to improve communication of departmental strategies and action plans over the remaining term so we have a clear idea of the direction our government's going for the respectful benefits to our constituents? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when it comes to initiatives within Health and Social Services, I have already said it and I will say it again. I am not a big fan of surprises. I am not a big fan of surprising myself but also surprising my colleagues, so I work pretty hard to make sure that information is getting out to them on specific issues and initiatives. But when it comes to sort of the larger picture initiatives or things that we're moving forward, we have actually as a Cabinet been working on a communications staff positions here to help improve overall Cabinet communication, get information out, and more of a government approach. The Department of Health and Social Services is clearly working with the central communications group to try to improve the communications and have more consistent communications. This is work of all of us in Cabinet. This is work of all of the staff in the Executive and staff in all of the departments. We can do better as far as getting information out to the public and I think the direction we are taking as a Cabinet is going to take us there and make it a little more seamless, a little bit more comprehensive in our communication, but at an individual level, I am still committed to providing Members with updates on department-specific initiatives, things that are happening in the communities that are a surprise, or if there are emergencies, so that they're aware and not surprised when they go out into the communities and are talking to their residents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, one of the things we heard right at the beginning of this Assembly was the communication between this side and the Regular Members, and I think we've taken steps to improve that. We have conversations with Members all the time, and we have taken steps to improve our communication with the public as well, ensuring that our message gets out there. As far as our communication with the public on what we plan to do for the next two years, we have the business planning process that we go through with the Regular Members and we have two more budgets coming up, so we'll have an opportunity there and even beforehand to communicate with the Members what some of the priorities may be for the next two years. Then, as we go through the budget cycle in February-March, then there's an opportunity again to communicate that publicly. Anything we do, we try to give Members a heads up, and where the opportunity exists, we will send out public notices as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think communication is important, and I've worked with my department to see how we can increase communications with all our partners, as well as with Regular Members, committee, all Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly. One way we're going to do that is we are going to develop plans to monitor, evaluate, and be accountable to this government, but be accountable to our partners as well. We have a lot of big projects that are coming out over the remainder of this government: junior kindergarten, STIP, small community employment fund. We're going to monitor that, we're going to evaluate it, we're going to keep Members up-to-date, but we are also going to make sure that our partners in the Northwest Territories know what's working, and if something is not working, how do we fix it, and work together to find solutions. It's got to be lateral accountability too. We take a lot of responsibility at the department, but we have really good partners that I think also need to be accountable to us so that we can find good solutions and be effective and efficient. That's where we're moving forward with the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Along with my colleagues, we have worked with Cabinet here to have corporate communications, to how to get the message out there better, along with our departments and their communications staff. I think the question is: how are we going to communicate the strategies and action plans going forward for the next two years? There's a number of ways if we do all this, and one of them starts, top of mind for me, is the Intergovernmental Council that works with the Premier on what's going on with the Northwest Territories, what's important to Aboriginal governments. That's the first one. I think that comes as top of mind like I said. Public engagement is a great big one. As Minister Sebert's well aware, the cannabis legislation coming forward is one of the most engaged ones we have ever had in the Territories and I think that's dependent on committees as well. When they go out and do their legislative proposals, when they go out and discuss this with the public, that engagement is very important. There's a number of different things there, but even communications, moving these strategies and action plans forward is all dependent on public engagement and their interest. A lot of times, people say the government doesn't do a very good job communicating, but even you can throw all the good stuff out there, the great work that we're doing as a Legislative Assembly, but if the public doesn't have an interest in this, and some of these meetings aren't very well attended. Open and transparency: the Minister travelled to 16 communities, I believe, and some communities, we had one person from the public attend. It's hard to blame the Minister when there's not public interest in some of these things. I think a lot of it is appetite of the public. I know we're working very hard to try to figure out communications, and how do we get things out in a better manner, and reach out because we are a very spread-out territory with 33 remote communities, and because something is heard in this Assembly doesn't necessarily mean it reaches all 33 communities, so we need to continually work on this. Not just the 18th Assembly, the 19th, the 20th… We going to have to continually do the work—

Masi, Minister. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs actually deals with communications with their stakeholders in the way that I know best which is actually engaging them, bringing the stakeholders together and, as a group making decisions. As I stated earlier, I see this process actually as a place to get feedback, a place to decide what we need to work more on, and what we need to improve our own skills on. I have to say that computers is one of my weaknesses. I grew up in an age when manual typewriters were out there, and I can type like a devil—

---LAUGHTER

but I have a hard time navigating computers. I've just nailed down Facebook, and now I realize I have Twitter that I have got to figure out.

---LAUGHTER

What that gave me is that I'm not the abnormality, I believe. I believe that there is a whole generation of people that struggle with communications and websites, so when I actually went onto the housing website and trying to figure out programs, I couldn't navigate the programs. We have a lot of work to do. One of the pieces that I need to do is to make sure that our departments have websites that, actually, people can navigate, people like me who are a little bit old and don't know the social media as much. It is one area that I need to work on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Whether formally in committee meetings or informally by simply walking down the hall, I'm always open to ideas and suggestions from the Regular Members. With respect to the broader public, as was mentioned, as Minister for open government I visited 14 communities with staff and our helpful consultant, and heard from the public. Sometimes not huge numbers, but we did visit every single riding. Similarly, with respect to the upcoming cannabis legislation, we have been seeking the opinions of the public. Staff has gone out to nine communities and I believe there have been more than 1100 online submissions. I am engaged both with the Regular Members and Cabinet Ministers, of course, but also with the public. That has been illustrated by my visiting many communities with respect to the issue of open government, and also having staff visit communities to assist us in the upcoming cannabis legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions to Ministers. Next on my list: Member Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question is for the Minister of Finance. Climate change is arguably the most pressing environmental issue of our time. We in the North experience the effects of climate change most severely as temperatures warm and permafrost and ice disappears. It's not enough to study or adapt to climate change. We also have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The government is working on a climate change framework, I'm aware of that, and also on an oil and gas strategy. How does the Minister of ENR balance these competing interests in Cabinet? Thank you.

Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct. Climate change is something we have been experiencing firsthand, and it's something that we have to adapt to, and we have all heard the federal government make their announcement on carbon tax and their desire to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They say it is about to get to 30 per cent of your 2005 levels. I think we are well ahead of that. We've also been proactive knowing that the federal government made the announcement, and we want to ensure that we can do what we can to have very little effect on the people of the Northwest Territories through the carbon tax. We've seen climate change firsthand here in the Northwest Territories and I think our biggest challenge is trying to adapt to it and work with those across the Northwest Territories to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. I think this government's got a number of programs and initiatives in place to help address that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions to Ministers. I have next on my list: Member Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Earlier today, my colleague Mr. Simpson asked a question about would the Ministers resign and honour the results of this process, and they said "no." They have cited a need for transparency and accountability, and yet in the Territorial Leadership Committee, which this process is modelled after, secret ballots were fine. Vote totals could be kept secret, but the process used to judge confidence has to be public. I find that very disingenuous to the reason we are here today, which is about accountability in ministerial performance. My question for each of the Ministers is: given that they are seeking greater transparency and will not honour the results of today's vote, will they commit to revising the Territorial Leadership Committee so that all leadership decisions in this Assembly are public on the floor of this House? Thank you.

Masi. Minister Abernethy.