Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Great question. My department, in particular ITI, has a number of initiatives that we work on this. Agriculture is the first one that comes to mind that would help to bring the cost of living down in the small communities. We have the Small Scale Foods Program that we have done in all 33 communities. We have the community gardens that we have done in all 33 communities. These sorts of things are definitely directly related to helping do that. We are working with the federal government to develop a national food policy which we hope is going to clearly support bringing down the cost of food and subsidies in the area of small communities, so we are working greatly with the federal government on that. As I mentioned earlier today, the CAP program is another one, I think, that is directly related to economic development to help and create employment and economic opportunities within the program that is delivered out of the Department of Infrastructure. That one is well taken up. It is always expended completely every year. We have $1 million that is directly invested into that. The traditional economy: we work along with ENR to try to facilitate that with the fur buying program to help support the hunters and trappers in all small communities in the Northwest Territories in particular. That is one of the best programs I think that we have in the government to help support people in the small communities. You know, as far as how we are trying to diversify our economy, the Great Slave Lake Fishery initiative. We want to expand that into small communities. We had an opportunity this year to go to Tsiigehtchic to help residents understand how they can get into the commercial fishery, and we are open to do that to all regions in the Northwest Territories. There's a number of initiatives that we have within the Department of ITI that help supports these types of things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as the previous speaker had mentioned, there was a fur harvesters program which through ENR and ITI is a great program for supporting small communities. On the finance side, I think that putting this government in a position where we are able to make infrastructure investments or match federal dollars for infrastructure investments. We've seen firsthand the contribution it has to small communities and small community employment. Also, I would like to mention that this summer, we had 347, I believe, summer students that were hired across the Northwest Territories. One of the challenges I put to the department is to ensure that we have all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories with summer students next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When I think about support for small communities, actually, a lot comes to my mind. Within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we have put money into small communities. We put a lot of money into small communities. In fact, that's reflected in our core needs report. The difference between 2009 and 2014, how the core needs in small communities have actually gotten better at the cost of bigger communities such as Yellowknife where the core needs have increased because of that, so I need to look at a balance as well. Small communities as well… Doing the housing survey; that is about asking the people, what do you want versus us sitting up here in our nice chairs and deciding what is best for people. It is on the ground. It is asking the people, what do you want, and listening to them, and revising our policy and programs because of that. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs: it's all about supporting small communities and communities in general. They provide extra support to small communities in regards to their community leadership and the supports they can do. They also provide great programming for youth. They provide leadership programs, and not only physical activity but leadership so that we can actually get more youth that are actually role models to the communities. The more role models we have, the healthier communities are; positive role models, not negative, of course. Women in leadership: doing the workshops. Women are huge decision makers in communities. Many communities, women are underrepresented. The more workshops that we do, the more women that take leadership roles, the better, the healthier, the communities will be. I believe that all departments that I oversee have done a lot for small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As is the case with other Ministers, I've had an opportunity to go around to many of the smaller communities including the Member opposite', smaller communities that I had the opportunity of visiting this summer. Some of the concerns I heard during those visits, not only in his riding but in other ridings, was the importance of land tenure and ownership. People want to have the ability to improve their houses, build their businesses, and they need certainty as to the ownership, and that is why we are hoping to address this issue of equity leases which hopefully will improve the economic situation in small communities. In the area of justice, one of the programs that has been quite successful is the legal aid outreach which has been delivering legal services to the more remote communities, and hopefully reducing the cost of those legal services that otherwise could probably be only obtained in the larger centres. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member's question seemed to be more focused on things that aren't in the mandate, so I'd like to talk about a few of the things that may not appear as direct lines in the mandate but are part of core business, or part of some of the things that we're doing. Ultimately, many of the things that we're doing in Health and Social Services are tied directly to the mandate in some capacity. There's no question that it is a challenge to ensure that residents in our small communities have equitable access to programs and services that are available to residents in the larger centres. During my time as Minister, I've made it a priority to get into as many communities, all communities, from the Northwest Territories to meet with residents, to hear from them, to hear about the issues that are important to them, but also to hear from them on recommendations on how to make improvements, because I truly believe that communities are the experts who can provide us real solutions, real local solutions. In that light, we've done a couple of things differently in the Department of Health and Social Services. We're trying new things. We've been working with the community of Tsiigehtchic to put in a pilot program where we could train local people to do local work and provide emergency response when there are crisis in the communities. When there have been some suicide and other challenges in communities, we have gone to communities. We have sent them the extra capacity into the communities to help the communities go through those crises, but we haven't directed or led those particular initiatives because the communities have some of the best ideas. We want to work with the communities. In two different communities in the Northwest Territories, Fort Good Hope and Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope provided us with a plan on how they wanted to move forward, and how we can be partners in addressing those issues. We're still waiting for a plan from Simpson, but they're working hard on a plan to help them address things like suicide and other things, and we want to work closely with them when they roll out that plan. Mr. Speaker, it's about working with the communities, hearing from the communities, taking their ideas. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know it's on the minds of many people throughout the territory. The Ministers are given a great responsibility through their departments, and I know I've heard many people say this, so I'd like to ask the Ministers: within your departments, are you taking a lead role in decision making, or are you simply reading the lines that the department gives you? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

---LAUGHTER

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Can't take it as notice, can we?

---LAUGHTER

No, I think one of the reasons is that we are where we are is our ability to take a lead role. I think it would be evident quick enough if we are just reading the lines that are given to us. We do have meetings with our departments. If there are some things we do not agree with, we let them know. If there are some items that the Members have raised with us, then we raise that with the departments. There is a lot of pushback between the Ministers and the department, and I think that's a healthy relation, like the relationship we have with the Regular Members. There's some give and take. There's some back and forth. We can't always agree on everything, but that's what makes this an interesting building to work in. The short answer to the question is, no. Personally, I take a lead role. Thank you.

Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think anybody who actually knows me, knows that I am not particularly a mouthpiece. I may talk a lot, but I'm not a mouthpiece for other people. I listen to the MLAs in this House; I listen to the people of the Northwest Territories. My role as a Minister is to bring political change, and change to the departments of Health and Social Services and the other departments that I have been responsible for. I know I do drive the departments crazy once in a while trying to bring these initiatives forward, pushing them forward as fast as we had, but I provide political direction to the departments. When it comes to answering MLA responses on constituent issues, there are some legislation limitations, and I'm not prepared to break legislation, but if there are barriers or problems with dealing with constituent issues, we need to work together to change those policies. We need to work together to change those pieces of legislation. When it comes to constituent issues or program issues, I am bound by the policies that exist, but I'm prepared to change them when appropriate, and when it's providing political direction, I'm giving the direction to the department. I do accept their wisdom and their experiences because some of them have different training than you and I have, and we do have to respect those people that are in the system, but the political direction is coming from me, from this Assembly. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course, we do listen to the MLAs in this House, and we also listen to the expertise that is provided by our departments, but ultimately, the political direction that we provide is ours. We are responsible for it. I am fortunate that at least one of the departments that I work with, Justice, I have long experience as a lawyer: approximately 40 years. In Lands, I have to rely more on their expertise because I am not as familiar with the department. Ultimately, however, the decisions are ours, and I provide political direction to them, and I do not simply always agree with what they suggest. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a feeling that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is laughing at this point. Do I take a seat and just leave things status quo, or am I the decision maker? MLAs notice that we have a five-day return thing for BFs for enquiries that are coming from people. I often send them back. I am sometimes late, often late actually, because I don't like the answers, and so I send them back to the departments and say, like, give me a right answer, give me something that actually makes sense, not the status quo as to how it has been. The whole transformation of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation… I don't want to pretend that was easy. That was huge. Nobody likes change. It is normal that people kind of like status quo. I have pushed that corporation hard and they are amazing. They have done outstanding work. No. Like I say, you can all stop laughing now in the corporation. I do take a leadership role. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm proud to stand here and say I take a lead role in making the decision making because first of all I was elected to be a Minister by all 19 Members here, and that's the role that we are assigned to: to make decisions on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories, and particularly the departments we were assigned to. My previous life, I was a private business owner my whole life. I had to make decisions about running a company, employing people, and their well-being since I was 18 years old, and I'm very proud to stand here and say that I've done that, and I work very hard at doing that. I feel that that type of experience has brought me to where I am today, to be able to lead these two departments on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. I think one of the things that hasn't been captured when we talk about the lead role playing and the decision making that we have to make is that when I am talking to constituents, a lot of people don't understand the process. A lot of the hardest decisions that we have to make, and decisions we have to make are in that Cabinet room amongst all my colleagues on this side of the House, and those get very contentious sometimes. They are probably the hardest place to make some of these decisions that we need to on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. I am proud to say if I don't think it is right I will stand up to not just my Cabinet colleagues but even to the Premier if need be on a decision that has to affect the people of the Northwest Territories, and I believe that, yes, I do take a lead role as a decision maker. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the first things that I think you need to establish is a good working relationship with your department and the regional centres to build that relationship, build that trust, work on their expertise, their knowledge. A lot of them have been employees with the government for a number of years. However, to find solutions, you do have to question the department, and you question the department not only with your experience, but also with experience and comments and direction from Regular Members, from Indigenous governments, from our partners that we work with on a regular basis, and I think we've done that. We listen to people in the Northwest Territories. We bring that back to the table, and we give direction to the department to make those decisions. As you heard Minister Schumann say, some of those decisions come to the Cabinet room and rely on Cabinet expertise, and knowledge, and input as well to make those decisions, but some of it also comes from working with committee and listening to committee. I think over the last two years being Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, we have seen some significant changes. Some of them might not have been very welcomed at the beginning, but those changes are going to make for a brighter future, better outcomes, better results for residents, for our families, and that's direction I've given as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment since I've been the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.