Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I think we're actually in an incredible position now that we have a Member of Parliament who is actually in the governing party. He also happens to be the brother of one of the Members of this Legislative Assembly. So, I think we've got a great opportunity to start building new relationships in Ottawa. We also have Members who have key relationships with different bodies and different groups in Ottawa. I think - this is a consensus government - we all must work together. We must utilize the relationships that we have and build upon those relationships.

If elected Premier, I'm intending to go down to Ottawa to meet with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, to start articulating some of the challenges and desires that we have as an Assembly of the 18^th Legislative Assembly.

But when it comes to some of the more specific projects that we're trying to move forward here in the Northwest Territories, it can't just be us. For example, things like the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We're going to need to make sure that we take leaders from the Sahtu and the Deh Cho with us when we go to Ottawa, so that we can really clearly articulate needs of people. I think we're talking the road into Whati. We're going to need to bring representatives from the Tlicho who can really talk to the needs. We're going to have to get onto the same page with these different governments, these different organizations, so that we're talking from the same page, from the same script, and we're looking for the same thing. I think those are the types of relationships that we need to develop, and we need to make sure that we're working together with our partners and that we're going to Ottawa with a common message. If we have a couple of asks, we'll get a lot more headway than if we have a thousand asks. So we need to, as an Assembly, start focusing our asks on what are the big picture items that we want to get out of Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. I'll turn it over to Mr. Bob McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Speaker-elect. Right off the bat we have to recognize that we're a month behind every other jurisdiction in engaging with the Government of Canada, so we have to take that into account as we develop our federal engagement strategy. We have a whole host of areas where we are looking for federal investment, and we have to make sure that we have a good idea of our priorities, because if we don't take a focused approach, then it's difficult to access the programs that we want to. So, we have to have a good plan, a good vision. I don't even think we have had the opportunity, other than to congratulate the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament, to make contact with key federal Ministers and we need to do that right off the bat, once we have a Premier and a Cabinet in place. We also have to go to Ottawa and engage them very quickly. I think that we need to also work with Aboriginal governments and MLAs so that we all agree what the priorities are when we go to Ottawa, then we begin to work on it.

Over the years, as a consensus government, we know that we've had to make contact with the leaders of the federal parties. Over the past four years, I've been meeting with Justin Trudeau on a regular basis. I've met him in other settings such as state funerals and so on. So, he's very familiar with the North. He's been north probably six or seven times, in his own estimation. Of course, it helps to have my brother as the Member of Parliament, although I told one of the media that I wouldn't use that...

---Laughter

...but that's the truth though.

Also, in the past it's very important to keep a good relationship, and I know the Prime Minister has always been able to keep things moving. When we're trying to get projects done, it helps when we get bogged down and we can go to the Prime Minister, and we can also have our Member of Parliament making sure everything stays on track. I think that will really benefit the Northwest Territories. All of the Members of Parliament and the Ministers, it's good to work with the Northern Caucus, it's good to work with the Aboriginal Caucus and the federal government, and we have to use every venue that's available to us to advance our goals and objectives so that we can further develop the North and provide jobs and opportunities here in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Next on my list, Mr. Nakimayak for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Thank you again, Bob and Glen, for answering some of the questions.

This may be three or four questions. This is my last question that I have. There are a lot of Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories. Our language, our culture is diminishing every day. I'm an example of that. I've lost my language. I'm doing my best to keep my culture.

Is there any sense in starting an arm for culture and language within the Northwest Territories, especially with the TRC's report on residential schools and survivors, to not only help the elders but also going into the youth moving forward? I think we need to focus on that.

My question is: How are we going to move forward from here, starting an arm for that, if possible, with the GNWT, as Premier?

Thank you, Speaker-elect. I guess I too lost my language. I used to be able to speak at least three languages. I think it's very important to deal with culture and languages and maintaining a way of life. I know that, as a government, we invest and provide funding to help promote traditional economy because that's one of the best ways to make sure that people can continue to live off the land and it's also one of the best ways to get funding into the small communities.

I know that on the Aboriginal languages, it would be a shame if we would see any one language or more than one disappear. As a government, it's very important for us to work very closely with the people in the communities, with the Aboriginal governments and find ways to maintain and revitalize the language and get more people to speak the language. The best way, of course, is for the youth to speak the language in their homes. I know people, even members of my family, who have taken Aboriginal language training and have been even able to converse in their Aboriginal languages.

We negotiate agreements with the Government of Canada for French language and also Aboriginal languages, and that helps significantly in this area. We, as a government, have taken the approach that the Aboriginal governments and communities are the best way to preserve and maintain the language, so the funding for Aboriginal languages goes directly to the Aboriginal governments.

There are cultural programs that funding is provided for, and it's very important to continue to have Aboriginal culture or maintain our culture, because that's what signals what unique people we are. We need to be able to show that and we need to preserve it. That provides for the pride and dignity of the people. It's a very important responsibility.

Mahsi, Mr. McLeod. I'll turn it over to Mr. Abernethy, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. During the 16^th Legislative Assembly, I actually participated in the review of our Official Languages Act here in the Northwest Territories. At that time, we did travel throughout the Northwest Territories and talked to different languages groups and heard the frustrations that they were expressing with respect to the loss of their language. We do know in the Northwest Territories there are some languages that are in critical condition, very close to being gone completely. We know that the Gwich'in and the Inuvialuit are struggling and the Tlicho is quite strong and doing well. We need to learn what's working in one area and find ways to translate to another area.

As a result of that report, we came up with a significant number of recommendations. I know, to date, not all of the recommendations have been implemented and we need to go back and reflect on the recommendations and then the follow-up recommendations from the 16^th Assembly to help the communities revitalize the language. Like my colleague said, it has to come from the languages groups. We need to be there as a support; we can't be a barrier. We've got to work with them in the ways that they feel are going to bring back the revitalization. I don't think the government should stand up and say you shall do such. In this case, it's definitely got to be a push back and we've got to be partners.

If Premier, I'm committed to going back and looking at some of the recommendations and make sure that we're still on track. If we haven't been moving on some, we'll certainly be able to find out why. I'll share that with Member so we can have discussions on how to move forward. We need to find ways to work with our communities and hear from them on how they intend to help revitalize our languages. Then we need more Members in the House speaking languages over time. There are a lot of great apps out there where you can go and you can learn words and phrases, and I would encourage all the Members to go to those apps and start using the languages in this House.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list, Mr. Thompson for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I'm going to advance on Mr. Blake's question here. Throughout the campaign and having listened to my colleagues here through the last three weeks - it seems like a year, but it's been three weeks - there is a challenge out there about accessing affordable nutritious food, which has an impact on our health and our children's ability to learn in school.

What are your plans to increase food security for all residents in the Northwest Territories, and most importantly, how are we going to fix the Nutrition North program?

Mahsi, Mr. Thompson. I'll turn it over to Mr. Abernethy, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I hope it's our plan moving forward. There has been a lot of discussion over the last number of weeks about the types of things and the priorities we need to set, and I think food security is one of the issues that has certainly come up a number of times. There are a number of things that we are currently doing, and there are a number of organizations out there who are doing a large amount of work. Recently, Ecology North, with a number of partners, has started trying to put forward an NWT food network that's going to help grow food and distribute food around the Northwest Territories. I think this is a great opportunity and I think the GNWT must be partners. We've also got a number of programs that are delivered through some of our departments, like ITI, that are focused on community gardens and Growing Forward and those types of things. We need to make sure that those are rolling out in the communities, again, to support the needs so they continue to produce food in our local communities.

There are also great organizations like the Territorial Farmers Association that is working with the government to develop an agricultural strategy for the Northwest Territories. We've got greenhouses in a large number of communities. I was in Paulatuk this summer and they had a greenhouse there. I was a little surprised, but quite happy to see it. Things are happening to support the growing of food here in the Northwest Territories.

In some of our smaller, more isolated communities, Nutrition North is still a program that's available, but we've heard, and I think we've all heard, that it's not working for our people, for our residents. That's not likely going to benefit the communities in the Deh Cho, but it will certainly benefit the communities in Nunakput. We need to work closely with the federal government to make sure they get that program right. They have committed to some change, so we need to make sure that we're there making sure our voice is heard moving forward.

There are a number of things we can do. I think this is part of diversifying the economy, as well, and we need to have some strategic investments in this area so that we can make sure that there is food being produced in communities and being distributed to the communities. We've also got fish that is being harvested in the Northwest Territories, and I think we're making progress there as well. There are a number of different things that are happening. We need to continue to work together and as an Assembly. I think we need to have a strategy for moving forward to address food supply in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. I will turn it over to Mr. McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Communities without all-weather roads are particularly affected by the high cost of food. These costs are affected by a complex set of variables; however, through a collaborative approach between Cabinet and Regular Members, community groups and residents, we can find solutions to improve the availability of affordable healthy food options for families and children.

Our efforts should focus both on the effort of lowering the cost of food itself and changes that result in more income for our residents. Part of the answer includes investing in infrastructure so that we can lower the cost of transporting food to communities, and the energy costs contribute to high food prices. For example, when I was in Colville Lake, they have the highest food costs anywhere in the Northwest Territories. If they order food from Edmonton, it's handled 12 times between Edmonton and Colville Lake. Those kinds of problems exist.

Part of it also includes promoting more efforts to produce food locally and to support the northern fishing industry. As a government, we fund harvester programs. Those harvester programs are very successful in having harvesters go out and hunt and trap and fish. As a child, growing up in Fort Providence, our whole world existed on foods, subsistence. We would catch rabbits, eat, hunt, fish, and anything we caught the family would eat it.

Also, agriculture is very important and the final component is, now that we will have a very improved, a very good ability to work with the new federal government to improve Nutrition North. When I used to work with Indian Affairs, Nutrition North was a very successful program and I think it needs to be expanded. I think we need to find a way to go back to the start of the program when the subsidy went directly to the northern resident. That seemed to work very well. When they changed it, the objective kind of changed.

We also need to increase the northern resident deduction so people have more money in their pocket and they will be able to buy more food or grow more food. Community gardens are very important. Everybody used to have community gardens, and I think by having those, that would really improve the availability of food. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. McLeod. Next on my list, Mr. Vanthuyne, Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. In recent months, issues surrounding Syria have brought the matter of immigration to the forefront. Many organizations and families in the North have shown interest in wanting to sponsor an immigrant family or individual. We, as a government, are engaged in a Population Growth Strategy but we lack a territorial immigration policy.

As leader of the government, would you support an NWT immigration policy? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Vanthuyne. I will turn it over to Mr. McLeod, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. If elected as Premier, I would love to have an immigration program, but right now immigration is a federal responsibility and so we have been hampered by our ability to increase our population because we have quotas that we have to live with. I think we have 160 quota and we have been able to increase our immigration on an incremental basis by, I think we are up 50 to 60 people. We would like to have it more in maybe the 1,000 range or so, but it is very difficult to do that.

With regards to Syrian refugees, we contributed $50,000 to the United Nations on behalf of the Syrian refugees. We are actively involved with the Government of Canada on Syrian refugees. We are looking at what we can do. We are working with city council, who has a committee of interested citizens to sponsor Syrian refugees. We looked at the process. In order to sponsor refugees, you have to be recognized as a sponsor. In the Northwest Territories we only have one sponsor that is registered, and that is one of the local churches which has gotten recognition through the national church arrangement. The officials in the Department of ECE are canvassing the churches to see how many would like to find a way to be recognized as an official sponsor, and I think, as more Syrian refugees come into Canada, we can get into that program by adding those sponsors and having everybody working together.

We also have a Foreign Investment Program through ITI which we need to... There is a lot of interest in foreign investment in the Northwest Territories with the influx of foreign tourists from China, Japan, Korea. There is lots of interest in building resorts and so on for these tourists to visit and live in, but we are hampered by a number of things. One is that we don't have enough resources in our foreign investment division to process all of the applications, so it has taken some time. It's frustrating to foreign investors. Again, we need to be able to access more immigration quota from the Government of Canada. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. McLeod. I'll turn it over to Mr. Glen Abernethy, Premier candidate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. The GNWT actually is supporting a couple of different programs here in the Northwest Territories to help increase the population by bringing immigrants or other individuals into the country. We have a Foreign Investment Program, as my colleague indicated, and we also have the Nominee Program, which is delivered by Education and ITI. These are programs that I think we are starting to see results in, in bringing some individuals into the Northwest Territories, which I think is a good thing.

When it comes to immigrants or refugees, as my colleague indicated, there is a quota system that is in place and we have been asked to obviously bring some in, but we have to find sponsors here in the Northwest Territories. I believe there is one sponsor at this time.

Having said all that, it suggests that maybe we need to have a bit more policy based on how we are approaching this. I wouldn't necessarily commit to developing a policy at this point because I would be more interested in hearing what the Member had to say and what Members thought about a policy to begin with. I do think it is something that we are going to be faced with more and more as time goes on, and I think it's something that this Assembly does need to talk about, so that when we are faced with situations where refugees are coming in, we are prepared, ready, and know where we stand and know what steps we have to take to support them appropriately. I certainly won't commit to it right now. I say that we need to have discussion as an Assembly and figure out how to move forward. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list, Mr. McNeely from Sahtu region.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. I would like to thank my colleague from Inuvik for his comments on the long talked about Mackenzie Valley Highway, and I look forward to working with my colleague in the Deh Cho, because it has to cross two jurisdictions.

Getting back to the questions, I am allowed one more. So, I am going to try to massage it a little bit here to squeeze in something that just popped up here.

Seeing both candidates are from the previous Assembly, the 17^th Assembly had some carryover priorities which were informed and put into our transition document. For the listeners in the audience out there, we have done some education in that area and along came our list of priorities. To summarize and to more or less have a few candidates providing answers, after today everybody is going home, leaving with the assumption of the get-go this is what our government is going to do underneath this leadership.

My question is: Summarizing what hasn't been done in the previous Assembly, hearing it over and over, in your view what one or two priorities you would see over and above the priorities set for this 18^th Assembly. There is still some unfinished business. So let's identify the unfinished business with listeners in the audience, what are they, one or two of them, or three for that matter, and as a suggestion you can include maybe your position in taking over the Nutrition North program. As we all know, it's a costly one, a controversial one, especially in my area along with other areas where it's all fly-in and no other way in with fresh food. Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. I will turn it over to Mr. Abernethy, Premier candidate.