Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today I am seeking this Assembly's support for the position of Premier of the 19^th Legislative Assembly. I believe my background provides me with the insight, experience, and education necessary to consider all needs of the Northwest Territories and guide this Assembly effectively as a consensus government. As a Minister who held seven portfolios over the last four years in the 18^th Legislative Assembly, I also gained a perspective on the operations and procedures within government, especially what worked and what didn't work. I believe I have the experience and commitment to lead this government within the true spirit of consensus government.

My heart is in the North. My family moved to Yellowknife 56 years ago, when I was a small baby. My partner, Rory, moved here in his early teens, and together we have a blended family with children and a grandchild living here. My commitment is to the long-term prosperity of the North, its people, and its programs and services that people need to live a healthy and prosperous life.

I am also a proud Metis woman, and my Indigenous mother and non-Indigenous father have instilled a sense of caring for all people.

Like many, my life was not always easy. I experienced the hardships of family addiction, violence, and homelessness. As a single parent of two young children, I understood that education was the key to not only my future, but also for theirs. I returned to school and obtained a degree in social work.

Before entering this Legislative Assembly, I dedicated 20 years to supporting the needs of our most marginalized populations. I understand from a personal and a professional perspective that we need to weigh in the needs of all sectors in defining our priorities, direction, and actions. As we move forward, I have confidence that you will find that I have a balanced perspective; I am open and honest; and, above all, I consider the needs of all people and all communities.

On October 9^th I listened to all MLAs who spoke on the needs of their constituents. I heard the need to consider the sustainability of the earth and the impacts of climate change; the need to consider the housing, health, and education wellness needs of our people and our communities; the need for addressing the economic crisis that the territory is facing; and the need to work together as we address these concerns.

The Premier and Cabinet are responsible for developing a four-year mandate that meets the priorities outlined by this Legislative Assembly. Collaboration within the consensus model is important to its success and, if elected Premier, I will ensure that Regular MLAs are included in the finalizing of the government's mandate to meet these priorities. I will also ensure that the mandate will have realistic outcomes and that all actions will include department leads and timelines to ensure accountability. As Premier, I will, with your help, make our vision a reality.

As Premier, I will also hold my Ministers accountable through public mandate letters that will outline the priorities of each department. Ministers and departments will be directed to work closely with Indigenous governments, NGOs, and service providers to provide comprehensive programming and supports.

I will not stand before you and tell you which priorities I think are most important, because they all are. I also believe that, if we are going to work within a consensus system, the priorities that need to be addressed will be defined together by all 19 Members. However, I want to take some time to discuss the priorities that I feel are important to me.

The Economy

Our economy is in trouble. Small businesses are struggling to survive, diamond mines are slowing down, and large, non-renewable resource businesses are slow to start. We need to act fast and we need to act now to ensure jobs for today and jobs for tomorrow.

As Premier, I will work with Ministers to develop a 10-year strategic economic plan that will include Indigenous government engagement; departmental and stakeholder needs; a review of potential supports, including federal funding sources; royalties; investor potential; taxes, recognizing the already high cost of living; export potential and a review of trade barriers; tourism; knowledge economy; a risk management plan; and standing committee engagement.

I will also work with relevant Ministers and standing committee to develop a four-year action plan based on a strategic economic plan that includes measurable actions and timelines. The plan must be flexible to match any funding possibilities that may arise, and be reviewed or revised on an annual basis.

Recognizing we have almost 45,000 residents and 33 communities, prosperity for all must be a guiding principle. Economic planning, infrastructure allocations, procurement, and investments must be done with this in mind, and our economic strategy must consider the needs of the larger and the smallest of our communities.

All residents want to know that prosperity, jobs, and property values are secure for the long term, and we must work together to meet the needs of all.

The mineral resources sector provides 40 percent of our gross domestic product. It is, and will continue to be, an important part of our economy. However, we need to build on the successes of previous governments to meet our economic needs.

As Premier, I will:

• Give direction to bring together industry and environmental experts, Indigenous and community government representatives, and Regular Members for a summit on the current and future state of resource development in the Northwest Territories and how we can find collaborative solutions to move forward together in a sustainable manner.
• Develop the regulations for the Mineral Resources Act as a priority, to be done collaboratively with Indigenous governments and in consultation with all stakeholders, including the Chamber of Mines, Chamber of Business, and community governments.
• Increase investment in mineral exploration and consider strategic infrastructure investments that can extend mine life and help reduce exploration costs for future mining investments.
• Support diversification by expanding the tourism market internationally, with a focus on promoting the smaller communities.
• Continue investing in green energy and renewable technology, farming, fishing, forestry, biomass production, tourism, culture, arts, and film, and the Indigenous traditional economy.
• Growing the knowledge economy by creating a polytechnic university that will bring additional research funding to the North, maintain the knowledge in the North, and allow us to become leading experts in addressing climate change, maintaining and revitalizing Indigenous languages, and development of environmentally friendly renewable and non-renewable technology.
• Continue to support the Small Community Employment Fund and the Small Community Committee to oversee the program design and funding distribution, and to better support the range of needs within our economy, change the name of Industry, Tourism and Investment to the Department of Economic Diversification and Development.

At the same time, we need to do more to support local businesses and strengthen our procurement policies. We have to invest in our people and focus on getting our own residents to work, which will help increase our revenues, provide pride in our people, and lessen the reliance on social programs. As Premier, I will ensure that this is implemented through developing infrastructure projects in partnership with Indigenous and community governments, with the goal of having economic development opportunities in all regions of the Northwest Territories.

Working in partnership with Indigenous and community governments to lobby the federal government for large-scale projects such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway, Taltson expansion, and the road into the Slave Geological Province that will create good jobs and support sustainable development.

If chosen as your Premier, I commit to work with Cabinet and Regular Members and meet with all Indigenous and community governments to develop a territorial-wide economic strategy and work in partnership to pursue funding from the new federal government. However, we must ensure that we are fiscally responsible and working in a strategic, sustainable manner. We need to look at how we can deliver quality programs in the long term, so we have to think differently about how we do business.

We will need to make some hard decisions and look at our programs and services to ensure that they are still meeting their intent and look at ways that we can provide them in a more efficient, effective manner.

Protecting our Environment

We're at the forefront of climate change. The sustainability and future of the Northwest Territories for future generations needs to be a priority of this government, and all actions taken by the GNWT as we move forward.

If elected Premier, I commit to:

• The establishment of a climate change working group made up of Cabinet members, Regular MLAs, and community and Indigenous leaders to help advance the territorial climate change priorities, and a full review of the 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework and the 2019-2023 Action Plan to ensure that they are meeting our needs.
• Supporting small communities in their efforts to get off diesel and develop cleaner sources of energy production.
• Increasing funding to Arctic Energy Alliance to allow improved programs and services across the territory; and
• Changing the name of Environment and Natural Resources to Environment and Climate Change.

The work the Government of the Northwest Territories is doing to combat climate change needs to be given the recognition and the focus that it deserves. Any new infrastructure needs need to reflect our changing climate and incorporate measures to lessen the need for non-renewable resources.

The polytechnic university can be a leader in working with Indigenous knowledge keepers in climate change adaptation and mitigation research. This includes becoming leaders in contaminated site remediation.

If selected as Premier, I will also focus on international relationships that not only to look to their best practices on climate change, but also to share our own.

Investing in People

While resource development makes up a significant part of our economy, our greatest resource is our people. I will not stand here and say that we can make a significant dent in the cost of living in the NWT. However, what I can say is, by investing in our people and giving them the foundation that they need for success, we can stabilize the cost of living.

As our economy changes, and with our current debt limit, we must be creative and strategic in our expenditures, while at the same time trying to meet the needs of our residents. As Premier, I will:

• Give direction to look for innovative practices to address the CMHC housing funding, which will end in 2038. This could include placing a higher priority on homeownership and lease-to-own options for residents who are able to maintain their own homes, which will allow us to build more homes.
• Amalgamate the Department of Lands and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs as a more cost-effective and efficient way of delivering the services needed by Indigenous and community governments.
• Place a higher emphasis on senior residences to meet the growing demographic. In communities where able, senior residences should be based on a cost-recovery model by incorporating market and subsidized units.
• Develop a model for affordable universal childcare across the NWT, whether it be at a reduced cost or free. We will have to explore the options and work toward this in the long term.
• Place a higher focus on pre- and postnatal and parenting supports to assist in increasing the number of children developmentally ready for school.
• Increase support and focus for the JK to 12 education system, recognizing the critical developmental milestone periods, with the goal of supporting our youth to successfully graduate.
• Make a reality the polytechnic university by building on three strong communities, three strong campuses, and at least 21 strong community learning centres.
• Increase focus on rehabilitation and restorative justice and partnerships with educational and wellness support and Indigenous governments and organizations, with the goal of successfully reintegrating offenders into society, housing, and employment options.
• Study options for specialized courts to better suit the needs of vulnerable residents with addictions and mental health issues.
• Add supports to Health and Social Services, as well as focusing on a stronger recruitment and retention strategy. Training Northerners for these roles also needs to be a key priority.
• Pilot a guaranteed income model with long-term income support clients. This will assist people in having sustainable income, which promotes accessing additional employment options and reduces the administration time and cost for the Government of the Northwest Territories.
• An increased focus on children in care to ensure they are provided the same standard of care we expect for our own children. We must also explore options with Indigenous governments for them to take the leadership role for our children in care.
• The use of an equity-based and gender-based analysis in any new program or service delivery to ensure we are truly focused on services that meet the needs of our residents.

We also need to revisit our decentralization policy to ensure the benefits of decentralization can be felt in the regions.

Modern Treaties and Self-government

The settling of modern treaties and providing supports for self-government are critical, both for the wellness and prosperity of Indigenous people, but also to help restore confidence to potential investors that the Northwest Territories as a place to do business. I believe a core component to completing these agreements is trust. I have made it a personal priority to be honest, fulfill my commitments, and foster good working relationships with Indigenous governments, and I believe this will be an asset as we continue this process.

It's time to focus more on collaboration and partnerships, and that means changing the way we interact with Indigenous governments. If elected as your Premier, I will meet on a regular basis with the leadership of all Indigenous governments that are in negotiations, in an effort to advance negotiations and address any obstacles.

We must advance our shared goal of a strong and sustainable future on the foundation of respect, recognition, and shared responsibility. We need to conclude the outstanding agreements in order to bring increased certainty to land and resource management and economic opportunities for communities and regions. It's about relationships. It's about working together. Let's get these agreements completed so we can move forward on building our economy and building strong communities and people.

Intergovernmental Relationships

I said relationships are key to success, and, as such, it's imperative that we work with our Member of Parliament so we have a strong voice in Ottawa. We need to work with our Indigenous and community governments if we are truly going to represent the needs of all residents.

As Premier, I commit to the development of a strategic federal engagement plan that takes into consideration the needs of Regular MLAs and Indigenous and community governments so we have a shared message and approach to lobbying Canada for what we need. These meetings will be the basis of a strong lobbying effort and bring representatives from all governments together in Ottawa to meet with federal ministers and bring forward our common concerns.

We must also build strong alliances with our territorial and provincial counterparts to ensure everyone is aware of our exceptional challenges in the North. The three territories working in partnership on issues, when applicable, has been extremely beneficial, and we need to foster these partnerships as we go forward. As a consensus government, we must all work together. The non-partisan political structure we have provides us the luxury of being able to work collaboratively with any federal or provincial or territorial government. We must utilize the strength that we have in our consensus government to build strong, nonpartisan relationships with all governments.

In conclusion, my message today is built on experience and our past efforts as a government. I believe we must learn from our past to determine our future. We will have many challenges ahead. However, if we work together within the true spirit of consensus government, we will be able to tackle these challenges together and achieve ultimate success for this Assembly, for all communities, and for all residents of the Northwest Territories.

I will work within a philosophy of inclusion, transparency, and accountability. I am committed to fostering a working environment that is centred on engagement, collaboration, and innovation, and I will carry the ultimate goal of providing the best programs and supports to all residents of the Northwest Territories within my heart. I would be honoured to serve as your Premier in the 19^th Legislative Assembly, and I respectfully request your support. Thank you.

Masi, Mr. Chair. [Translation] I would like to acknowledge that we are on Chief Drygeese Akaitcho Territory. I would like to acknowledge that, in this House and in the Northwest Territories, we stand on the land of Dene, Metis, Inuvialuit, and NWT Cree.

Congratulations to all the newly elected MLAs. I look forward to serving in the 19^th Legislative Assembly with all of you. Masi cho to the constituents of Monfwi for their confidence in me as their representative in the Legislative Assembly. It has been a privilege to serve the Tlicho people for the last 14 years and an honour to continue serving for the next four years. Masi to my wife, Dianne, and my children, Jayde and Jesse, Cheyenne, Sahara, Denae, Ty, and our grandson, Ares, for their love and support.

I am Jackson Lafferty. My father was Maurice Lafferty. He spent much of his life on the land. He was a trapper, a dog musher, and provided for us what he harvested. He was adopted, too, and raised by Mary Adele Lamouelle. My grandmother also had a hand in raising me, as I was the oldest grandson. My mother is the late Dora Marie Lafferty. She was a Tlicho interpreter for the Behchoko Health Centre. Her parents were Pierre and Margaret Mantla, who raised their children on the land. To this day, I look at my uncle. [End of translation]. It is the Dene way. Introducing ourselves in this way allows us to situate ourselves and gives context to relations we have with each other. It shows our history. Where we came from, and paves the way for the future. This is the way I would like to see the Government of the Northwest Territories working. With an understanding of each other and our people. Knowing where each of us comes from and building a relationship from there so that we can move forward together with common understanding.

We need to serve in the spirit of Dene Nawo: with good intentions. We need to serve within a culture that values respect, listening and cooperation. I have been involved in governance for half my life - 25 years. As a young adult I got involved early in local and regional politics. I served 14 years at the Legislative Assembly, in the administrations of three different premiers. I served as a Regular MLA and I served as a Cabinet Minister for 8 years. In the last Assembly I was entrusted with the Speaker's chair. I understand the roles and responsibilities of all those various positions.

[Translation] I have also had the opportunity to work among some of the great leaders among them. [End of translation]

[English translation not provided]

The late Pierre Beaverho, a very well respected Elder from Whati, gave me some advice when I first began politics. He talked about the importance of promoting our languages in all our day to day events and gatherings. Our language, our way of life, our culture make us who we are. We must never forget it. Pierre told me if I was going to be a leader, to do it in my own language. His advice to me as kawi (or leader) was to stay true to yourself. To always do what you believe is right.

Pierre Beaverho also spoke to me about the Dene drum and its meaning. The beat of the drum is the heartbeat of the people. Its shape stands for harmony and unity of all people. It is not by chance that our Legislative Chamber is circular, like a drum. Pierre told me to carry the message of the drum forward in gatherings and meetings. To share the meaning of unity. Masi, Pierre, for these words. As a rookie band councilor, in my 20s, these were very powerful words.

I have held these close to my heart and they have led me since. I often returned to Pierre for his advice. So, as we serve in this House, let's never forget the drum, and all it stands for. That includes a consensus style of government that recognizes, regardless of our disagreements, that all ideas and opinions matter and have worth. Working collaboratively, in a consensus system strengthens and unites us in a way that party politics never can.

But have we always worked in that spirit of consensus? Have we displayed unity and strength? From my perspective as Speaker, as Minister, and as an MLA, I don't think we have. That is where this Assembly, under the right leadership, can make a difference. I believe it is possible for the Executive and Regular Members to generally work together to achieve a common cause and a collective vision. Northerners demand it. For the sake of our youth, our education system, community wellness, decent housing for all, economic diversity, climate change, caribou, and many other challenges that confront our territory, we need a leader that will work with all 18 Members in the spirit of servant leadership, one who is open-minded and a good listener, and one who explores all sides of issues and opportunities before making a decision; a leader who has respect for different perspectives, one who will collaborate and work with all levels of government in order to get the job done; a leader who looks beyond their own interests for the greater good of all, who inspires others to do the same. A leader who leads to serve. I believe I am that leader.

During the 18^th Assembly, there were no small communities represented on Cabinet. Ministers were only drawn from Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik, and Fort Smith; large urban centres, very different from the 33 small communities that make up the rest of the territory. This was a barrier to consensus in the 18^th Assembly. It cost the Executive a proper understanding of the challenges of life in the small communities where most of us live, places without all-weather roads, banks, daily air services, hospitals, full-time policing, or even decent food. I am pushing for an Executive that represents all parts of the Northwest Territories so we can truly represent and serve our people in a generalized spirit of consensus.

The October 1^st general election has given our territory much to celebrate. It was conducted in a spirit of fairness and efficiency that nine-tenths of the world's voters can only wish for. Most remarkable of all, women today occupy 50 percent minus one of the seats in this Chamber. This milestone will have a lasting impact on policy decisions and outcomes of this government. It is an outcome that I welcome with all my heart.

Finally, the election has delivered a crop of bright and committed MLAs representing incredible diversity, skills, talents, and experience. Among us, MLAs are experts in Indigenous governance, engineering, healthcare, media, law, climate change, business, social issues; each and every one ready to make a difference in the lives of our constituents.

The NWT deserves a Premier who, through collaboration, can incorporate these diverse perspectives and experience into Cabinet decision-making and lead us to serve the people of the Northwest Territories to the best of their needs. I am up for the task. I know that each of you is equally committed to collaborative tasks at hand, as well.

That is not say that it will be an easy road. The challenges are very complex, critical to the well-being of our constituents. The challenges far outstrip the fiscal resources available to us. Furthermore, the GNWT does not have exclusive jurisdiction over the Northwest Territories. We share governance with municipalities, the constitution entrenched with Indigenous governments, and other Indigenous governments seeking settlement of their claims. The federal government also is a crucial partner and primary source of revenue. The consensus principle applies to our dealings with these important players. With trust, patience, hard work, and the right leadership, it can succeed in the most difficult circumstances.

In our priority-setting around the table, MLAs discussed economic prosperity. We all recognize that there is a need for economic diversification to build a northern economy. There are many opportunities and tools to encourage development in our territory. This is just one key objective that we set for ourselves.

All my experience in government administration and all my hard-earned political skill, I dedicate to delivering those priorities. I pledge that to you now.

On specific issues, I pledge the following as Premier. I will ensure the GNWT supports, with respect and integrity, those Indigenous governments seeking settlements of their outstanding land claims agreements. I pledge to collaborate and cooperate with Indigenous governments to establish meaningful, equitable, and model relationships. I will use my intergovernmental experience to strengthen our relationship with the federal government and to move them to a better understanding of our unique realities in the Northwest Territories.

I commit myself to improving the implementation of development strategies and the development of a clear and more efficient regulatory process to encourage further investments and opportunities here in the Northwest Territories. I will support the enactment of mining regulations that respect the environment and our changing climate, doing so in collaboration with all stakeholders, including Indigenous governments and business owners.

To help diversify our economy, I will support business development, especially in small communities and with Indigenous governments. Targeted areas will include tourism, ecotourism, research and development, arts and culture, as well as the development of infrastructure. I will work with communities to dissolve barriers to procurement and contracting and help strengthen our skilled labour force.

I will ensure that the wisdom of our elders is taken into account in planning for climate change and that Indigenous knowledge has the same weight as science.

Under my Premiership, the GNWT will collaborate with the federal government to ensure food security and reduce costs, especially in smaller communities, and that communities will be involved. Food security includes agriculture and traditional harvesting.

I promise that the Northwest Territories will continue to lead the country in reconciliation initiatives in the wake of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the federal Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

I have already led the way by creating mandatory modules teaching the history and legacy of residential schools as part of the school curriculum. I will be a strong ally in language revitalization, including research and the encouragement of youth to speak their Indigenous languages.

I pledge to work in close collaboration with communities and with Indigenous governments, the federal government, and non-profit groups to find viable solutions, such as Housing First, to the housing crisis that we face, especially in small communities and especially with respect to displaced and homeless people.

I pledge my support for a polytechnic university on par with institutions in the South. I want to encourage our post-secondary students, the graduates, to continue their higher education here in the Northwest Territories and to pursue their careers here in the Northwest Territories, instead of taking their talents south.

With respect to health and wellness, I want to make sure that no Northerners are left behind. This means strengthening reconciliation efforts and supporting individual wellness in culturally relevant ways. It means better communication between departments, communities, and Indigenous governments.

Ensuring no one is left behind means integrative wraparound social services. It means supportive, innovative approaches, like the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, FOXY, and SMASH. It means restorative justice options, connecting with elders and with the land.

Ensuring no one is left behind means a greater focus on accessibility and affordability of early childcare. Finally, ensuring no one is left behind means ensuring that services are in place for our seniors, for addiction treatments, and for our mental health clients. I pledge my heart to ensuring that no one is left behind.

It is not possible to catalogue my responses to every issue that we face. Time doesn't allow, but I am an excellent listener, and I have respect for different perspectives. If elected Premier, I commit to working as a team to explore all sides of issues or opportunities before making a decision.

As we serve the people of the Northwest Territories, we are reliant on the expertise of those who work in the public service. Our public service is a resource to be cherished and honoured. It is the professionals skilled and dedicated to the people of the Northwest Territories. This also applies to the unions who work diligently to protect workers' rights and workers' welfare.

As the Premier, I will provide the leadership necessary to keep our senior government staff focused completely on the priorities set by this House. Under my Premiership, senior staff will engage more with the people of the North in their communities. The same goes for Indigenous governments.

I pledge to take our excellent, high-calibre civil service and, within four years, make it even better. By better, I mean a tighter ship and greater efficiency. Deputies and assistant deputies will be required to search out and eliminate duplications and overlap. There are no other ways, if we are to find the dollars needed to fund the priorities that we have set.

The next four years present an opportunity to both build on good work done by many people before us, as well as an opportunity to work together to tackle the issues that we know our residents face today; the cost of living, health and wellness, education, employment, homelessness, food and income security, the need to support the many northern families living with the legacy of residential schools, and the results of the loss of Indigenous language in our culture.

It is my goal in the next four years that people will be able to look back at the 19^th Assembly as a government that put collaboration and cooperation first, a government that worked together for the good of all of the people of the Northwest Territories. It will be a government of strong, productive relationships, working with communities, Indigenous governments, and the Government of Canada. It will be a government in which Cabinet and Regular Members found a way to work closely together to produce the best programs and services for all Northerners; an NWT united behind a collective vision that leaves no one behind.

If elected Premier, I promise that every Member's voice will be heard in this House. Every community will be represented. My priority is to build upon our elders' concept of consensus government, to work together in the spirit of Dene Nawo, good intent for the betterment of our people in the Northwest Territories. I believe that we will work together in the spirit of collaboration. With all levels and departments within the government, we can work in the true spirit of the drum, that we can achieve a better future, and we can be a united voice and vision for the NWT.

[Translation] If I am Premier, I promise every Member's voice will be heard, and every community will be represented. My priority is to build upon our elders' concept of consensus government. We are all here today with the same vision for the North. Let's all work collaboratively together and achieve our common northern goal. We will be like one people. We are all here to work in this Chamber. Each one of us will present what we will be working on. Thank you. [End of translation]

Mahsi. Members of the 19^th Assembly, I respectfully and humbly put my name forward for your consideration as Premier. Although this is my first time here as an elected representative, I feel like our territory is at a crossroads, with high levels of uncertainty about our economic and social future. I believe it is our duty as Members of this Assembly to provide that certainty, some hope for all residents, that they have a secure future, no matter what they do for a living, no matter which community they live in, and no matter what their personal circumstances are.

I am here today to ask for your support because of my father, Frank Laviolette. After my mother passed away in 1995, I began spending more time with "Big Frank." I was a businesswoman, and my husband and I were at a point where we were contemplating our own future. I had been a witness to my father's transition from bison rancher to politician. He established the first Aboriginal political organization in the NWT, attended Dene nation meetings, and was instrumental in the political evolution of the Salt River First Nation. He started talking to me about Salt River affairs. I originally wanted no part of it. As my sister pointed out to him, I was there to spend time with him because he was lonely, but my persistence comes from him. He was not going to stop suggesting I get involved.

I started to see politics as part of my future, and, in 2007, I got involved in the Salt River First Nation. In life, business, and politics, I have overcome adversity and challenges, realized opportunities, suffered loss, and experienced success. I always believed in what I was trying to do. I believed in my vision of where I was going. I believe now our territory needs a vision, building on the accomplishments of previous governments but doing things in different ways. While there are proven ways to develop, implement, and evaluate government policy, I believe our residents want us to do new things in new ways. They do not want the status quo. We have elected 12 new MLAs, including myself, as proof. They want positive changes to move our territory forward with healthy people, a safe and pristine environment, and a thriving economy and business community.

Earlier in our deliberations, we outlined our priorities for this Assembly. We have all been entrusted with looking after the people, the environment, and the economy of the NWT. If chosen to be Premier, I believe one of our first priorities should be our Aboriginal people. The NWT is a leading jurisdiction in our country for recognition of Aboriginal rights, so I believe it's time for the Government of the Northwest Territories to fully endorse and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

It is also time to settle outstanding Indigenous land and resources negotiations for the Akaitcho, the Deh Cho, and the NWT Metis as quickly as possible. We should also fight to have both reserves in the NWT recognized by Canada as federal reserves. We have heard from many leaders across the territory: the Government of the Northwest Territories is standing in the way of outstanding land claims. We have an obligation to truly walk the talk and seriously support the settlement of these claims in order to move forward. We should not be an obstacle to settling these claims, and we should be actively moving to remove other obstacles to settling these claims.

Settling Indigenous lands and resources negotiations will provide certainty for Indigenous governments to begin to draw a jurisdiction down on self-governance, bringing programs and services closer to the people they serve and economic opportunities if they choose to develop their lands and resources. We have all heard of the potential income and the huge positive impacts these agreements have on resource exploration in the NWT. The completion of these agreements would only bring certainty to industry, whether they are exploring on Indigenous lands or lands that are retained by the government.

The health system in the NWT compares very favourably to that of other jurisdictions across the country. However, we need to make improvements by having doctors who live in the NWT and not simply dispense medical services as locums. In my home community, I have benefitted on and off from seeing the same physician for extended periods of time, but we do need to do more to offer that level of service consistently to our residents. We must work together to support our healthcare workers and instill continuity in our health system so that our sick and elderly feel that they have a doctor who is their doctor, a doctor who knows them, who knows their medical history. Continuity will ensure that our health system develops an environment of prevention. As statistics show, millions upon millions of dollars are spent on treatment. Monies could be saved by promoting healthy lifestyles for all residents. Money spent on prevention has huge returns on the health system and our society.

I believe one of the wisest and best investments we can make as a government is in our children, setting the stage for their journey through life. We have all spoken about the importance of childcare to help our residents work and the positive impact this may have on our economy. Creating a universal subsidized childcare program is a must if we are to set the table for the people to work. Investing in early childhood development is the first and most essential building block in ensuring wellness and increasing our graduation rates.

Offering post-secondary education opportunities in the NWT by supporting the plan to develop a polytech university/University of the North is vital. When I was a child, there were many tradesmen in my home town, the majority of whom obtained their journeyman status right in Fort Smith. Currently, our territory suffers from a lack of qualified trades personnel. I believe it's time for us to re-examine the model that produced so many qualified tradespeople. A polytech university would go a long way in filling this void.

We have an opportunity through the Aurora Research Institute to be a leading jurisdiction for the use, study, and sharing of the polar satellite data. Can we support and revitalize our connection to Aboriginal languages and traditional lifestyles through our university? We must work to ensure this is a truly unique university where people across the North, Canada, and other parts of the world will want to come to study.

We have to work to improve how the Government of the Northwest Territories addresses Child and Family Services. Previous governments have examined how other jurisdictions provide services to children in care and looked at what is successful and what is not. Implementation of the recommendations is essential if we are to improve the lives and the future of our children and families. Supporting our social workers and foster parents are important elements of working towards better services for children in care, but our goal should be to keep families together and reunited. We need to do everything we can to achieve this, avoiding children in care becoming statistics in the justice system, giving them better chances of becoming productive members of society.

As Premier, I would like to look closely at the mandate of the NWT Housing Corporation. I see great potential to resolve many social housing issues we face across the NWT by allowing people who can afford to be homeowners to become homeowners. Only people who find themselves in a permanent unfortunate situation should remain in social housing. We need to encourage and support others to transition into homeownership. In addition, the Housing Corporation should work to improve market housing across the NWT by providing incentives and programs, which encourage homeowners to maintain and upgrade their dwellings.

Pilot projects that support homeownership by leveraging third-party resources should be expanded. We know homeowners take pride in their property. Providing better housing overall for NWT residents should be the mandate of the NWT Housing Corporation.

Across our territory, investing in infrastructure may be one of the most important investments the Government of the Northwest Territories can make. Infrastructure has to be built in order to maintain our territory in good working order. However, we must look at each infrastructure project through social, economic, and environmental lenses in order to ensure positive impacts on our communities as we build our roads, schools, and health centres.

We must plan to manage our debt to safeguard the next generation from the burden of unmanageable finances. We need to work with the Indigenous governments and the federal government to increase the speed in which money flows to our territory and to explore project funding models that leverage resources to get more projects done to support our communities and our economy. We hear lots of announcements of federal funding coming to our territory, but with very little impact on our infrastructure deficits. Federal fundings are scheduled far into the future and are spread over many years. As your Premier, I would address this issue with the federal government as soon as possible.

Expansion of the Taltson river dam is vital to the entire Northwest Territories. It will create a climate of new opportunities, countless new jobs, lower the cost of living and doing business in the NWT, and provide new training opportunities to the trades, giving new hope to the people of the Northwest Territories. We know that Aboriginal governments want to be involved in the Taltson expansion from regulatory, environmental, and business opportunity perspectives.

Let me touch briefly on the conservation economy. Recently, Thaidene Nene was established in the east arm of the Great Slave Lake. This park, along with other parks and protected areas, offer many opportunities for our people to participate in the conservation economy. These new parks differ greatly from those of the past as, although they are there for all to enjoy, they guarantee traditional pursuits by those who have made use of the lands since time immemorial.

Continued support of the tourism industry is essential if we are to remain competitive with other jurisdictions and grow to encompass our new policies and other initiatives.

Land managements must be done in a partnership with our Indigenous people, which they share the land, and work together so that our Indigenous partners don't see it as a government encroaching on their land.

As your Premier, I believe we should place a heavy emphasis on supporting small business. Incentives provided to small business, such as tax breaks, business incentive policies, no collateral access to funding, and technological support will help small business exceed. We need to work together to expand tourism beyond the territorial capital and make sure our own northern operators are the ones benefiting the most from tourism. Small business is truly the way we can turn our economy around and put our people to work.

The cost of living in the NWT is continually on the rise. Many of our families struggle to put food on the table. Energy costs can be staggering. Energy sources that reduce the cost of power can be an incentive to families to make their homes more energy efficient while reducing their carbon footprint.

In addition, we in the NWT will be doing our share to combat climate change, which has harmful impacts on us. We only need to drive our highways and see the shoreline erosion in communities like Tuktoyaktuk to see the serious impact it has had and continues to have on our territory.

My intention as Premier would be to visit all your constituencies, so that I can hear firsthand what your constituents need to make the North a better place to live and improve their lives. I will ensure that Ministers and deputy ministers visit your communities to meet with you and your leadership to raise their awareness about the issues currently facing you and collectively develop a plan to address concerns in the spirit of cooperation.

Today, I have risen to ask you to give me an opportunity to be your Premier. I feel I have the personal qualities required for a Premier of a consensus government; strength, compassion, and perseverance. Together, we are choosing political leaders for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the next four years. No matter what the outcome, we are all the same team, doing what our residents want us to do, making the NWT a better place to live, work, and do business.

I hereby commit to forming the necessary partnerships with all levels of government, Indigenous governments, local and federal governments, as well as the private sector, and also with all of you from our deliberations. Since we were elected and here in this Assembly today, I see a passionate group of MLAs who care. Solutions and decisions made here in the Legislative Assembly affect all people of the North. We have an obligation to the people of the Northwest Territories to set the stage for hope, cooperation, and equality. The people of the NWT deserve a government which is accountable and transparent, working collaboratively in their best interest.

This is my pledge to you to give me the opportunity to lead our collective efforts to make things better for all Northerners, from Sachs Harbour to Fort Smith. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Over the past couple of weeks, a number of people have asked my opinion on this new Assembly, and the word that always comes to my mind is "refreshing." There is a sense of renewal in the air and a sense that we have the opportunity to finally start making the kind of changes that the voters in the last two elections have clearly demanded.

In order to do that, we must first begin to address some fundamental issues that are at the heart of our ability to govern and our legitimacy as a government, including accountability; the functioning of consensus government; a relationship with the public service, the public, and other governments; and the relationship between the capital and the rest of the territory. These issues are the foundation of our decision-making process and, if we wish to make progress in the territory and advance a bold, long-term vision, then we need to start with a strong foundation. These issues, all of which lie squarely within the purview of the office of the Premier, are what I will be discussing today.

There are also a number of very important issues that I won't be discussing; economic diversification, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and so on. While I have definite opinions about what we need to do in regard to those areas, the priorities and goals of the next government will be determined by the Assembly as a whole when the elected 19 Members meet next week. I am not going to presume what those will be. What I am going to talk about today are the changes that I think need to come out of the Office of the Premier in order for this Assembly to achieve those goals.

For those watching who may not be familiar with our system of government, the role and powers of the Premier in our consensus style of government differ from those in a party-based system. In a party system, the party's platform is developed independently from the legislature and, once elected, the Premier is given broad powers to implement that platform, including the power to appoint and remove Cabinet Ministers.

In our system, the Assembly as a whole sets the priorities and has the sole discretion to appoint and remove Ministers. This means that our Premier has less coercive power than provincial Premiers and must therefore focus more on ensuring that there are strong working relationships between all Members of the Assembly in order to get things done. In fact, relationships are central to the role of Premier; relationships with Ministers, Regular Members, Indigenous governments, the federal government, communities, industry, and the public. These are all interrelated and, if the Premier cannot maintain positive relationships with all of these entities, the effects are felt across our entire society.

I have become quite familiar with these effects over the last four years; the union negotiations, the red alert, the pettiness seen in this Assembly, the discontent of Indigenous governments that we heard yesterday in our meetings, and so on. This is what spurred me to put my name forward for Premier.

I don't want to disparage our current Premier. I believe that he has always acted with the best intentions of the territory in mind and, if I had an issue, I knew that I could always walk to his office or pick up the phone and he would be willing to talk. However, I think that the territory will benefit from a new approach. People have lost faith in our system. They have lost faith in our ability to deliver results, and many people believe that the system is no longer fair. I can tell you that that is how I felt, knowing that my vote never once mattered in the last Assembly. Everything was a done deal before it ever hit the floor.

I don't always need to get my way. In life, you win some and you lose some. That's fine. I can accept that, if the system is fair. What I won't accept is a situation in which a vote that is meant to represent the will of the people of Hay River is meaningless. That is unacceptable. We can do better. We need to restore people's faith in our system by ensuring that everyone's vote counts and everyone's opinion is considered.

There are lessons to be learned from the last Assembly and, regardless of who the next Premier is, they need to be addressed if we wish to serve the people of the Northwest Territories to the best of our collective abilities. The first issue that we need to address is accountability. This isn't just my opinion as a political insider. I hear this from members of the public all the time. We can start with the relationship between Cabinet and Regular Members.

As I stated, in our system of government, only the Assembly can appoint and remove Ministers. In other jurisdictions where the Premier has this authority, it is clear that the Premier is ultimately responsible for the actions of Ministers. However, in our system, the distribution of this authority could end up in a diffusion of responsibility, meaning that, when everyone is responsible for keeping Ministers accountable, no one is responsible.

I know that, at times, I am hard on the last Assembly, and perhaps I give the impression that it was all bad, but it wasn't. There were definitely some successes. There were some collaborative efforts that yielded excellent results. Unfortunately, if Ministers showed no willingness to collaborate or displayed ignorance or arrogance or incompetence, there were no consequences or remedies available to us, and we all knew it. That is what needs to change. The power to remove Ministers may lie solely with the Assembly, but that doesn't mean that the Premier may wash his or her hands of that responsibility. The buck has to stop somewhere.

If the leadership of this Assembly is lacking, it is up to the Premier to fill that void. I don't mean that the Premier should be able to remove Ministers; I mean that the Premier should work to ensure that we never reach a point where we have to consider removing a Minister. If there are problems with the Minister's performance or attitude, the Premier needs to address it immediately. The Assembly and the public should expect as much and stand for nothing less. The responsibility that Ministers have to the people of the Northwest Territories and their power to make decisions that can affect people's lives on a daily basis mean that we must be vigilant in ensuring that they are performing their duties in accordance with a standard that the public finds acceptable.

Of course, we don't live in a perfect world, and sometimes issues can't be resolved. If there are votes to remove Ministers, such votes should never be subject to Cabinet solidarity. If I were to become Premier, I would certainly do my best to hold Ministers and the government to account, but what happens when I am gone? It is not enough to put some new faces in the same old system and hope for the best. We will never be able to design a perfect system that ensures accountability at all times, but we need to start implementing changes, codifying conventions, and creating expectations that will last beyond a single Assembly.

For example, in the report entitled "Lessons Learned," the Special Committee on Transition Matters recommended that there be no less than three fireside chats per year. These informal meetings between Regular Members and the Premier are intended to address concerns before they become problems and have been proven to work well in the past. I think that we had three in the past four years, and by the time that we did, it was too late.

During session, there should also be weekly meetings between the Premier and the chairperson of the Regular Member caucus, known in the last Assembly as the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. These are the types of practices that need to become conventions. Although there were obvious personality conflicts in the last Assembly, I believe that most problems resulted from a lack of communication. We need to open those channels, both formal and informal.

I have to say that I was astounded to learn that, in previous Assemblies, the Principal Secretary, the Premier's right-hand person, would regularly walk up and down the halls and speak with Regular Members and Cabinet Ministers to discuss issues or just get a sense of how everyone was doing. We never had that, but it should be an expectation.

There is also room to improve the relationship and increase collaboration between Cabinet and Standing Committees to the benefit of all of our residents. We need to adopt the recommendations in the Lessons Learned report that would require the Cabinet to consult with standing committees, as well as the public, at the beginning of the business planning and budget development process in addition to the process that already exists, whereby standing committee is consulted when the documents are virtually complete and the opportunity to have any substantial impact on the government's plans has long passed.

We must also adopt and codify some of the new collaborative methods of discussing potential policies and addressing issues with legislation that were pioneered in the previous Assembly. It might not sound novel, but by replacing protracted letter-writing campaigns, in which each side would wait days or weeks for responses, with actual face-to-face meetings, we were able to get better results in a day than we otherwise would in a month.

The Premier must also commit his or her government to working more closely with committees in regard to the timely introduction of legislation. The work that committees do is invaluable and directly affects the public's daily life, in many cases. We must ensure that the committees have adequate time to do that work. Such coordination could also create time for more special committees to be struck. It was only late in the last Assembly that the potential for a special committee to examine the health system was discussed. Allowing for such work could have far-reaching impacts for the people of the Northwest Territories and is another example of how Cabinet and Regular Members can collaborate for the benefit of the people

No discussion about accountability would be complete without a discussion of the bureaucracy. We all hear many complaints about how the bureaucrats are the ones really running the government and that the elected Members are just along for the ride. We hear that from the public service; we hear that from the public; we hear that from MLAs and from former Ministers and Premiers. I will say it again: the buck has to stop somewhere. If the bureaucracy is running the show, the Premier must take responsibility for that.

Maybe the most powerful tool that the Premier has is to appoint and remove deputy ministers. Either use it if you are facing problems, or step aside for someone who will. I am not saying that the next Premier has to start handing out pink slips left and right, but he or she cannot stand for any obstruction or subversion of the public will as expressed to public representatives.

That said, I don't look at the bureaucracy as the enemy. I figure that I have met most of the GNWT senior management, and I have a lot of respect for them. I honestly think that they work for the benefit of the North, and I think that I have a good relationship with most of them, although sometimes there is a weird dynamic between MLAs and senior management, but I think that we get along.

Ultimate authority and responsibility lies with the elected representatives, and I am not going to use the bureaucracy as a scapegoat. Instead, I argue that we must better utilize the public service. As an MLA, I am not supposed to talk to members of the public service about their work; however, we are a small jurisdiction and it is often unavoidable. I am always struck by how often I hear the same few complaints over and over again across departments and across regions.

The first is that issues identified on the front line are rarely addressed. When policies are developed in Yellowknife, they might be well-intentioned, but they don't always roll out smoothly on the ground. When our front-line staff raise concerns about policy and recommendations to improve service delivery, we need to listen. We need a robust feedback loop that not only improves the service that we offer, but also shows respect to our front-line staff.

The second complaint that I often hear about is that bold ideas and out-of-the-box thinking are stifled instead of encouraged. This has to change. We have lost a number of very good public servants for this very reason. Our vast educated and competent public service is the GNWT's greatest resource, and it is time we treat it as such.

We must also strive to make the GNWT's senior management more representative of our people, and this is an issue that, during the business planning process, we dealt with every single year. There are charts that show the number of Northerners in the senior management, the number of Indigenous people in senior management, and the number of women... well, not the number of women, but we can see them in those committee rooms. There is a clear underrepresentation of both Indigenous peoples and women in the senior ranks, all the way up to the deputy minister level, and this Assembly needs to change that. Not just talk about changing it, but I want to see real results. I want to see real equal representation of women and Indigenous peoples at the deputy minister and senior management levels by the end of this Assembly.

One other important change I want to mention, and it may not resonate with any of the new Members or members of the public, but it's a change that I believe will finally break down departmental silos and allow us to implement policies with more responsibility to our people and transfer the policy development power from the public service to the elected representatives. Those of us who have been Regular Members are aware of how invaluable committee support staff are. In particular, our research advisors have the seemingly impossible task of reading and analyzing all the documents received by committees and being able to provide Members with information about how a particular policy or piece of legislation will play out, or how it interacts with pieces of legislation from other departments or even other governments. I am not exaggerating when I say that Regular Members could not do their job without that assistance. This staff works directly with, and takes direction from, committees.

I was genuinely shocked when I learned that Cabinet does not have a similar body to support them and aid in the development of policy. Where there are policy positions within the departments, they are accountable to their deputy minister, not to Cabinet. There is no single body that can develop cross-departmental policies or strategies.

The other day, during a briefing, one of the new Members asked a question that exemplifies why this is a problem. They asked about the immigration file, and why it was split across two departments. The answer is because one department was focused on attracting investment, and the other one in bringing in workers. That put an end to the conversation, as it would have at the Cabinet table. Instead of a single immigration policy, we have two that are independent from each other. End of story.

Now, imagine if we had a policy development unit that could actually look at this issue holistically, not from within a departmental silo. We could even include Health and Social Services by once again looking at the possibility of attracting foreign physicians. We can include the Executive so that they could help lobby Ottawa to increase the Northwest Territories' profile in Ottawa as a destination for immigrants. We could engage Aurora College to help address language or education deficits.

This is just one example, and this is one of the critiques of consensus government, is that we don't have a robust way to develop policies the way party systems do, and this would help address that. Real-world issues rarely fit neatly into government silos, so we must address the structural issues within our own government that prevent us from breaking our little silos in the program development, and to maintain a bureaucratic barrier between policy and the elected representatives of the people.

Earlier this week, the 19 of us met with Indigenous leaders from across the NWT. As was noted by many participants, it was an historic event, the kind that is virtually unheard of in other jurisdictions. Despite the fact that our government has a much more progressive relationship with Indigenous governments than do the provinces, it was clear from discussions that there is still much frustration, and understandably so. The finalization and implementation of land claims and self-government agreements have stalled. The entire territory, all of us, will benefit from concluding unsettled claims and implementing agreements.

There is a general consensus that a new approach is needed to move forward. What does that approach look like? I'm not sure, but I'm sure that, whatever it is, it will have to make people uncomfortable. The GNWT has spent far too long in its comfort zone. Nothing should be off the table. We want to go back to the table with fresh eyes, and without the preconceived notions that have held us back.

One of my colleagues made a comment yesterday that I thought was interesting. Instead of the GNWT and Canada presenting offers to Indigenous governments, perhaps, the GNWT and Indigenous governments should be presenting offers to Canada. That's the kind of relationship we need to strive for. We need to work together in partnership because, as was said time and time again at the meeting, we are stronger together.

We also need to begin discussions about the future of the GNWT, and I've had this discussion with many of you. The GNWT is only 50 years old. What is it going to look like in another 50 years? We are a very unique jurisdiction. As we settle these claims and as we continue to implement self-government agreements, what will the role be for the Government of the Northwest Territories in 50 years from now or 100 years from now? As communities begin to draw down programs, what should those programs look like?

We need to start having these discussions because the programs that we design right now will be administered by Indigenous governments in the future. We need to implement the recommendations by the Standing Committee on Economic Development about the drafting of legislation and the inclusion of Indigenous governments. That report was specific to the devolution legislation, but, as we heard yesterday, we need to possibly expand that to include other legislation that will affect the communities. Legislation would help the social services.

This won't be easy. This won't be an easy sell. It is, essentially, giving up power, and that is not something that people like to do. It goes hand in hand with the next issue I want to talk about, regional empowerment. It is something that has been called "decentralization." I don't like using that term, because I've heard that term for a long time now and that term hasn't yielded any results.

When we look at services, when you look at new positions, it's always easy to come up with reasons why jobs, why services should be located in Yellowknife, instead of coming up with reasons why they should be located elsewhere. The immediate cost of keeping the position in the capital doesn't factor in one of the external factors, and that is something we need to change. Going forward, this government needs to focus on how we cannot just put a job in the community, but how we can move decision-making authority to a community.

I know there are certain units where there might be five people in Yellowknife, and a couple are elsewhere. That doesn't really make sense. That's just moving a couple of jobs. We need to take a different approach to this. I found it interesting that a lot of Yellowknife Members actually brought this up, that, when they went to the doors, there is a lot of concern about the economy in these small communities. We all see that when there are low graduation rates, when there is poverty, when there are needs for housing that affects all of us. There is only so much to go around, and right now everything is centred in Yellowknife. Yellowknife has had one of the highest household incomes in Canada for 20 years, and there are other communities where the average income is $20,000 to $30,000. Somehow, we have to address this regional disparity.

Finally, I want to talk about focusing on results. One of the criticisms that I've had, that many of us have had, that the public has had, is that the government is good at talking. It's good at producing piles of glossy documents to talk about what they're going to do, but we see very little action on it. The next Premier, whoever that may be, needs to put an end to this. Creating documents, creating strategies, shouldn't be an industry. This is the public money that we are using, and it needs to be used for the public good, not to keep people busy.

There have been a lot of suggestions today. There have been lots of good comments. There has been a lot of recognition of the need to improve relationships, and I just want to say I hope that whoever becomes Premier listens to all of the speeches today, because there were good elements that need to be incorporated. We need to work together going forward, and so, if I'm Premier, I'm happy to work with the other Members and incorporate their ideas. If I'm not, I hope that we can still work together and make our system of government, make our Legislature, more functional and provide more prosperity for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Chair and candidates, as you are aware, the riding you represent have five small communities and a regional centre. Can you please tell me and everybody here how you as the Premier will do a better job of hearing the small communities' voices and concerns and improve their quality of life? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To hear the voices of small communities, and all communities, actually, is critical. One of the methods that we have is actually to be as elected Members of the Legislative Assembly. We all carry the opinions and the voices of our people. We need to work better with the Regular Members and work toward listening to them better and working closer together in addressing those issues, but also there was a disconnect. I think that Cabinet in itself as Premier, if elected as Premier, I commit that actually we will be going into communities more often; and not only Cabinet alone, but as a Premier, as well.

I did watch how our Prime Minister Trudeau actually goes in. He sits and has the people around him, and I think that that is the right way, which is actually that we need to reach out more. We need to be accessible to our people. As Cabinet, as the Premier, we represent all people in the Northwest Territories, not only one riding, not our own riding at all, so we need to be accessible and we can't hear them until we're actually with them, so we need to be focused more on providing more visits to every community and to every riding in the Northwest Territories over the next four years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Clerk. We live in the small communities, and it is very important for us. Our community members have told us many times that we are always doing a lot more for the larger communities, and I have heard this many times before. So when I look at it, if we are to move forward, we have to work closely together.

There are all the MLAs here. We have to all come together and make sure that we express our concern right away and support one another. We have to figure out how we can work together and solve the issue that we are working on. Whose community are we supporting? We can't just do it alone. If there are new ministers, all the ministers, they have to also come to the communities. The new ministers have to go to the communities. If the people see you all the time, they will come to know the Ministers and how they work, and they can work together with the Members.

We have to collaborate together, which should be first for us. There are 19 Members here. We have to get together and work together and, here in this Chamber, we are going to be here tomorrow. We have to always mingle and work together and have meetings together. We have to ask each other, "How is your community? How are you doing?" We have to have a lot more communication. I know that we are not always going to agree with each other, but we are representing the people, and we have to work on the people's issues. I think it should be that way. The 19 Members have to support one another.

I realize that there is a question here. I am willing to work with all of the Members who are sitting here. I will speak to you, and you are going to end up working with me. I realize in the past sometimes the Assembly before did not work as well. I heard that in the communities. We are going to have to change that and work more together.

I am really glad that that question was asked of me. If we have a concern, we have to put it on the table and talk about it, or somebody else would say, "There is an issue here at this community. Let's all go to the community and support this person." That is what I would do. Thank you.

I ran on the mandate of stronger communities and stronger regions. The people of the NWT want proper services in small communities, and I feel that we have to meet that mandate. A lot of jobs have been pulled out of regional centres and they have to be reinstated. I feel that, when you have a strong regional centre at that level to serve the smaller communities in your region, everybody is happy.

There has to also be a connection between the government that elected them and the government that serves them. I feel that there has been a disconnect. It is obvious from some of the complaints that we even saw yesterday, and I think that there is a gap. The gap has to be filled, and we have to fill the gap. We are all elected to do that, and that is what we expect. We expect the people who work in deputy minister levels and any part of the bureaucracy to also fill that gap on our behalf. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the biggest things that I realized when I came to this Assembly is that, even though I am from Hay River and we have KFN close by, Enterprise, Kakisa -- and these communities aren't that remote; they are connected on the road system -- I didn't really know that much about them. I was quite ignorant, despite spending so many years so close to them. I learned a lot from the people who I worked with, the Members who I worked with. I think that there are a few layers that you can use in order to hear from people in the communities.

There is no substitute for actually being on the ground in the community. I am not going to ignore a good idea just because it came from some of the other contenders, but getting into the communities is a good idea. There is no substitute for it, and not just in and out on a charter, in in the morning and out in the afternoon; I think that there needs to be some time spent in the communities.

Another way to hear from the communities is to listen to the Member who represents that region. I know that it was frustrating for me, as a Member from outside Yellowknife, to try to get things across to some Ministers. It was almost like they didn't believe you. I understand that we have to take it seriously when these concerns are brought by the Members.

I also talked in my speech about a feedback loop, where the government employees on the ground who are delivering the front-line services, who know communities, can get information back to the decision-makers. How do we hear from the GSOs, from the social workers, from the health nurses, what is going on in the community? We need to establish some sort of communication channel like that. Even meetings like we had yesterday with the Indigenous leaders; more like that.

Even when guys are here in the Great Hall just coming to watch the proceedings, I usually go out and chat with them. If it is someone whom I met in Trout Lake, I ask how their community garden is doing, or things like that. There is an effort on each of our own parts, as well, in addition to the government-wide effort, but we each have to educate ourselves, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At meetings with northern leaders yesterday, we heard that their priority is finalizing land rights and self-government agreements and implementing existing agreements. Many advocated for the GNWT to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People; in other words, to adopt a new approach to negotiations. They see implementation as a way to repair what they describe as a broken relationship with the GNWT and complete stall at the negotiating tables. My question for the candidates is: do you support the implementation of UNDRIP by the GNWT? Thank you.

That is a perfect question for me. I was on the Indigenous file since 2007, and I understand completely all of the obstacles that seem to be in the way of an implementation of a claim. I agree with the adoption and implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. I really believe in that. It has been 17 years with Salt River, 17 years, and we still don't have recognition as a reserve within Canada. We do not have the O and M capacity and infrastructure that the other reserves across Canada have, just because we are north of 60.

I think that it is extremely important that we do all of the things that came out of the meeting yesterday. I felt that I was part of the meeting, even though I didn't say anything. It is extremely important that each and every one of us pass the -- I keep on forgetting the name because I don't have it in front of me. The Government of the Northwest Territories should fully endorse and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, absolutely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no problem implementing the articles of UNDRIP. My concern is that, while we heard a lot of support for implementing UNDRIP, we also heard a lot of support for certainty. To stand up and say that we are going to implement this blanket international document creates a lot of uncertainty for people.

I think that I would prefer to go to each table, to talk to each leader, and say, "What is the issue? What part of this are we not implementing? What can we do better?" and live up to the actual spirit and intent of it, as opposed to just say, "Okay, let's do it." What does that mean? I am not clear what that means. Legal scholars don't know what it means. I would rather just do the work to actually get the claims settled, to actually live up to the articles of it, than to make a statement like the 16^th Assembly did that really didn't amount to much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Chair. We heard clearly from yesterday's meeting with Aboriginal leadership across the Northwest Territories, and they have identified the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Obviously, the federal government has it on their [English translation not provided] as Mr. Simpson alluded to, as part of the spirit and intent of such an agreement, I, for one, would like to engage more with the communities and the leaders on where they are going with this. I would like to engage them and hear their perspectives. We just heard the tip of the iceberg yesterday, and I would like to hear more from the communities, and also from the Regular Members, as well. Before we proceed to develop such an agreement from this House, I want to engage the general public on this particular piece of work. Masi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we are going to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I am in total agreement. In fact, the Government of the Northwest Territories endorsed that move in 2008. However, it is not only the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We have the Truth and Reconciliation also that we need to consider and the Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. These are all serious pieces of research that have been done, suggestions, and we need to work towards implementing all of them in a true spirit, not to just say we are endorsing it but actually move forward.

I truly believe in self-determination. I believe in self-government, and I believe that we need to be able to offer our services, not to tell Indigenous governments, "This is how you do it," but to say, "We are here if you need support. We will help you if you need tools, if you need advice, whatever you need to be able to actualize self-determination and self-government." I think it's key to moving forward, to becoming better governments and to actually meeting all the needs of all the people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the last sitting of the Legislature, it was apparent to those outside government that the Premier and Cabinet used the model of "Cabinet and three friends" to make decisions for the NWT. This was further confirmed by the Premier during an interview. This practice not only alienated the remaining MLAs in the decision-making process, but it further excluded the people they represented, which is totally unacceptable when what we need is inclusion and not exclusion.

Mr. Chair, the question I am going to pose comes from a resident of Hay River. The question is: if elected Premier, how would you do things differently to prevent Cabinet from perverting the consensus model of government by using the "Cabinet and three friends" model used by the Premier of the 18^th Legislative Assembly? Thank you.

Masi, Mr. Chair. I believe [Translation] when you look at that, it's very important. As you noticed yesterday and last week, we spoke about this issue, and yesterday a lot of leaders came and talked to us and gave us their own views. Right now, there's not very good communication. Right now, we have a consensus government; it's three people who work together to make decisions, but here, if I am Premier, I will work with all the Members. I know that we will agree on some and not agree on some, but we have to hold on to each other and support each other in order to meet with the federal government and also with other self-government people and also other groups.

Sometimes, you know we do not always agree on things. That has happened in the past, and I wish it would not happen. Right now, one of the Members from Hay River spoke. I agree with him. How can we work more together and move forward? I know we cannot always agree on everything, but we have to listen to each other. When someone is speaking, I want to listen.

I realized yesterday there are a lot of people who spoke, wanting us to resolve a lot of these issues from the past, and they want us to work with many different governments. I want to support that. If there is some issue, we have to go to our MLA or our elected Member and say, "This is my issue." We have to listen. Even though we do not always agree on the same issues and we have different opinions, we have to listen and try to resolve, especially when we are sitting at table with the federal government. We have to listen to each of our concerns, and that is the way we can move forward. Thank you for the question. [End of translation].

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was the crux of my speech earlier. I spoke about a number of things. First of all, there is always going to be an element of benevolence in any form of democratic system. You know, you have to trust that the leader will not take the easy way out. I put a lot of thought into how can we completely eliminate that, and you cannot, so you do have to trust your leader.

I think there are some things that we can do, though, like I mentioned: codifying having fireside chats so that issues do not become problems; requiring regular meetings between the chair of P and P and the Premier so that issues are not left to fester. Communication is the problem. There was a communication breakdown, and one side did not know what the other side was doing, and people thought the worst, and people decided, instead of having to deal with that, let's just not deal with that.

I think that we need to create an expectation on how we are supposed to govern, and that is what I was encouraging all of the Members here today to do, expect something from your Premier. We need to go forward with an expectation that the "plus three" model does not work. In Parliamentary systems, if something happens long enough, it becomes taboo, and that is what we need to make happen. We need to make a concerted effort so that, every time a new Assembly comes in, the idea of "plus three" is off the table because it is bad governance and everyone is aware of that.

I think this needs to be an ongoing process. I threw out a few ideas, but I would like to see, as we learn things, that we begin implementing those, as well. Consensus government is not that old. It's a relatively new style of government, the type we are using, and it's still growing, and we need to adapt it when challenges arise. This was one of those challenges, and we need to adapt and overcome. If there are changes now we can implement, great. If two years on, we see that, oh, here's another issue, here's another way we can fix this issue, let's implement that, as well. It should not just be the beginning of the Assembly and then we are done with it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I strongly believe that a good leader listens and is approachable and also has an open-door policy. Building relationships and making sure that everybody is inclusive is extremely important. We are all newly elected people here. My door will always be open. You do not have to be a Cabinet Minister to come and see me. You know, we built relationships with other people outside of this House and partnerships that will last forever. We will not agree on everything, and, if we do not agree on everything, we leave it at the door. You've got to be able to leave things at the door. If you are going to take it outside of the door, you have problems. I have been through a lot in my leadership and learned a lot of qualities of good leadership. Everybody should leave the room with a smile and be happy when they leave the room, no matter if we do not agree because we are not going to agree on everything, but I know that building a relationship with all of you would be a priority. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have said many times in this House, and in fact I have been kind of criticized in the media for saying it, and I think I still maintain it, that I am humble enough to say that I am not the expert in everything and that together, as a team, we make better decisions. I believe that better decision-making is not only around the way we operate and how we do our relationships. It's about policy development and how we do legislation. I did not like the three-vote idea. I never walked down the hall and got three specific votes, but I did walk down the hall, and I looked for support from all MLAs, met MLAs who would support me. That is normal practice, and I think that is good practice.

I also feel I worked really well with standing committee, mostly with social issues because that is the standing committee I went to, so I had changed kind of the format and I will talk about polytech for a minute. The usual procedure is that you go to Cabinet, you get authorization, you kind of have a game plan, and then you go into standing committee, and then you accept the changes or not, and then you fight it on the floor.

I worked with our standing committee chair at the time, and we came to an agreement that, instead of doing that, I would go to standing committee first, take their input, change the presentation, then take it to Cabinet for their approval, and then go back to standing committee. I thought that was a great example because the Polytechnic University when I announced to this House was accepted. It wasn't slaughtered all over the floor like junior kindergarten was previous to that.

So I think that we need to stop, as Cabinet, cramming legislation down people's throats. I don't think that is appropriate. I think we need to stand back. If we don't get legislation passed, it means that we as Cabinet did not do a good enough job, and we have to take ownership of that. So we either pass legislation that is agreed on by majority, because as everyone has said, not everyone will agree, but the majority needs to. If it is not passed, we need to accept that, and work harder at making it. It is about relationships, and we need to respect that all of us have expertise, and all of us together will make the best decisions for all residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Cabinet solidarity exists in virtually every parliamentary system, but also in every parliamentary system there are exceptions and free votes are often allowed on key issues. I believe this model of "Cabinet plus three friends" really gets down to the issue of Cabinet solidarity. Are you, as Premier, willing to allow exceptions to Cabinet solidarity, and in what cases would you allow that?

Thank you. As I alluded to in my statement, Cabinet solidarity, I don't think it should be required for votes of confidence in a Minister. I might have to take that as notice and get back to the Member when it comes to other circumstances because I recall, in the last Assembly, there were some times when I questioned why Cabinet was voting as a block when it really didn't seem like it was necessary. So yes, I am open to those kinds of changes. Those are the kind of evolutionary changes that we need to see with consensus government in order to increase the accountability and in order to let the public know that this is not, you know, it is not a dictatorship. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Cabinet solidarity is an issue, but it is necessary in some cases because we can't have anarchy and we need to be working together as a government, but I do think that we need to look at a three-tier system, actually, a system that looks at low risk. For example, things like picking out Cabinet Ministers if they are out for evaluation. Is that a risk to the government as a whole? If not, then we should be opening that vote for Cabinet Minister to have a free vote. We need to look at medium risk. If there is a risk and we are not sure, then I think Cabinet as a whole needs to define, not just the Premier and say, "Can we stand on our own or do we need to vote in solidarity?"

At the highest risk, if there is integrity, if it jeopardizes the integrity of this system, of this institution, at that point I do believe that Cabinet solidarity has to be in place, but I do think that, instead of it being ad hoc and decided at the moment, which I experienced, we need to decide that as soon as we sit as Cabinet Members and decide at what point we would be looking at solidarity and when we can't. Because I do think that there were a lot of times that open vote would have been appropriate, and it was hard to not have that option. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Cabinet solidarity exists for a reason. There are times where a very sensitive issue is brought up, or how it is going to benefit the North. Obviously, in the past, it has been case-by-case, but a majority of the decisions that were made in solidarity, a lot of the decisions were made forming solidarity.

I think as we move forward, Mr. Chair, we have Members in this House with bright ideas and expertise going forward. Obviously, we need to listen to them and have an open communication dialogue.

There is a motion that is coming down, and they feel that it should be open vote as opposed to solidarity, then I will listen to them and say, "Okay, well, we can probably pursue it," but at the same time there will be repercussion at the government level, so I have to be careful on how to deal with that. Those are the discussions that we need to have.

In our former government, we didn't really have that from what I have seen in sitting in the Speaker's chair. I for one will be open to listening to the Members and accepting if there needs to be a free vote. If I get the support from Members, then I will do that, but at the same time, there will be solidarity votes on certain programs and motions. There is a reason for this. Masi.

I think Cabinet solidarity is important, but I also feel that transparency and accountability is also important, so I think that there are always exceptions to the rule. In every case, no matter in which life you live, there are always exceptions to the rule or to policy. I would make sure that the MLAs are heard, and I would listen to them and then go back to Cabinet and discuss that concern and come back with a decision of Cabinet. If we are going to have an open vote on a particular item, that is the way I would handle it. Thank you.

I am going to ask about infrastructure; no shock. Our debt is currently sitting at a $1.1 billion, and we have a cap of $1.3. That doesn't really leave us a lot left. I have sort of a two-fold question: how do you plan to raise the necessary capital to conduct the proposed infrastructure projects, such as the roads in Taltson, if that is the way that we move forward as a government? As part of that then, too, I would like to know: what you are going to do to ensure that that work and those projects, including the Giant Mine Remediation Project, that that work goes to northern and Indigenous businesses as much as possible, and is used to build capacity within the territory?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I stated in my speech, we are going to have to make some tough decisions in this government. We are opposing the $1.1 billion, and our cap is at $1.3. It is a serious issue.

We have programs that we have to evaluate. We need to look at if they are still efficient, if they are still meeting the needs and priorities of this government, through this government, but we also have programs that we need to bring in to be able to address people, and we do have capital needs. Traditionally, the federal government actually, on large infrastructure projects, actually gives up to 75 percent dollars, 75 cent dollars, and we have to come up with 25 percent.

We have used our short-term borrowing and are looking at monies and trading in to do that. It is in the best interest of people and so we move forward with that, but working in the North is critical. I have seen that with many of our infrastructure projects, so why would we even bring infrastructure projects into the Northwest Territories if all of the work is going south because all the spending goes south then. That does not make sense to me.

I am not sure if it is about the projects are too big and the capacity of northern businesses, but if that is the issue, then maybe we need to break up those projects and look at smaller projects so that northern businesses can have an advantage with that.

I also think our business, our bid process, is not working for people, and we need to look at that. I know it is 30 percent. I know it sounds really good when you say "30 percent advantage," but something is not working. We need to have flexibility within that business incentive program, and we need to actually revise it so that the jobs and the resources and the monies stay in the North. Otherwise, we are just wasting our time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I bring a very strong business acumen to this House. I have been in business for the last 45 years or more, and I think that there are other creative ways of looking at the deficit. I think that capital dollars are not being used and could be put to use in a different way. We are dealing with a lot of Aboriginal communities that have access to different means within the federal government way, but also within our own Aboriginal organizations that have been developed across Canada.

There is one in particular that I want to give you an example of; the first finance authority that has been developed that uses leverage for building capital expenditures at a 2-percent rate over a period of time. You are able to get the dollars on 2 percent, and that is unbelievable. You are able to do it over a period of time. If you go into an agreement with them, for our communities that are mostly Aboriginal, there are lots of creative ways of using those capital dollars in a different way. We have done in that in Fort Smith with Salt River.

There are other things that I think have to be looked at. We have to evaluate all of the departments and see where the overlap is. I think that we have to start doing things creatively.

I think also that it is extremely important, very important, that all of our businesses in the North have to be considered first, before any of the contracts, tenders, or anything else is ever considered to go south. We have to be able to look after the business community and all of the resources in the Northwest Territories the way that it should be, because it is not. That is why people in our communities are upset, because they are not able to access many of these larger contracts.

We should also make sure that the Indigenous communities that have corporations that do this type of work are also considered. It is extremely important that we also make sure that the whole community and the whole business area of it is looked after together, because it is extremely important that we all benefit from that.

When our own communities are benefitting, the whole community benefits, the whole Northwest Territories benefits, and that is the way that the economy has to flow in order for us to get out of this deficit.

Thank you, and thank you for the question. I have spoken on this issue a number of times in the house, the $1.1 billion debt that we have. We were approaching the limit, and we need to go to Ottawa and make the case that we need that increased. We need to make a compelling case. The case that I always try to make is that the Government of Canada built the Trans-Canada Highway; they built the railroad from east to west; but they never came north. We still need those nation-building infrastructure investments, and we need the money to do it. I understand that they are hesitant to up our limit. They are the backstop. Nonetheless, those funds are needed.

In terms of keeping money in the North, another thing that is close to my heart, I have spoken about this a number of times, is P3 projects. We have the hospital. That was being built when we started our term here. We were given a presentation, and we were shown a list of all of the different local businesses that were benefiting from it, and then you run into one of those local business owners in the street, and they say, "Well, we didn't get anything," or "We got a couple of bucks here or there," but there was no real money to stay here. You hear stories about people flying in to do the drywall and then flying out. There needs to be northern content in P3s. There are no two ways about it. These are massive infrastructure projects using public money, and they have to benefit Northerners.

In terms of smaller infrastructure projects, there are a lot of ways that we can increase northern content. Sometimes, in the South Slave especially, and I assume in Yellowknife, as well, there are some contracts that might be $10 or $15 or $20 million. Maybe a northern company can't do that. Can they do $4 or $5 million contracts over a longer time? Maybe. We need to start looking at things like that, as well. This is low-hanging fruit when it comes to keeping money in the North.

I know that myself and one of the other Members always point out the $12 million contract that went south for 3 percent, 3 percent total, and that money just flowed over the border. That is unacceptable. This is something that the Standing Committee on Economic Development looked into, procurement, because we weren't getting any traction. I think that that is a good starting point to start looking at how to make changes in the next Assembly.

There are other interesting ways to do it as well. I think that we need to do a better job consulting with industry on how to keep money in the North. That is one thing that we just don't do. You know what? It is hard sometimes to talk to small business owners and industry. They are busy. The last thing that they want to do is talk to the government, especially when the last 50 times that they talked to the government, nothing happened. We need to make sure that industry and small businesses know that they are being heard and that they can see results from those consultations. There is a lot that we can do, and it is one of the things that I look forward to doing in the next Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Clerk. [Translation]There is major development in the Northwest Territories. Everyone talks about it, especially capital. Whether it's a hospital or a school, it is up to the government. As a government and with the federal government, we need to work together. There is some responsibility that falls under the territorial government and federal government. We need to work together in that way.

The Member from Hay River also mentioned this. We need to open our doors to each other, and we need to also take their advice. That is the only way to go forward. Not only that, but yesterday, when we met with the northern leaders, there were some elders who were there, as well, and they did say to us, "As small communities, we don't benefit in a lot of ways." As the MLAs around this table, we need to make that a priority. We were starting to talk about it last week and this week, as well.

We need to submit this to the federal government. Whoever is the Premier will take that message to the federal government. If we don't talk for ourselves, we won't get anything done. There was a person from the Sahtu region who said that, when they wait for the government to make a decision, everything falls behind. They said that finally they have decided to start to go ahead with business on their own.

When we look at all of this in the Northwest Territories, a lot of Aboriginal governments, we need to open our doors to them and work closely with them. We have federal government funding, territorial government, like the P3 projects. We could work well together easily in that way. When we look at the Northwest Territories, we need to take a good look at our resources and how we can all help each other and work with each other. Today we have a new hospital that we spent $300 million on, and we need a lot of our people working there.

Even right in Behchoko, my community, we need more of our people working in these positions. We are always hiring from the South. When we look around, we see a lot of non-Dene people working in our communities. We need to change that as well and the way that we handle the contracts. We need to hire our people, and train our people. We need to include that, as well. Also, the BIP program is not working well, and when a contract is given, they are given a certain percentage. The Member from Hay River was on that, and I am thankful for him for giving that information. He does not agree with the BIP program, as well. We need to change that policy. I think that is the only way we're going to see changes in the Northwest Territories.

It is up to us as individuals, as a government. We need to change those policies. What are we afraid of? This government is going to change after today. We need to change those policies. What are we afraid of? This government is going to change after today. We need to face our people and get their advice, as well. I think it's important that we hear the communities, as well. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. [End of translation]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question to pose to all the possible Premiers here. Once elected as Premier, how will you ensure that our economic chapters of our Gwich'in and Inuvialuit land claims are honoured when it comes to negotiated contracts? Over the last number of years, it seemed that some departments were reluctant to negotiate certain contracts with my constituents, while in the past, our government used to negotiate up to 50 percent of the total cost of contracts in my riding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If it's in your agreements, then it should be honoured. I really believe that, many times, there are certain things that are put into agreements and the actual implementations by any government, whether it be territorial or federal, are never honoured. I truly believe that they should be honoured.

Masi. [Translation] We have, as a government, we are the government, and if you settled with a self-government agreement, you are considered a government. I am sure that we can review that. We have a lot of economic development and businesses in our community. Sometimes, those contracts are not given to the community, but we also have negotiated contracts, as well. We have to give opportunities to the communities, and we're not doing that. Sometimes our departments, when they look at all the paperwork, even for example, the Tlicho self-government, they are considered government. Chapter 26 states this in their Constitution. It also states in there how negotiated contacts will be in place. When we talk about this, they always say that we're not able to do this and that. When you take a look at it as a whole, we need to review some of these policies that are in place that were already in place. Since 1992, 2005, some of them have already a self-government in place, some have an Aboriginal government in place, and they have these in their agreement.

As the Government of Northwest Territories we put our name in there on that agreement, and we are in agreement, but now, we're saying no to their agreements. We need to have an open mind and fresh eyes to review this, the agreement that is already in place. Even here, my friend, what is he talking about? We need to take a good look at it carefully. As Ministers and MLAs, we all need to take a good look at it. I am sure that we can review this. Right now, I am seeing there are no changes, but the administration tells us that we could do this and cannot do this, but we, as the elected MLAs, need to listen to our communities.

I am thankful for his question, and he knows what is going on in the communities, and I see that myself in my community. He's speaking up for his community. We need to make some changes for things to change in the community. We have four years that we can make changes, and we are supposed to be giving our staff directions, not the administration telling us what to do. Thank you. [End of translation]

I will start by saying, if we have agreements in place, we need to honour our agreements. If we are not honouring our agreements, then we should be held to task for that. That's not okay.

It is more than just the agreements for me. I know that, in the last four years as a Cabinet Minister, we have talked about negotiated contacts quite a bit. Some Ministers said no negotiated contacts is fair, and other Ministers said, as many as possible. We need to be careful with that.

I don't believe in negotiated contacts with private businesses, in all honesty. I believe, though, in negotiated contacts with Indigenous and community governments because I believe in community development. It's not only about the Indigenous governments that have agreements. It is about building the capacity of all Indigenous governments so that they can actually become on the path toward self-government, and it stays in the community. If you support a negotiated contact with an Indigenous government, that money stays within their community. It stays in their region, and they tend to hire their own workers. I have seen exceptions when they didn't have the expertise and they had to go inter-jurisdictional, but they tried to keep as much in their community as possible.

So, again, if we're really taking this truth and reconciliation, about UNDRIP, about self-determination, about self-government, then we need to be willing to open the doors to support our Indigenous governments so that they can succeed as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. It's patently wrong to ignore an agreement. We had meetings with Indigenous leaders yesterday, and one of the comments was that the employees of the GNWT, at least the senior management or the people who deal with Indigenous governments, should be familiar with the agreements and the content of the agreement, and I think that's an excellent policy. I think moving forward, it's something we need to implement because to just ignore something that is written and so obvious, that's just plain wrong.

Negotiated contracts have fallen out of favour in the last government, it seems. The government was very concerned about their bottom line. They didn't want to spend a penny more than they had to. It didn't matter if that meant that the money would flow out of the territory. I know, in the South Slave, when there is a negotiated contact, what often happens is that, if there was work to be done near a community, the company will go to the community and talk to the Chief and Council and say: what can you do for this project? Are people looking for work? What can you offer?

It's more than just a company getting money. In many cases, even when it's a private company, we need to start looking at the benefits of keeping money in the territory on a larger scale in terms of negotiated contacts, but when it comes to following the letter of an agreement, that's a no-brainer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think over the last two weeks, almost everyone in this room has recognized the importance of our vastness and our different geography, and how important it is that we see ourselves as united. It is clear that, if one region or if one community is failing, that we are all going to be struggling. I'd like to ask this morning where you see our capital city fitting into your vision for the future of the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Mr. Chair, we service 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, and the City of Yellowknife is part of that, and the regional centres in the communities and also the other isolated communities. We have to include Yellowknife, as well. There is the City of Yellowknife that we need to work with. There are the Dene communities, YK Dene, that we have to work with. They are our neighbours in Yellowknife, as well, so those are important groups that we need to work with and other communities, as well.

As we heard yesterday, clearly, from Aboriginal leadership, they want us to focus on infrastructure in their communities. We have to prioritize where there is infrastructure much needed. Where there is a school burned down in one of the communities, obviously that will be a first priority; where there is a gymnasium being built in Yellowknife. That does take time to negotiate with the federal government. I have been through with the Education Minister of the day. Some projects take time, but sometimes we have to balance all communities as much as possible.

At the same time, we heard from leadership yesterday that everything funnels through the City of Yellowknife, but, at the same time, we have to be open-minded. Any projects that come to the table, what is the benefit of the communities, not just the City of Yellowknife but surrounding communities? I have a community that is close to Yellowknife, Behchoko. How is Behchoko benefitting from a major infrastructure such as Stanton Yellowknife in Stanton and Yellowknife, and that also serves the communities, as well? We have to be open-minded, and we serve 33 communities; not 32 communities, but 33 communities.

When it comes to infrastructure programming, I am a firm believer that we should discuss all projects that are before us and make decisions on our priorities and our mandates coming from these Assembly Members. There will be times that we have to make tough decisions, where a project, let's say, instead of going to Yellowknife because there is a major issue that is happening in the Sahtu region, then we should seriously consider it, but it should have input from the Members, as well, before we proceed with that. With that, Mr. Chair, masi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have often stated in this House and in public that a society is judged by how we treat our most marginalized populations. However, I also have stated in this House that I come from a family of eight children. At no time did my parents give the youngest child all the food. Every child in that family of eight was provided food enough to live.

I have heard here today that we need to support our Indigenous governments and our small communities, and we absolutely do. However, we also have to be conscious that half the population is in Yellowknife. I have a special gift, Mr. Chair, in that I am Metis and that my mother, like I said, is Indigenous and my father is non-Indigenous. That taught me from very young to be able to take care of the needs of all people. We are not only Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories. Half of us are Caucasian and non-Indigenous, as well. We have an obligation to take care of everyone. However, we need to be just within that. In my speech, I talked about having economic development plans for every region, and that is critical, but when I said "every region," I meant every region. The capital is part of our community of the Northwest Territories, and we cannot forget their needs, as well. It's not one over the other. It's everybody gets a piece of the pie, in a fair way.

The polytechnic university is a great example. I know that some people are saying, "Do not build in Yellowknife." However, Yellowknife campus is bursting at the seams and, in Fort Smith and Inuvik, student housing is needed. Do I just say one or the other? I have not said that. I have said right through: three strong communities; three strong campuses; and at least 21 strong community-learning centres. Every decision that we make in this House has to have the interests of all residents and all communities, not favouring one over the other, but not forgetting one because of the other. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I stated earlier, Yellowknife for decades has had one of the highest household incomes in Canada. It has been a very wealthy city, but times could be changing. The three diamond mines are facing closures within the decade. That would result in hundreds of millions exiting the city. There could be a possible population drain. There are challenges that Yellowknife is facing, and we need to prepare for those challenges. How do we do that? Well, that is why I am looking forward to the priorities meeting that we are having next week, because, you know, I spend a lot of time here. I try not to spend too much, but I am not the expert on Yellowknife, I am not the expert on mining, and I would like to hear from the rest of the Members.

However, we do need to prepare for the future. I have said many times that it seems like every Assembly is just scrambling to catch up with whatever disaster is currently occurring. You look at the Slave Geological Road. I think Diefenbaker brought that up in 1952 or 1956. The Mackenzie Valley Highway, I mean, you know, before I was born is when people were talking about that. So we need some sort of long-term vision. We need to have a plan. I think that we always need to play to the strengths of communities or regions.

In Hay River, I talked about there is potential for growth, so the government needs to support that. We need to support the potential for growth in Yellowknife. Tourism is big here. It could be much bigger, but there are limitations in terms of hotels, in terms of facilities, and all of that kind of stuff. We need to look at the prospect of a university. Are the headquarters going to move to Yellowknife? I do not think so, but is there a potential for growth? This is a city where people from outside of the territory want to move. It's attractive in a lot of ways, especially for young professionals, so I could see parts of a university thriving here. Those are the kinds of things that we need to be talking about, and I look forward to having those conversations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I believe that Yellowknife will exist within the Northwest Territories, and we are all here to make sure all regions are treated equally, but, you know what, the concentration of the wealth in Yellowknife has got to be spread to other regions. With the new priority of the polytech university, the two main campuses have got to be Fort Smith with its headquarters in Inuvik, because I think that is where it has to be. I am not saying that you are going to close down the campus here in Yellowknife, but it's much easier capital-wise and dollar-wise to build the new residences that are required both in Inuvik and Fort Smith than it is in Yellowknife. It only makes sense. The regional development of this campus is necessary so that we start spreading the wealth a bit.

I firmly believe that, that the regions have also got to exist within the whole Northwest Territories. I respect all the people of the Northwest Territories, no matter where they come from, what walk of life they come from, and I always will remember that Yellowknife is part of that. I appreciate the question, but I also have to remember that the small communities and the regions are not up to the same standard of living as you have here in Yellowknife. I think that it was pretty obvious yesterday that it came out very clear from the Indigenous leaders that we have to do things differently, and I think this government has got to ensure that that mandate is kept. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today I am going to bring up something near and dear to my heart and the people back home, my elders. We have to start taking better care of our elders in regard to long-term care facilities. We have elders in all regional centres. We have elders from Nunakput in Hay River, Inuvik, and Yellowknife who need to be brought home. It's decentralizing our elders. That is what has to be done.

I am asking here today, working in partnership with our potential Premiers here: how can we bring our elders home and make partnerships with our community corporations in each community that I represent? To train our local people to take care of our own, it is a rippling effect to families. You never see your elders when they leave the communities because of the cost of flights. Sachs Harbour return flight to Inuvik is $1,500; Ulukhaktok, $2,008; Paulatuk, $1,260, return flight to see our elders. The only time you will see your elders is when you are going on a medical or if something comes up. It is not right.

I want our elders to be brought home and to build a four- or six-bed facility in Tuktoyaktuk, Ulukhaktok, and Paulatuk. Now, please, help me help you. Thank you.

Thank you for the question. I am very familiar with long-term care centres. My nana has been living in one now for 12 years, and she is lucky. She has a big family in Hay River, and she gets visits all of the time, every day. It is strange if someone doesn't visit her during the day, but there are people in that same facility from a few communities away, and they don't get any visitors. You can tell that that weighs on them. It is a big impact on your quality of life.

As to building a long-term care centre in those communities, I am not sure what the requirements are. I know that they always say you need a doctor; you need a doctor present. I am not sure if that is the case, but one thing that we can do is fill that gap between people living on their own and people entering long-term care. That includes things like homecare.

If we have much more homecare in the communities, you could have years, five or 10 years more, in your own home. If we have better programs in terms of housing, people can get ramps in their homes. In Hay River, there was a couple, I think, 92- and 93-years-old, where Housing said, "No, you can't get a ramp to your house." We are trying to keep people in their own homes, we are trying to keep people out of long-term care, and we are making it difficult for ourselves.

Those are the kinds of things that need to happen. A commitment to build three long-term care centres, obviously, I can't do that, but I am sympathetic to this, and I realize that there is value beyond the dollar value in keeping people in their own homes. There's the cultural value. It is not just the elders who are missing their families; it is the family who don't get to see their elders, talk to them, learn from them. This is an issue, and it is one of those big issues facing the territory that we don't seem to have a plan for, other than, as one of my colleagues from the last Assembly said, "seniors warehousing units," which are essentially the big long-term care centres.

I look forward to working with everyone. I look forward to discussing this at the priority-setting meetings and seeing what kind of solution we come to. Thank you.

I am very sympathetic to the cause, because it is our elders who paved the way for all of our journeys, and we have to respect that. I know that there are situations throughout the territories, and not only with long-term care, because we have a situation like that also in our own community. We have a person here in Yellowknife who has been here for dialysis, and it is such a long way for his family to come. It is a major, major problem. There is dialysis in Hay River, and there seems to be a problem for him to move from Yellowknife to Hay River. At least, then, the family could come to visit on weekends or spend time with him.

It is a major issue, and I think that, as a government, we have to look at these issues and try to resolve them, because our elders gave so much, and then we take them away from the family. They have so much knowledge to offer to the cultural aspect of the family and the community. It is a major problem. We seriously, as a group, have got to look at that. It is not only an issue for the family; it is an issue for the community, and it is an issue for all of us who are sitting around this table.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Long-term care is an issue. Taking care of our elders has been an issue. My degree was over 20 years ago, and when I went down south for my social work degree, they were telling us at that time, over 20 years ago, geriatrics is the way to go. Our population is aging, and we need to start taking care of them. Twenty-some years later, we are still in this situation where we are not doing it appropriately.

I stated in my speech, and people that know me know, that I am brutally honest sometimes, and the reality is that I would love to be able to promise and say that, in every small community, we will have long-term care beds in this Assembly, but that would not be a reality. I apologize for that, for not being able to stand up here and lie. No, I am not apologizing; I am just being realistic.

We have shortages of healthcare staff in every region, so we need to look at boosting up our staffing at the moment, what we have, before we can even expand and move any further with that. I said in my speech that we need a stronger recruitment and retention strategy to deal with that.

The other thing that I heard in the Member's comment was also working in partnership. I have to say, in that region, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation is really progressive in working towards actually training their people in stuff. I think that there are options. We are moving into the polytech university, hopefully. We will be looking at training our own northern people, and I think that, if we work in partnerships with our Indigenous governments, we will actually be a lot more productive and we will be more successful. To train a nurse, you're looking at at least four or six years, depending on the specialization, maybe longer. We don't have that time. We need to work in partnerships together to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Mr. Chair, we need to be proactive on this particular subject. I totally agree that we need to bring our elders and seniors back home. How do we do that? That is a question that we need to work out. I have been through that so many times visiting hospitals over the last 14 years as a Member. Elders just want to be home with their family. They just want to die peacefully at home, not in a hospital. Due to that fact, we have built regional seniors' homes, particularly in my region, Behchoko. That services the outlying Tlicho region as well, but we need to go beyond that.

I believe Mr. Jacobson raised the issue: why couldn't we partner with the community corporations? They have brilliant ideas. They can come to our table and say, "This is what we can build for you. Can we lease it back to the GNWT?" Those are just some of the options that we can certainly work with. Partnership goes a long way, Mr. Chair.

Promoting and investing more in homecare, we can do that immediately. Infrastructure will take some time, but we have programs in place already. Why couldn't we invest even more? We are investing in our people, in our elders and seniors. That will go a long way, and we are going to have happy faces on the elders in their communities with their families.

Mr. Chair, this could be an easy solution as part of the programming. With infrastructure, obviously, we need to discuss amongst ourselves, but we already have some facilities in the regions, care centres in the regions, and also, to some degree, some in small communities as well, but we do have programs that we can enhance in the small communities. Masi, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My constituents have trusted me to be accountable and in turn expect me to hold our leadership accountable. Therefore, how do you feel MLAs should measure personal performance excellence of a Premier and, if you personally fell short, what would you do about it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first order of actually holding your Premier to account is, in my opinion, we are making speeches today, and so if we are making speeches and we are saying that we are committed, then we better be committed. I would be looking back on the speeches on a regular basis and seeing if we are doing it.

There are other things that won't be in the speeches, and it is about the behaviours of Premiers, of the other Cabinets. I said in my speech, as well, that we need to meet regularly with MLAs. MLAs, we need to work together, so if we are having what is called "fireside chats" or informal meetings, then issues should be brought to the Premier's attention. If the Premier is not doing their job, then they need to be held accountable, as well. Hopefully, the Regular MLAs or Cabinet would actually talk to their Premier first and say, "I have concerns." I have said communication is the key, and we need to be able to do that. We are accountable to the people, so it is not okay that people turn a blind eye to their Premier, to their Cabinet, to other Members. We have to hold each other in check.

In our duties, we have talked about changed governments. Everybody has said that. People are expecting better from us. They are expecting us to work better and to be professional in our duties. If we are not, then there are mechanisms in place to actually take the Premier out of the place.

I say that, if a Premier, whoever it may be, is not doing their duties and not fulfilling the speeches that they have made, then I would be the first one to say that MLAs should discuss it, all MLAs, including Cabinet, and should be looking at putting the Premier on the spot or taking the Premier out of the spot. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Obviously, accountability should be a forefront of our day-to-day business that we do, whether it be Executive or Regular Members. If there are performance issues, whether it be the Premier or the Cabinet or even a Regular Member, we should share about it immediately. If the Premier of the day has to deal with a Minister who is not performing, or vice versa, then Regular Members need to deal with that, as well because, the Regular Members have the power to take out the Premier in a Cabinet. At the same time, if there are issues with Cabinet, that Premier needs to deal with it. Obviously, there needs to be communication and dialogue constantly.

The fireside chats that we have had two Assemblies ago, and we didn't have much of that in the previous Assembly, unfortunately, but we should have, almost every session, there should be a fireside chat with the Premier; a heads' up to the executive that there are issues with some of the performance of Ministers, or whatever the case may be. That needs to be acted immediately.

If, let's say, a Regular Member is having some issues with a Minister, then I would like to know immediately right away so I can deal with it. If it is Executive as a whole, then we need to discuss it as a Caucus and come up with some solution there.

We have dealt with those kinds of situations in the past, where a Minister has been taken out in the past through Caucus, all 19 Members, so there is an avenue there. There is also a code of conduct that we follow, as well, we signed when we got elected as MLA, so we do have procedures that we need to follow. We do have strict guidelines when going to Office of Executive, as well. There are rules and procedures that you have to follow and your performance, as well.

Mr. Chair, I would look to Members because accountability is a huge factor for me, as well. Masi.

Our whole leadership has been about accountability, and I think that we had a code of conduct that we have to follow. We also have to ensure that we keep a high standard because we are the role model for all of the Northwest Territories, not only the people who are running for Premier or Cabinet or the Members of this House.

I think that conflict of interest is extremely important, and we have to know that there are certain things that we can and cannot do, and we must make decisions that are completely ethical.

Ethical decisions are extremely important, and I think part of that leadership has to be that, if you see something that is not quite right and if you are a leader, you have to call them on it. Sometimes, it could be, you know, you have to be able to call them and tell them that this is not a correct way of behaving, if it is behaviour, or your performance is not up to par and your expectations, and, if you have to share it with Members of Cabinet and all the rest of the MLAs, I think it is up to a leader to do that. That is the way it has to be handled. Thank you.

Thank you. We have spoken extensively about this issue this morning, about how the Premier needs to take the role to keep Ministers responsible or to keep Ministers accountable. It is the entire Assembly that is tasked with that, but like I said, when it is everyone's responsibility, it is no one's responsibility.

In terms of the Premier keeping themselves accountable, I think that is where opening up the lines of communication comes into play. I recommend regular meetings with the Regular Members, like fireside chats, regular meetings with the chair of P and P to discuss any sort of issues that are arising. If there are corrections, then they need to be made. I mean, if the Regular Members tell the Premier that he or she needs to do something differently, then you have to do something differently.

You know, this is all about relationships. The Premier is not the Minister of Infrastructure. The Premier is not the Minister of Health. At the centre, the Premier is the Minister of relationships, when it comes right down to it; relationships among Members, between government, and with the public. All that comes down to is communication.

Earlier, I was also advocating, and I think this was yesterday, I was advocating to some of the Members. I said that, you know, you don't fall into the trap that we did in the last Assembly where we had a mid-term review and then you want to wait two years before you deal with accountability issues. You know what Nunavut did. They took their Premier out right at the beginning of Assembly, almost.

In addition to the Premier having to regulate themselves, I am encouraging the Members to take control of the power they have to ensure the accountability of the Premier, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. During roundtable we heard a pretty loud chorus line, or concert, if you will, about getting our land claims settled. We didn't hear just from any one. We heard it from a lot of different organizations. We have heard from our business community in the North to get our land claims settled. They are not just saying it. They are screaming it. Our economic health in the North as a whole is dependent on this, so my question to our Premier candidates is: what specific commitments can you put in place to ensure that our outstanding land claims are settled during this Assembly? Thank you.

That was one of my priorities in my mandate, because being a former chief and realizing how important the Indigenous community contributes to our government and our Northwest Territories, and without settling land claims, and it is an issue all the time. They said that there were a lot of obstacles that were placed before them by the Government of the Northwest Territories and by Canada. We have to ensure that those land claims are a top priority so that this government can move forward for economic growth.

The land claims will also bring wealth to the Northwest Territories in their regions, and it will give the Indigenous people a chance to be on even par with everybody else in the Northwest Territories and Canada. I firmly believe that the faster that we deal with this file, the faster that the Northwest Territories will be able to move forward in the agenda of economic growth. Thank you.

Thank you. This is sort of a difficult question to ask. I am not familiar with the specifics at any of the tables. I can imagine what some of the outstanding issues are, but it is hard to make a specific commitment. What I can commit to is to bring a different attitude to the table. Like I said earlier, we need to become uncomfortable. The government doesn't want to release power. Maybe even to us, it is uncomfortable to have that thought, but we need to get there. We need to bring a different mandate. If we need to meet leader-to-leader and not through the lawyers to get things done, maybe that is what we have to do. I think that nothing is off the table. We are closer with some negotiations than others, but to take a generation to negotiate a deal is unacceptable.

My commitment would be to take nothing off of the table right off the bat and figure out how to get to "yes." The government's response, I find, is often a "no." That's the default response. Take that off the table. That is no longer the default response. Instead of a "no," it's, "Okay, how do we get to that point?" "We understand what you want. How do we get to that point?" as opposed to, "No, we are not going to consider that." Thank you, Mr. Chair.