Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to look at the perspective of costs of living on two sides. This issue came up to me as well throughout the campaign process but it's been one that's been coming up, really, for as long as certainly I've lived in the North. And firstly, what is it that's keeping our costs so high. Two big ones come to mind immediately. First is our lack of transportation infrastructure and second is our lack of energy infrastructure. So we have large scale projects, Mackenzie Valley Highway. That certainly isn't a short-term thing that's going to change the high cost of living. There are shorter term projects, smaller scale connections directly into communities that are now isolated with all-season roads and sometimes even without winter roads. There's been some success on projects like that. There was awards for the Tlicho All-Season Road. What can we do to have more success like that, more awards on a national scale for the good work that's happening in the Northwest Territories? Still that's a fairly large scale. But then I get back to energy infrastructure. Both electricity and heat, this is an area where we face significantly higher costs than everywhere else. I know myself and other Ministers in the last government raised the alarm bells with the federal government. And one of the last things I was able to share with city administrators and municipal government administrators and Indigenous governments was a long list of funding opportunities to help them remove the need to rely on diesel and to bring in alternative sources of power or to reduce their costs of electricity through other means. So I'd like to look back at that immediately and see what we are doing to capitalize on the availability of those funds to change the reliance that we have right now on the high types of fuel. And then, of course, there is the longer term question of what are we going to do for micro grids for small communities that are not connected, better transmission lines to ensure that they are and the larger scale projects of renewables, and then ensuring that we actually have the infrastructure to adapt to renewables so that we see actual meaningful long-term change to bring our costs of living down. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, you know, I've often given that same preamble when I talk about the Premiership and the powers of the Premier. The Premier is not like in other jurisdictions in Canada. You know, Danielle Smith can say what she wants done, and it gets done. That is not the situation here in the territory. So we are forced to work together. And I think that's a good thing. And so my style, as I've said many times, would be to bring people together. That is the only way forward.

The Premier does write mandate letters for the Ministers and for the deputy ministers, and in those mandate letters I would ensure that what is expected of the Ministers and the deputy ministers is included so that there are parameters for the decisions that are made, for the types of initiatives that are undertaken, and for how we deliver and develop policies and services for our residents. It's also important that the Cabinet and the Regular Members work together. You know, if there's an issue on Cabinet, there's a Cabinet Minister who needs to be removed, the Premier can't remove them. They can take away portfolios, but they need the support of the House to remove that Minister. And so you can't just remove portfolios and have a Minister sitting there with no -- nothing to do. And so that means that if you do that, the House has to know, they have to have faith that that was done for a reason and they have to support it.

So working together is of the utmost importance. I believe I've done that as a Minister to the greatest extent possible. As Premier, I've given thought to how I would implement that across all departments to ensure that all Ministers are working in the same way and serving the Regular Members and the public in that type of fashion as well. And so there are structural changes we can make to how we operate upstairs in our offices. So working together is the bottom line, and I believe that I can bring people together. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question. My approach is to empower Members to succeed, and not only Members of the Cabinet but Members of the Legislative Assembly as well. I've spent the last two weeks chatting with my colleagues here, learning what opportunities and challenges exist in their regions, what kind of roles they want to play in the Assembly, and the kind of priorities that they want to see in the next Cabinet. And I did that not to horse trade or curry favour but to understand what the next -- what the options -- what the available options are out there, what people actually want us to -- want to succeed in. And everyone needs a win, everyone needs to be a leader in their own community, and everyone needs to be front and center representing their constituents. And, you know, I believe I really enjoyed those conversations. I've learned a lot from all of you. And I've, you know, tailored my speech and my approach to this whole thing to be about listening, listening to your concerns, listening to how we can work together effectively. And that's what empowerment means to me. It's not sitting back and, you know, opening the door and forming good relations. We can always do that. But it's about giving back to every Member of this Assembly so we can all share in the success of this Assembly and all shoulder the challenges together. And that's why I propose associate Ministers to be a fundamental change to how this Assembly works and give Regular Members who are chairs of standing committee more profile as associate Ministers and more access to Cabinet so they're not just sitting in a room waiting for the government to come and drop a briefing on them, whether it's ahead of time or after or in public or in camera, but actually being part of the process every step of the way so they know what's going on and they can help drive that progress. For me, it's about everyone in this Assembly being able to come together and be proud at the end of the day that we've worked together effectively and get the things that you got elected to do done in your ridings. And I'm committed to do that if I'm successful as Premier. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think what I'd like to bring and what I do bring is an empathy driven approach to action and delivery. I care very deeply. That is why I went to law school in the first place. That is why I ran for office. And that is ultimately why I did, after discussing and connecting with colleagues here, after talking to Indigenous leaders that I know, made the decision to put my name forward for Premier. I'd like to continue as I have started, which is through dialogue and communication which provides, in my view, transparency, but also with shared vision. And I have said before the vision is not singularly that of Premier, but the Premier is responsible for delivering a vision on behalf of this Assembly and on the government. We are only just at the point of setting our priorities but it is clear that we have shared vision, in my view, for the Northwest Territories to be healthier, to be better educated, and to be able to maximize who we are for every single region. And so with that, as far as being a leader is concerned, I believe I can help motivate the team - the team of Cabinet, the team of government - through a shared vision by acting out myself as a leader as I would like others to act, and I believe we can deliver on all of our actions through the structures within government. Having simple things, regular meetings between the Premier and every Ministers' office, including their deputies; regular meetings with our regional directors and superintendents as I described earlier; ensuring that our meetings are driven by priorities, driven by priorities which are driven by action lines which are actions and timelines that we check back on them so that we know that if there is a barrier to undertaking something, any action in a region, in a community, that we remove that barrier and we do it before there's a delay. And that provides accountability, and that's fundamentally where I would like to end. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. My question is in regards to the youth and the recreation infrastructure that's available and/or lack of infrastructure that's available within the smaller communities. With the high volume of drugs and alcohol in our communities, we have to find alternative measures to keep our youth occupied. There's climate change. It's becoming a shorter period of time for our youth to engage in hockey tournaments or in hockey within our communities. We've struggled with this for a long time and we've tried other alternatives, like cultural activities. We have a dance group that's from Fort McPherson, the Tetlit Gwich'in dancers that travel throughout Canada to perform, and this brings them -- they're really proud of their -- what they're doing, and it makes them happy. So we need more culturally-based and recreation programs within our community.

My question is what are you going to do to improve the infrastructure within the communities to help our youth stay away from the use of alcohol and drugs?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think this touches on the real issue around many of the public safety concerns we have in communities, that there are root causes that are creating many of the challenges we face and in this case, not having -- having any adequate facilities to provide activities and engagement for youth often allows them to be led astray. And this is something that we can -- that the Member clearly pointed out and that I think I believe we've heard around the Northwest Territories. So I think it is time to carefully look at what funding sources are available for all arts and culture programs in the Northwest Territories, can we contribute to local infrastructure that's going to make a difference as well, and leverage this strength of self-governments and regional governments as well to work with them to build these facilities. I'm committed to closing the municipal funding gap. That's going to provide more resources for operations and maintenance to municipalities that would allow them to maintain those kinds of facilities that the Member was asking for. And I think that's the key piece here. Even if we put a new school in or a new rec centre, there needs to be funding attached so it stays open and stays in good repair. So we need to look at all those things. And I think the best way to do that, again, is a regional approach where we listen to what the communities want, we empower communities by giving them the resources they need, and we kind of get out of the way, and we let the GNWT provide support where they need support, like in engineering plans and things like that. But listen to the needs of the community and be there for them when they need our help to ensure that they have success, that they are empowered, and that especially the next generation of Northerners are given access to the facilities that they need to stay healthy and safe in their own communities and embrace the culture that's so important to First Peoples in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think the idea that some of the youth who are in some of the most vulnerable communities and most at risk are not having access to services. I find that to be something that we need to take a moment and connect in to the other priorities we're talking about around addictions and wellness and recovery. So tackling this from the perspective of a whole-of-government priority, looking, again, at what is our response to addictions, where do the youth and youth activities and sports fit into that, mental wellness. Is it in our educational funding formulas? Is it in health and social services funds? I think there's an opportunity here to look at better integrating this issue into some of the bigger issues that are right now seeing increases in funding and where there are calls for increases in funding.

One of the other areas, though, that I want to touch on here is in the nonprofit sector. There are nonprofits across -- and NGOs, sports organizations, cultural organizations across the Northwest Territories, working to deliver this kind of opportunity to youth, to adults, to everyone in their communities. And without much fanfare, there was a review done, independent, strengthening the nonprofit and charitable sector. It was tabled here in the fall. It was done by people from within this area, from within the nonprofits, and they landed on something that I had also found, which is way back in 2014, we put out something called the Government of the Northwest Territories Program Managers Guide for Funding to NGOs. It is meant to help increase the capacity of our nonprofit sector, better empower them to deliver what they do and to do what they do well. And it is time that we stop having to review these things and actually get this implemented so we have more opportunities across Northwest Territories in this sector for those delivering on those programs and services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Youth will find something to do. You know, we can't say don't do drugs, don't get into trouble. They'll find something to do. So what we need to do is give them an alternative to those things. We need to give them activities that they can engage in that are safe and that are healthy. And, you know, I grew up in the Northwest Territories. I know what it's like. In Hay River, there was a time there was no youth centre; you'd just walk around town. I mean, that's not necessarily the safest thing to do, especially these days with what we're seeing happening in the communities. So one of the changes that was made in the last government, I brought forward changes to our capital standards for schools. It used to be that if you had less than a certain number of students, you got no gym if you got a new school. Or if you had a certain small number of students, you might get a gym, but it would be small. You wouldn't be able to really practice even half-court basketball in it. And so changes were made so that every new school in every community that is built will get a gym. The size of the gyms has also increased for the smaller communities. Because I've been to a number of the communities with the small gyms, and those just aren't adequate. They're not going to prepare students to -- you know, to go on to the Arctic Winter Games and things like that. So that's one major thing that we've already done.

There's been efforts to work with the DEAs in communities to ensure access to those gyms as well. Because it's the DEAs who do control the access, and so we want to work with them to ensure that those gyms can stay open after hours, on weekends if necessary.

A number of years ago, we also made change -- the 18th Assembly made changes to how funding is distributed to sports organizations. It's been a number of years now. I think it might be time to relook at that and ensure that money is being used in the way we want it to be used, and it is supporting the types of organizations we want it to support. There could perhaps be some more local and regional funding available. And this goes to our support for NGOs as well. We need to ensure that funding we do have, whether it's arts or sports, is accessible to NGOs and that it is stable as well, so we have multiyear funding. So there's a number of changes that we can and should make. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. My question today is with respect to the cost of living raised by countless families through the North, and they're struggling to get through yet another year and even are confronted by the challenge of should they need to or can they even stay. I put forward ideas about immediately and effectively and positively creating better ways to move forward, such as eliminating payroll tax or even eliminating certain fees. Some of them are meaningful ideas that will have positive effects, and some are good and, of course, some are less good in some cases. But it's about lending the micro costs that are hurting families day to day. My question for the Premier candidates is this: What specifically can you suggest that will directly and effectively eliminate some costs and fees which will immediately have a positive impact on families that are trying to get by? Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to look at the perspective of costs of living on two sides. This issue came up to me as well throughout the campaign process, but it's been one that's been coming up, really, for as long as certainly I've lived in the North. And firstly, what is it that's keeping our costs so high. Two big ones come to mind immediately. First is our lack of transportation infrastructure and second is our lack of energy infrastructure. So we have large scale projects, Mackenzie Valley Highway. That certainly isn't a short-term thing that's going to change the high costs of living. There are shorter term projects, smaller scale connections directly into communities that are now isolated with all-season roads and sometimes even without winter roads. There's been some success on projects like that. There was awards for the Tlicho All-Season Road. What can we do to have more success like that, more awards on a national scale for the good work that's happening in the Northwest Territories. Still, that's a fairly large scale. But then I get back to energy infrastructure. Both electricity and heat, this is an area where we face significantly higher costs than everywhere else. I know myself, and other Ministers in the last government, raised the alarm bells with the federal government. And one of the last things I was able to share with city administrators and municipal government administrators and Indigenous governments was a long list of funding opportunities to help them remove the need to rely on diesel and to bring in alternative sources of power or to reduce their costs of electricity through other means. So I'd like to look back at that immediately and see what we are doing to capitalize on the availability of those funds to change the reliance that we have right now on the high types of fuel. And then, of course, there is the longer term question of what are we going to do for micro grids for small communities that are not connected, better transmission lines to ensure that they are in the larger scale projects of renewables, and then ensuring that we actually have the infrastructure to adapt to renewables so that we see actual meaningful long-term change to bring our costs of living down. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, you know, this is one of the issues that everyone in the territory feels. You know, we used to have exemption from the carbon tax on heating fuel, which we no longer have. And I look at my bill now, and I'm shocked by the cost of that. And so there's things like continuing to lobby the federal government, trying to make them realize that the North is not the south. The idea of the carbon tax is -- you know, maybe it's a good idea for some jurisdictions. It just doesn't work for us. And so we need to continue to lobby the federal government to make the exemptions for the Northwest Territories that people need. A number of changes were made in the last government to help our most vulnerable populations, changes to income assistance so that families when they need it are better supported, changes made so that seniors and persons with disabilities will have more income, can live more comfortable lives, can afford the things given the rising costs. We need to do a better job of expanding access to childcare. We've seen millions of dollars go back into parents' pockets because of the new childcare funding but I personally believe this is one area where the GNWT needs to make additional investments so that we can expand the number of childcare spaces, which is a huge cost for many people. We need to continue keeping work in the Northwest Territories. You know, the cost of living is high if you have no income. And so if people are working and we're keeping money here, that is going to help families as well. And one of the biggest things we need to do is deal with housing. The lack of housing has driven costs up so high across the territory. We need to work with municipalities to help develop land. A number of municipalities have good, solid plans on how to develop land, how to get more houses on the ground, and we need to make that priority and we need to push it because, you know, a number of the places are -- most places, in my community, in Yellowknife, and a number of communities are just unaffordable if you're looking at market rent. And it's supply and demand. We need more supply. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm feeling I'm in election forum again, Mr. Chair. But I agree with my colleagues. Like, I think this is a system line problem, and it's going to take all levels of governments of the Northwest Territories to solve, and it's going to take input from all members. And I do thank the Member for giving us something to think about at the start. We have an opportunity all to collaborate on a fiscal strategy that will allow us to consider options likes that. I do think we need to take a look at things like the tax system to look at how incomes are taxed in the Northwest Territories. I don't think that we need to rely on own source revenues as much as we need to rely on population growth to drive new revenues which will allow us to take the edge off -- you know, off -- the edge off people by lowering fees and services across the board. That's kind of where I take this. It's about taking the pressure off northerners. And, fundamentally, every northerner needs a raise. We can't keep up with just -- we can't build all the projects that we need to build and fundamentally transform or environment. What we can do is pay people more like we used to. The northern advantage has been eroded over the years, and we need to bring it back. And that means we need some -- we need to give more as the government back to the public service and support private sector giving similar wage increases to their staff as well because, fundamentally, if we fix that problem, we're going to encourage more people to live here, restore that opportunity and that promise of northern opportunity that brought my family here way back in the '70s and '80s. And that's -- so that's how I see things moving forward, right, like, we can talk about all the things we can do. We can build Taltson. We can build the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We can repeal the carbon tax, which I'm committed to doing using the federal system which will get us those exemptions in place. And we can build -- put in an affordability and policy lens into Cabinet decision-making as well, so affordability is always front and center with what we do as a government. But fundamentally the thing Northerners need right now is more money in their pocket, and I'm committed to doing that working with all of you. Thank you.