Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have also spoken a fair bit already today. I'm going to try very hard not to go back over everything I have said today or 20 minutes last week, but I do want to take a few minutes to maybe reformulate some of what I have been saying into the role as a Cabinet Member. It is a different role, and it's one that I do want to make clear what I think I'm bringing to it so that people have that different perspective from me.
I do care very deeply about consensus government and care very deeply about its achievement. If I have the opportunity to return to Cabinet, I want to bring back some of these same considerations to Cabinet that I did before.
When I spoke about vision on many occasions here, that's something that in my view that should apply to every Cabinet Minister, that we all have a responsibility to bring vision within our departments and vision to our responsibilities as Minister. And that means taking the priorities that are relevant to our departments and acting on them and delivering those results for this Assembly. I believe that's what I did to the best of my abilities for the last four years, whether simple or small things, such as instituting the budget dialogues process, to create greater points of accountability and communications into the community, to having employee town halls to, again, have that kind of engagement and dialogue, values I hold dear with our public service. You've heard me speak a lot about the government renewal process because it's one that I believe in deeply. It's about delivering evidence-based information so we can make better decisions and be more efficient with what we have. And changes in our capital. I know I've referenced this too, but it's because it's something that means a lot to me. We've put planning back into the center of it so we have better planning, a better process, something that's more realistic, and by being more realistic it's more transparent. Because these are all values that we often hear about but actually making good on them and acting on them, it can be quite difficult when we're within our departments. But I believe that there are ways to make things more transparent, make ourselves more accountable, and increase and improve our communications.
I've seen that growth now in the tourism sector, in the agricultural sector. We've seen changes in our procurement process. So anyone that's saying a change in government is not possible, to that I disagree, and I'm asking you to give me the chance to continue to make change in our government on all of our behalves.
How we do that, of course, is sometimes challenging. There are different pathways. There are many different ways of doing it. I feel very confident that we are going to have a positive opportunity with this Assembly in different ways to see change. For myself, I think I'm very practical. I am very solution oriented. I am very driven to create change. And I care very deeply about people, about the people of the Northwest Territories.
I have relied very much on the input of MLAs over the last four years in everything I do. I have allowed this to be an integral part of every budget process, all eight budgets for which I was responsible, and I promise to continue that if I'm returned to Cabinet. I believe in communication and connection. This is truly one of the reasons that I am putting my name forward. It's what brought me into politics. It's what's kept me going through politics. And I expect it's what will keep me going over the next four years in whatever role I may occupy.
I very much believe and follow through. And so when I do make a commitment, I will follow through on that commitment. My commitments generally are not promises that I can't keep. They are promises that I will work for a solution. Because sometimes we don't know the solution at the front end. We have to start by identifying and understanding the problem and then figuring out how we're going to solve it. I will rely on everyone in this room to help me solve problems because everyone here knows their community, their residents, their regions the best. I'll work with Indigenous governments for the very same reasons. They know their regions. They know their lands. They know their people. What either role I would hope to occupy as a Minister is to then translate those solutions into the department so that we are delivering as a government on what people need. I believe in person-centered services. I believe in healthy workplaces with empowered employees. And as I keep saying more than once now, I do sincerely want to ensure that we are maintaining and improving communications at every level with the Indigenous Government of the Northwest Territories. These relationships are foundational. We are all treaty peoples here, and we have an opportunity to truly be leaders in Canada and Indigenous reconciliation.
Communications to the public, if we don't have those, we've seen that the results can be quite disastrous. And I believe we have opportunities to improve those pathways of communication. Communications to stakeholders, again I have made it my practice to accept meetings, to be available, to listen, to listen actively, to whoever might be coming forward. And I can assure you, within Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, many people want to come and talk to us. But also and very importantly, within government. I have had the opportunity to work on many files that were multi -- involved multiple departments, and finding better ways to integrate the communications between the officials in those departments, between the Ministers' offices, between Ministers' offices involving senior managers, this is how we will truly become a whole-of-government approach to our problem solving.
And last but, in fact, not least, but most importantly, the communications between us here as MLAs and between MLAs and Cabinet. I know there has been a number of discussions in the last couple of weeks of how we might do that, and everyone right now is committed to it. I certainly am, and I certainly intend to stay that way. I believe I have demonstrated myself over the last four years to be open, to be engaged, to be prepared to listen. It's how I've operated. It's how I've operated as a Minister. It's how we've passed our budgets. I believe in dialogue. I believe in discussion. And I look forward to having the opportunity to continue that.
Fundamentally, I believe in consensus government. I believe I've done what I can so far to make it better, to make it stronger, and to make it more focused on consensus. And I'd like the opportunity to continue that work.
I have a deep sense of commitment and responsibility to my constituents. I also have a very deep sense of responsibility, if given the opportunity to be Minister again, to every single resident of the Northwest Territories and to every single MLA here who would be entrusting us with the role as Minister. I believe I've worked hard, as I've said, in the last 19th Assembly, and as a Minister I'd like to continue to uphold values of openness within my office, with my department, to continue to improve communications, to continue to improve transparency, and to be prepared to always be accountable for what is happening or perhaps not happening within my departments for which I may be responsible. I hope you will grant me that opportunity, and I put this in your hands. Thank you.