Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. And thank you for the question. It's an important question, and I think we need to solve this divide once and for all and give regions and small communities the ability to make decisions for themselves that are meaningful and impactful. And that starts at all levels, not just in terms of building relationships with local authorities and Indigenous governments but also within the public service itself so that regions have the autonomy to operate within a framework that's established by central agencies and headquarters, right. But regions need to be empowered to make those decisions, and I think we also need to think about giving regions back human resourcing so it's not centralized in one department but is there local so the human resource officers know their -- like, know who's being hired, know their employees, and can service them directly, so you're not waiting for Yellowknife or Inuvik to answer all your concerns. And regional directors will help this as well. Having a strong regional director that reports to the Premier is going to be able to see all the different parts of the machinery of government in that local region and how they're connecting and how they're not connecting, and then those decisions can be brought forward and fixed at the center and flow down to the regions as well. But this is not a -- this is a problem that's been growing over time, and the answer has always been kind of more top down thinking, and I think we need to go back to basics and start where it matters most, which is in the regions, and build up. And, I mean, by -- my dad's told me about this for years. He's worked in small communities his whole life. He's talked about how MACA has changed substantially, which is why I think we need to brief -- fundamentally rethink MACA and do away with that centralized department and really take as many functions as we can and give them locally and give back to local autonomy within the public service as well. Thank you.
Kieron Testart on Questions by Members
On December 7th, 2023. See this statement in context.
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