I'm happy to have the chance to address this important mandate document and see the progress that we've made over the past couple of months. Members, we've all gone through the campaign trail and emerged from the other side. I found the months leading up to the election and the election period itself as a great opportunity to meet many of my constituents, to hear from them, and seek their input and learn their priorities. That has been important for me in developing and refining my own platform and to bring to the priorities in mandate conversation here in the Assembly. I know we have all done that same work, so I'd like to take this chance to thank everyone here for their hard work and contribution to the important work of setting priorities in developing the mandate. As a new MLA, this was a new process for me. On balance, I think it was a good way to set our course. In the interests of continuously improving the system, I suggest that as a Caucus we should have a discussion about the process and make suggestions for improvements for future Assemblies. Now that we have this mandate document, I'm looking forward to putting some meat on the bone, so to speak, reviewing the business plans and engaging in budget deliberations so we can start putting money where it needs to go to make these things happen. The one part of the mandate document I am not comfortable with is the “Fiscal Context” page. I'm not comfortable with our broad long-term statement of vision containing such a restrictive, temporary assessment of current economic conditions. I've addressed my concerns on this to Members previously, and I will elaborate on my concerns again in more detail when we discuss each section of the mandate document.
Again, thank you to everyone for your good and hard work over recent weeks. I look forward to further discussions and the opportunity to present a completed mandate document to NWT residents in the coming days.