Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess firstly, in my language, just briefly. [English translation not provided] Mr. Chair, I look at this mandate as a guiding document for the government as we move to try to improve the lives of our people in the Northwest Territories. I think the intention of all of us in the room is for that to happen. I think that we have the government, the people, to do that. We're able to look at the more serious areas of government, the more high-cost areas of government -- for example, health costs -- and I think we're doing things in here that will lower health costs. I think this is what this mandate must do. It should lower the cost of justice and it should lower the cost of addictions across the Territories and lower the cost of education, improve our educational outcomes, improve our health outcomes, and improve our justice outcomes. I think that if we're able to achieve that with this document, this mandate, then I feel very positive to be associated with a mandate like this. I know that I've been looking at this probably for eight years and I've been saying the same thing during all that time, and that is, we need to have people employed. Now this document, if you look at it, and it looks at the ways that we're going to engage the small communities where employment is needed badly, we will see all those things happen, and I think it's something that I'd hope for. I know that we had never as a government gone through this type of intense review of the mandate. This is the third government that I've been in and for the first time we've gone through an intense mandate. It’s not everything for everybody, but I think it's a move in the right direction, and we agreed that after two years we would review the mandate. It'll be interesting to see how much of the mandate can be carried out by government and to see if some of the things that we hold dear to our hearts as MLAs are changing, that are improving, the things that we want to see improve.
I want to see the people in the small communities to become contributors to our society. Right now, there's so few jobs that most of the people are dependent on government, and even the people that are trying not to be dependent on government are having a difficult time just paying for the things they need to harvest, like gasoline, snowmobiles, and so on, to hunt and so on. These are some of the things I'm hoping can come as a result of this mandate, where individuals are able to improve their lives and improve the lives of kids. I would say that kids are not going to school in small communities. I will certainly be engaging the Minister of Education throughout these next four years for that. Just to see an increase of kids going to school because their parents have work would be a real positive thing. People have a tough time getting out of bed every day, sending your kid to school, and then sitting around doing nothing all day. Because that's what they're left with: nothing to do. We need to look at that. We have a section for the cost of living. Those are important things. But I think, either you help them pay for the high cost of living or you give them the ability to pay for it themselves. I'm hoping that this mandate, at the end of the day when it comes out in the wash and the government's carrying out the various portions of this mandate, it's going to give the people of the NWT that are not working the ability to find work and pay for their own things and not be dependent on government. The government is not always the driving force. It's the people that are the driving force behind the Northwest Territories. That's all I have to say.