That's a great idea. I think it's very important, especially in Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, and Aklavik, where the numbers are very low, the numbers that I've seen. You know, we have local radio stations here in the community. You know, I highly recommend the LHOs to go on the air and promote the survey. Also, as I mentioned in my statement, Mr. Speaker, it's very important for our elders, many of them are getting up there in age. We have a high population of elders in my riding. So would the Minister be willing to hire someone to go door-to-door, especially for the elders, Mr. Speaker? If not only for the elders, to ensure that we get their information, what's working and what's not working for them.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t agree with the Minister on that one. You know, it's a small price to pay to get a high turnout rate for, especially, a survey of this importance, Mr. Speaker. You know, I'm very disappointed to get that response, but I knew it was coming. Once the survey is completed, what is the Housing Corporation's next steps towards its full policy review and development of a new strategic plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The next steps once we compile the survey results, all of the surveys are entered into what's called the Survey Monkey. Some of the input that has come has been through letters through emails, not all have come through surveys, so we have people actually that are manually entering that data into the Survey Monkey. It will be broken up. The Survey Monkey is able to break things up by communities as the MLAs see when we produced the numbers. It's been able to break things up by if it's a government worker, if it's someone in housing, if it's public housing, if someone in home ownership. We're able to be very specific.

When we get the results, we're looking for solutions. We will be sorting out the policy changes based on, in all honesty, three piles. One pile, easy policies that can be changed without a lot of thought but just makes sense; a second pile that might take a little bit more work; and a longer term pile that might take legislative changes or a potential interdepartmental work, and it'll be put foot to the ground and feet running and we will be pumping them out as soon as possible. Once we get the proposed changes in, I would ask to work with the Members to be able to provide the results before it's finalized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in a previous session I asked the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs about the youth position in the Nahendeh and when it was going to be filled. I was told it would be filled in January. I was assuming it was this January. Well, Mr. Speaker, the time has come and today nothing has happened in my riding. It's been over 15 months, so, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise the status of the youth positions across north? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The status of youth positions within the Northwest Territories: currently we only have three vacant positions. All the other positions are filled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. I already knew there was three, one in Yellowknife, one in North Slave and one in Inuvik region, but there's three other positions that have not been filled and for the most part it's been 15 months. So it's been over a year for some of these, two of them I know of for sure. Can the Minister provide a rationale on why this department has not filled these positions to this date?

Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I thought it was Housing for a second. Yes, so we can talk about it. At the beginning, the three positions that the MLA is referring to, we are still working on it, and the reason is because within the Sutcliffe Report there were some recommendations on job descriptions. We also felt it was important, so we consulted with stakeholders in the areas, the applicable stakeholders and the staff to develop more comprehensive job descriptions. Because we are looking at being able to utilize our skills in a more appropriate way, so we're hoping that we can actually have positions that have a little bit of overlap and we can use specialization, at the same time providing them with the skills so that they can transfer into positions more easily.

At this point the job descriptions are completed. They are with the Department of Human Resources, and they need to determine the pay level that these positions will be at. So as soon as we receive them back from the Department of Human Resources, we will be putting them out for competition.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her answer. It's unfortunate it's taken 15 months to do a job description that hasn't even been classified yet on what the pay is going to be.

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding the department is changing these job descriptions, of both the youth and the sport and recreation position, and combining it to one sort of, kind of, a job description collectively. So what is the rationale behind this change?

As stated earlier, there are a couple of reasons that we're looking at the change. We are looking to be able to utilize the skills and the strengths within our employees in a better fashion so that we can share services. We're also looking to promote a greater range of candidates so that they can apply for positions. We were looking at things such as education, barriers that actually impact people within the Northwest Territories. We're looking at trying to get youth involved in these programs, to promote people within the Northwest Territories to have access to these competitions, to these jobs, and so we were very cognizant when we were developing the job descriptions in looking for ways that we can actually promote more northern youth to be able to access these and that we can use the transfer of skills throughout the programs.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for her answer. I worked in the field for 23 years. I understand the importance of the crossover. We did a lot of crossover, so I understand that and I understand the importance of it. I still struggle with why you're changing job descriptions from a youth officer and a sport and recreation one and making it combined to one.

I guess my next question is: Why is the government looking at it? Is this going to be a potential cut? Because now we're going to have two people in the region doing the same, similar, job, same job description, is this something that they're looking at for future cuts? I understand the importance of crossovers, but having two jobs with different job descriptions allows that to happen still. So is this a potential future cut, or is this a better decision for them to do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was no intention during the development of this process that we would be looking at cutting these positions. We value them, as well. A future cut, I can say that within my term as the Minister of MACA I will not terminate these positions. However, I cannot state further than my position. So, there was no intention. I can't give a guarantee forever, but, as long as I am the Minister, that is not my intention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier.

Earlier today I spoke of the legislative inertia of Cabinet. We are about a third of the way through our term, and only six bills, of limited consequences, have come forward. Can the Premier explain what is going on with the ambitious Cabinet legislative agenda? Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through you, I'd like to redirect this question to the Government House Leader, Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to recognize that legislation for the sake of legislation should not be a priority of this Assembly. It certainly isn't a priority of the government. We're actually more interested in making sure that we're bringing forward high-quality legislation that best serves the people of the Northwest Territories and reflects our mandate.

As the Government House Leader, Mr. Speaker, my role is to help shepherd legislation through this Assembly, and, in that role, I had an opportunity to meet with committee early in the life of this Assembly, where I did share a list of potential legislative initiatives for the 18th Legislative Assembly. At that time, I made clear and I'd like to make clear again that this is a planning tool, Mr. Speaker. This is not a defined set or final list of legislation that will be moving forward. This Assembly, as with all previous Assemblies, additional initiatives will be identified and added to the list during the course of the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, the Cabinet is not experiencing inertia. There is a significant amount of work to be done. The Member has specifically referenced different legislation, particularly around the devolve and evolve. I can tell the Member right now that the Department of ENR will be moving forward with five LPs on significant pieces of legislation. The Member does know and is aware our legislative process includes coming to committee with a legislative proposal, which is a very thorough document or is a very thorough document in the case of large legislation. We'll be looking for their feedback. Once we get their feedback, we'll be moving forward with drafting instructions and moving forward with the legislation that the Member would like to see. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I had hoped to hear from the Premier as the leader of Cabinet on this, but I'm happy to hear from the House Leader. I would have preferred the Premier.

I'm just not talking about a planning document, Mr. Speaker. I'm talking about the mandate that this House agreed to at the beginning of our term, and, in that mandate document, there's a number of legislative and regulatory changes that were outlined, one new Act, 13 amended laws, and at least two new regulations. None of these have come forward to date.

Can the Premier -- I guess I'm going to hear now from the House Leader -- tell us how the public should judge performance on this part of the mandate?

The mandate is an incredibly long document with a lot of specific detail, and as a Cabinet, and an Assembly I hope, we continue to be committed to that mandate and are moving forward with those different pieces of work.

Some of these pieces of legislation and some of the work the Member has described is quite large, and, in the first year of the Assembly, we continue to make progress, but we never -- I don't believe -- made a commitment to completing all of this work in the first year of this Assembly. I think that would be impractical.

I can tell the Member today, I can tell all the Members today, we continue to move forward on the mandate items, we continue to develop LPs there are meaningful and will address the challenges and issues people of the Northwest Territories are facing. We look forward to working with committee on those LPs and then bringing forward meaningful and well-drafted legislation in the life of this government.

I appreciate the response from the Government House Leader, but we're almost three years into devolution and our government has not changed one word of the mirror legislation that was passed with virtually no public input.

Can the Government House Leader or the Premier tell this House and the residents of the Northwest Territories when we can expect to have any legislative changes to reflect the promises that were made around devolve and then evolve?