Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tough act to follow.

A lot of these new initiatives that the department is speaking to are good things: additional resources for land rights agreements; $250,000 to the friendship centres; $100,000 for the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation; the Western Premiers Conference; campaign schools. I mean, these are all good things, but around what the standing committee deemed as extraordinary funding requests from the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation and the council of friendship centres, these are both issues that have been raised with Members of the Legislative Assembly as areas needing some additional investment. It is good to see them made, but my hesitancy with welcoming them too much is the lack of a clear policy framework around these.

During the course of the business plan review, at least as it relates to the friendship centre request, there is an existing fund called the NGO Stabilization Fund, which currently resides with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs but previously was with this department, and that is exactly its purpose, to stabilize the operational funding of NGOs that are experiencing those kinds of shortfalls and allowing them to continue to provide services to Northerners. Friendship centres do amazing things.

The committee has been recommending that this NGO Stablization Fund return to Executive for this exact reason, and one of the solutions to these extraordinary funding requests might be to do it this way. Unfortunately, the department has not agreed with that recommendation, and I cannot imagine why. I mean, it is good to support northern organizations and to provide this level of funding, but we need to ensure that it meets the rigour of public scrutiny, and just passing out cash, even if it's a good cause, there needs to be some policy guidelines around it, because there are a lot of good causes out there, not just these two.

As for GSOs, I think everyone here will speak to it. One of the most significant areas of this department's mandate is providing GSOs. From all of the Regular Members, it is very clear that there is a lack of front line services available to the people of the Northwest Territories. MLAs are handling a lot of requests from constituents on how to access government services. Those requests go straight to the Ministers' offices, and this could be done a lot more expeditiously if there were front line service officers in every community, including regional centres and including the capital.

Standing committees have repeatedly made suggestions and recommendations that this program be expanded and further that a funding relationship be entered into or explored with Service Canada so we can share resources when applicable. I know the department has been piloting that approach to provide federal services through GSOs, but we have a huge Service Canada centre here in Yellowknife, and I don't see why we can't convert that. Mr. Chair, if you speak French, of course, you can receive that here in the capital. You can go and get one-stop-shop for government services, but only in French, and I think that is a disservice to our other official language communities. This is a crucial service. People should have a one-stop-shop to go when they need assistance from government.

As to this deputy secretary position in Ottawa, I think staff to ensure we can achieve our strategies, goals, and public policy objectives is appropriate. I just wonder if, at a time with extremely diminished revenues and mounting expenditures and a need for enhanced public services, if it is really the time to roll out this position in Ottawa. We do have a seat at the table through our federal-territorial-provincial relations. Every department participates in those round-table discussions. Unfortunately, when the standing committee conducted its review and has been communicating with the department since, we have not had much clarity on what this position will do and exactly the parameters around it. I think we really need to consider carefully if we are going to establish a $387,000 position in Ottawa when there, again, are a number of important positions that we need here in the Northwest Territories.

My colleague the honourable Member from Frame Lake spoke of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is an international declaration that this Assembly has supported in the past. Canada, as a government and a parliament, is moving towards full support and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Committee was concerned at the time of the business plans that, if we move in a similar direction, which I think we all agree is important, we do not know the full consequences of doing that.

To ask the department to develop a policy lens for Indigenous rights that it could apply to all public policy undertakings and ensure that all departments are being consistent in their approach to Indigenous rights in Canada and through the lens of the UN declaration, unfortunately, we do not have a firm commitment other than they will keep an eye on it. There are a lot of things going on, and I know we have limited resources, but this one seems like an obvious one. I think events today, the public rally that was held outside, just again underscore how important it is that we make reconciliation a priority for this government and we ensure that our public policies and those who implement those policies fully recognize what reconciliation means from a public government. We have a long way to go. Every government in Canada does. We have made significant progress, but we need to go further. These kinds of steps, like enshrining the UN declaration in our public policy documents in every sense of our government, would make a big difference. It is unfortunate that we do not have a stronger commitment to move on this. I think we need to consider that moving forward as not just an area that we need to keep an eye on, but an area that we need to be the leaders on.

There are a number of other issues around the red alert, around the future sustainability of our fiscal framework, in the light of increasing costs, pressures, and a mounting infrastructure deficit, and now federal initiatives towards putting a price on carbon and the ongoing effects of climate change. I do think we need to take a stronger and more proactive approach in addressing these significant concerns with Ottawa, who control our constitution, more or less, Mr. Chair, and I think those need to be the core of this department's work as it moves forward.

Also, we need to put that renewed focus on self-government and how self-government is going to work. My colleague the honourable Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh spoke to this as well, that we need to have more than just agreements on the table, but real plans to implement those agreements within a realistic timeline and that we have the resources from all levels of government in order to finalize them and, finally, that we articulate a very clear picture of how the Northwest Territories is going to operate after self-government is implemented across the board. If the territory is going to have all these different orders of government, constitutionally protected orders of government, this department needs to have a clear road map for what that looks like and how it is going to work. Quite frankly, I cannot understand at this point how we will be able to maintain an equity of service with different orders of government and different capacities in those orders of government.

Again, we owe it to the purpose and principles of reconciliation to clearly articulate that in a realistic and honest fashion so that everyone is on the same page moving forward, everyone can participate in their land rights, in their constitutional rights, and in their self-government rights. Unfortunately, we still do not see a lot of that vision in these documents. We still see a lack of funding towards services to people, which is the most important role for this government to play. Thank you, Mr. Chair.