Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to try to be brief on mine here. I have a number of comments that I would like to make.
I guess my first one: I would like to applaud the Executive for putting the $250,000 to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council of Friendship Centres. I think that is a good investment. What my big thing is, is I would like to see it annually. I think that this organization does some really good work, and we should be doing it annually. It should not be just a one-time offshoot, so I am hoping that the department can look at that. I think that is a good investment for the people of the Northwest Territories.
The $84,000 to the campaign schools, I think that is another good start, but, again, we should be making this contribution annually for this particular endeavour. I think we need to get more women participating in politics. I come from a family of seven children, and there are only two boys. There are five girls out there. The same with my family, I have got five daughters and two sons. I know who rules the roost in our house, but, again, it is getting women involved in politics.
The $50,000 for the Arctic Inspiration Prize is probably our best investment ever in this government. We have now seen, I think, three times we have won this award. The investment is huge. I think the government is getting our bang for our dollars, and I think we need to continue to do that. I think it is a good step.
The almost $600,000 for the additional finalization of resource and self-government, I think that is a good step. I would love to see it, to have these done. I have two, potentially more, issues in my riding, and I would love to see the DFN and the Acho Dene processes completed by the end of our term. In talking with Acho Dene, it is getting closer, and I have heard another talk about a year now. I mean, we did have a change in leadership there, but it means a positive step. With DFN, there are some challenges that they are seeing there, and we need to move forward on that.
I guess my big thing for me with this department is the GSOs. I honestly believe that is really an amazing program that you guys developed. It has a huge impact on the smaller communities, but, in conversations with Regular MLAs, they talk about the impact it would have on some of the larger centres, as well. We need to look at that. It is about trying to serve the people in the Northwest Territories, and I know the government does a good job at it, but here is an opportunity to make it a priority to get each community to have a GSO in it. I know, in Yellowknife, it is a bigger centre, but we need to give some people some services. I know we have departments here, but sometimes people don't know where to go, and we need to address that.
The position in Ottawa, I am still on the fence with that position, because I don't know what the job description is. I don't know what we are doing with that position. We had correspondence on it, and it has had some positive direction on it, but we need to know what we are actually doing with that position, what it entails, what the job description is, and how it is going to benefit the residents of the Northwest Territories. At the end of the day, that is where, to me, it comes down to, is why we are here is for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I believe all 19 of us are here for that reason, but, again, it is understanding how we are moving forward on certain things. Once we have a better understanding of that, then we can present that information to the residents. Again, we are ordinary MLAs. Once this goes down, we are part of this process, we are part of this government, and we need to be able to explain to our residents and our constituents what we are trying to do.
There are a number of other issues. Those are my concerns. Those are the ones that jump out at me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.