Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 24th, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Coast Guard announced that they would create a new administrative and operational region focused solely on the Arctic. According to the Minister of DFO, Minister Wilkinson, decisions about policy, resource management, and conservation should be made in the North in collaboration with territorial and Indigenous governments, but one of the first decisions was to hire a new assistant commissioner of the Coast Guard and place that position in Yellowknife.
Why the position will be based in Yellowknife when operations are based in Hay River, and DFO has a big building with a lot of office space, is a little confusing to me and a little concerning to the residents of Hay River. I would like to get to the bottom of it. I have some questions for our territorial counterpart to the federal Minister of DFO, the Minister of Infrastructure.
My first question is: because the federal Minister cited collaboration with territorial governments as a key element in the creation of this new region, what consultation occurred between the territorial government and DFO regarding the location of the new assistant commissioner position? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.