Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had stated earlier, the formation of the secretariat was because there were multiple departments that were working on different initiatives. Oftentimes the right hand was trying to figure out what the left hand was doing, so the secretariat formed, I think it was just about a month ago, within that. When the secretariat formed, Mr. Speaker, we were hit with the increases of the cases, the second wave coming in southern Canada. We did not have a lot of time to do a lot of consultation, and our communication was not the best on that. We have spoken to address that before.
Since that meeting, though, I have reached out to Indigenous governments. We are still in that process. On September 30th, I did meet with the Indigenous governments. There were eight of them in total. I had strong support, verbal support, that they actually said, "We support the creation of the secretariat," once we explained the aspects of it. The NWT Metis Nation, Gwich'in Tribal Council, Acho Dene, Akaitcho Dene, Salt River First Nations, North Slave Metis Alliance, and the Sahtu Secretariat firmly said, "We support the secretariat." There was one other one that wanted more information, so I will not mention their name. They have not given me concrete. Since then, I have also met with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, who also have given me strong support for creation of the secretariat, understanding that we needed to have better coordination in what we are doing. I have also met with other members, Chief Bonnetrouge, Nahanni Butte Dene Band and Dene Nation and the Dehcho First Nations, but then again, at this point, we have not got a solid. We have got soft supports, but they have not said, "We 100 percent support it," concrete.
We are doing our work working with our municipal governments, as well; we have met with them; the business community, we have met with them; and the Indigenous governments. Options, Mr. Speaker? I wish we had more time. This pandemic hit us really quickly at the beginning of this government. When we have had a chance to breathe, almost as soon as we could take a breath, the second wave was starting in southern Canada. Time has not been on our side. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.