Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to present the 2019-2023 mandate for the Government of the Northwest Territories. This mandate is built on the priorities we set together as newly elected Members of the 19th Legislative Assembly in October 2019. Under the current process conventions, Members of the Executive Council discussed how we might implement these priorities in the best interest of all Northerners and in our current operating environment. I sat down with the standing committee in November and heard from each Member about the needs of our regions and communities, and the actions we might take in each of these priority areas. We met again in December and in January to further discuss and refine the mandate document. This dialogue is essential to open and collaborative government, and consistent with the guiding principles of consensus government.
Our government will focus on what we can do as a territory to find new and innovative solutions to the challenges we share as we implement our mandate. We will be creative and ambitious, while taking a hard look at what we are doing so we can make it better. We will seek out and examine new evidence, and use the real world experience of our staff and residents to improve our decisions, programs, and services. Building on the input and involvement Northerners have given the Government of the Northwest Territories over many years, we will start taking action so that services are improved and we achieve results. We want to position our people to be partners in addressing the things that matter to them and their communities. Through implementing the mandate, we want to help people build the personal and community capacity to work with us to make their families and communities stronger, healthier, and happier.
We know that accessible and affordable housing is the foundation for strong, healthy families; and our mandate commits us to getting more people in the Northwest Territories into homes. We know that people want good jobs in their home communities; and our mandate commits us to growing and supporting those sectors we have always relied on, like mining, while also looking to expand into new sectors that may have been overlooked in the past. We hope to find new opportunities for our communities and regions. We want people to have a good life. Our mandate commits us to helping our people get the education, health, and social supports they need from government to feel they are living secure, personally meaningful, and dignified lives at all ages.
Our mandate commits us to addressing the barriers that are holding our people back, and to creating a prosperous territory that shares benefits with all residents and all communities. We recognize and respect that we are not the only government in the Northwest Territories. Our mandate commits us to strengthening our relationships with Indigenous and other governments, and to supporting their capacity to help us to make this a better territory for all.
The people of the Northwest Territories want to succeed on every level. We know we can do a better job of supporting our residents take advantage of the opportunities available to us. The 2019-2023 mandate will help the Government of the Northwest Territories focus what we do and how we do it so we can make progress on the things that matter to our people based on the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair. This concludes my opening remarks.