Thank you, Madam Chair. I am happy to hear that we are willing to have the conversation, and I will happily sit down any time with the Minister to discuss it. I'm sure that Rocky will come with me, but yes, I won't let it go. Thank you. No further questions.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. There was no question. Okay, we're going to take a short recess and resume with the tabled document after our recess.

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I will call committee back to order. We are on "Ensure government procurement and contracting maximizes benefits to residents and businesses." I have Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can we remove Walmart from the business incentive program list?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to let my Minister of ITI answer that one. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister of ITI.

As I previously said, I commit to looking at the BIP policy to ensure and see what I can do to fix the errors that have been pointed out by the Regular Members and others to me. I don't want to speak to a specific company at this time. However, I continue to commit to updating the Member as it progresses. If we start cutting people, I promise the Member that Walmart will be one of the first. How's that? Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of ITI. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I guess this relates to the point of increasing the number of registered businesses by 20 percent. I have been looking through the registered BIP companies, and I can find companies that I know are southern companies and no longer have 51 percent northern ownership. I guess this is just a comment to the Minister of ITI. I don't want your department to go and increase this by 20 percent as the end game. We may, in fact, end up exactly where we are once we cut a lot of the grandfathered companies or conduct a review of companies that have since moved south. Just a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. I'll take that as a comment. Are there any further questions on "Ensure government procurement and contracting maximizes benefits to residents and business?" Seeing none, we will move to page 23, "Adopt a benefit retention approach to economic development." Questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the very last in "What We Will Do," increase opportunities for equity participation, and looking at ways that we can also leverage, maybe, federal dollars in order to do some more economic development and infuse money into our local economy by creating more opportunities for local businesses. I was really excited when I heard the housing Minister today talk about actually putting someone within the Housing Corporation in charge of leveraging those federal dollars.

Is that something that other departments are going to be looking at as well, to make sure that, with all of the money that is coming out of the Liberal government, we are putting our best foot forward to make sure that we are getting some of those dollars, that we are accessing the guardianship program, that we are accessing money for Indigenous languages, that we are accessing all these different federal dollars that have the potential to come our way? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely. Like I had said earlier before, we are developing a federal engagement strategy. When we are talking intergovernmental, it means the federal; it means Indigenous governments; it means municipal governments; it means other jurisdictions. We need to put our best forward. We need to continue advocating for money for the Northwest Territories, and not only that, we are actually challenging and saying we'd like 100 percent dollars now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under the second point here, it says "conduct an independent review." How independent will that review be? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's my understanding and the Cabinet's understanding, at this point now, is that "independent" means outside of government. An independent review, a private contractor to do the reviews. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake. Are there any other questions? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I want to follow up on my colleague's questions about the independent review of competitiveness of the NWT mining regime. As far as I know, ITI has hired a contractor for $300,000, and this was work that was started in the last Assembly, to do a report that basically repeats methodology from a previous report, and maybe adds a few bells and whistles. I think that was supposed to be done by March 31^st, and that's great. That might provide some fodder for this independent review. What is the role of the public going to be in this review, or is this going to be a consultant doing a report giving advice to ITI?

Look, ITI has an inherent conflict of interest in doing this work. They are a department that is responsible for promoting mining, and I've always given them credit. They do a great job at that. You can't have that department in charge of regulating it and looking at benefits at the same time. It's just an inherent conflict of interest. They are advocating for industry, and that's part of their job. What is the role of the public going to be in this independent review? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd have to get back to the Member on what exactly is the public's role on this one; however, like I said earlier, we are committed to working better with all Members of the Legislative Assembly, and therefore, once we get the independent review, we will let standing committee know, and we will discuss this with standing committee. That is my commitment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.