Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witness into the Chamber. Madam Premier, would you please introduce your witnesses?

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is Mr. Martin Goldney, who is the Cabinet secretariat and the deputy minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs. On my left is Amy Kennedy, who is the director of Shared Corporate Services. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will now open the floor to general comments on the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. If there are no further comments, does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?

Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with Cabinet support, starting on page 108, with the information item on page 110. Are there any questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of my concerns is that we have no specific Minister appointed for public engagement and transparency in the 19^th Assembly. I know the Premier has provided some previous comments on this. We're working to be open across all departments. One of my concerns is that we're all busy and that, without assigning a responsibility, we run into that accountability piece as our job as Regular Members. I guess I'll begin with having policies. Has the open government policy been fully implemented, and, if not, what remains to be done?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will allow Martin Goldney to answer that question. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Goldney.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to seeing that policy, and I hope it is implemented sooner rather than later. Jumping to the larger questions, we have UNDRIP implementation in our mandate. I've asked a number of questions on this. I guess I see that there is the intention to form a working group to implement UNDRIP, but perhaps I could ask the Premier to provide an update of how we are making sure that all departments are involved in this and that all government policies and legislation will be updated as a result of the wide breadth of coverage that is UNDRIP?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first thing that I did when I took the position of Premier is I contacted all of our Indigenous governments that are involved in devolution. I spoke to them all about the priority of UNDRIP within this Legislative Assembly. I committed to each of them that we would work together to define what UNDRIP looked like to the Indigenous governments.

At each bilateral meeting, and I think that we have done three or four or five -- I'm not sure; life is moving pretty fast -- at each bilateral meeting that we have had with Cabinet, where all Ministers are in attendance, I have also reinforced that this government will be implementing UNDRIP and, again, reinforcing that we will be doing that in partnership. As we move forward and we define what that looks like, Ministers will be given solid direction to make sure that they implement that throughout their departments. That is my commitment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that the Premier is committed to do this and has brought it to multiple Indigenous governments at the bilaterals. I heard there that we are going to go out, we're going to receive the information, and then provide departments direction. Can I just clarify if, at the present moment, Ministers have been directed to, within their own departments, review the UNDRIP sections that apply to them, and then bring that to EIA?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a discussion we haven't yet had as a Cabinet. We will be having it, though; I will commit to that, as well. However, I need to reinforce that the implementation of UNDRIP, if we do this right, is not done by departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories; it is done in consultation -- not even consultation. It is done in partnership with the Indigenous governments. Until the Indigenous governments tell us what they want, what that looks like, I feel, Madam Chair, respectfully, that it would be inappropriate for myself to give direction to departments to start reviewing it, because that does give the perception that we are defining what it will look like beforehand. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Are there any further comments? No further questions? Member for Yellowknife -- Frame Lake, sorry.

Thanks. After a while, we all look the same. Thanks, Madam Chair. I think that this is the part of Executive and Indigenous Affairs where board appointments are, sort of, tracked and so on. I do want to commend even the previous government did a better job at making sure that there was gender balance in our appointments to GNWT committees, boards, and councils, but what we saw in the last Assembly was a trend towards appointment of deputy ministers -- I guess, sometimes they're government employees, and sometimes they're not -- to boards. What is the plan for this Cabinet, moving forward? Are we going to see those Cabinet Ministers phased out of board appointments and public governance restored? What is the general approach, moving forward? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our department has just compiled a recent list of all of the board vacancies, throughout not only the Northwest Territories but federal departments, as well. We will be sharing that with Ministers. We will be giving direction that a gender-plus analysis be looked at within those board appointments. In the last Assembly, I must say that, when I was the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, I was adamant on every single appointment. When they were being appointed, I was asking, "Is it a woman, and if it's not a woman, why is it not a woman?" Those are conversations we are still bringing up. Is it a woman? Is it Indigenous? Is it a stakeholder? Is it the right person for the position? We will continue to do that.

I am more than willing to review all board appointments, because that is something that we need to do. Not only are we looking at a gender-plus analysis, but we are also looking at terms to make sure that the rotation is correct. There is quite a bit of work that we are doing with our board appointments, and we will continue to do that throughout our term of this government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.