Thank you, Mr. Goldney. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of questions. One of them is: a couple of weeks ago I did a Member's statement on deputy ministers on boards. I, too, feel very strongly that, if you're going to be accountable and transparent and arm's-length, the board has to be neutral. It's the only way to go. There has to be input from various regions of the public to sit on these boards, and we have a lot of external people who are not in government, who will sit and give the perspective of the people of the Northwest Territories, and that's extremely important. For me, I would ask the Premier to consider that and give us a date as to when, actually, this will start happening.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Madam Premier?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've heard many times in this House, and this Assembly, about the need to review that board in particular. I have committed to that. We will be reviewing all board appointments, not only for the membership, for the length of term, the composition of the board, as well. Those are commitments we are going to take. As for the timeline, as this point, Madam Chair, I cannot say, but I can commit that within a year that work will be done. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Thebacha.

My second question is on some of the comments that were made in the statement by the Premier, a sunset of $170,000 to the grant funding, available to individual Northwest Territories friendship centres. Could the Premier please tell us the disbursements and who they go to, the $170,000?

We'll go back to it. I think it's on page 123. We're just going item by item.

She didn't ask for any comments when she made the statement, so I thought I was able to do that. I'm sorry if I'm out of [microphone turned off]... The third question that I had was with the department, for three new positions, and the creation of office of devolution initiatives. I just want to know the makeup of that department.

Is that in this section, 115? I think that is in this next section, so, if you want to wait until we can get to that, that's fine, thanks. Are there any further questions, then? Okay. Are there any further questions on page 108-110? No. All right, seeing no further questions, please turn to page 109, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Cabinet support, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, for $2,632,000. Does committee agree?

Okay, thank you. Corporate communications, beginning on page 111, and items on page 113. Any questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see there is not much of a change in the budget for corporate communications, but I have some questions, if we are changing the way corporate communications is done at all. I think one of the biggest criticisms of the last government, and the reason many of us are here, is that there was a communication breakdown, both between Members and with the public. I would say, to date, that we've been losing the communication battle in the media and with the public, and some of the great work we're doing here is not necessarily being conveyed. My question to the Premier is: how are we doing our Cabinet communications differently?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That was a huge issue. I don't think it was only in the last Assembly. I think it's been in every Assembly. I think that, the Government of the Northwest Territories, we're great at a lot of things, Madam Chair. One of the things we're not so good at is our communications to the public. We do find that often we're more reactive than proactive. We find that often, sometimes, our communications are at a high technical level, that often people don't relate to. We have been looking at it right across the board. I have met with my Cabinet communications person. We have been trying to work with departments and be proactive in what we do. We are just at the beginning. It's a new Assembly. We are looking at a new way of communicating. Madam Chair, we will make mistakes. We cannot be proactive on everything. There will be some things that we will be reactive to, but we are, right across the board, every single department is trying to be more proactive, getting out not only the good word, but also, if there are things that are sometimes not so good, we need to also get those out in the news, as well, to provide our side of the story. Otherwise, we pay the price for it. It is something that we are totally engaged in at this time. Again, we will make some flaws. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Are there any further questions on this section? If there are no further questions, please turn to page 112, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, corporate communications, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 main estimates, $1,473,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Moving to directorate, beginning on page 114, with information items on page 117. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is where the department will see an increase of three positions in the 2020-2021 budget, these three positions are located in Yellowknife. It's the creation of the Office of Devolution Initiatives. Could you please explain to me exactly what that is?

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Office of Devolution Initiatives is responsible for leading the Government of the Northwest Territories through negotiations related to the management of offshore oil and gas resources, and we have also assigned them to be the lead on the review of the NWT Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement transitional provisions as they relate to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Thebacha.