Absolutely. We are not waiting for the federal government to help businesses and residents of the Northwest Territories. However, we are advocating all the time. I have to give credit to the federal government for what they have done. It's not fair to stand here and blame the federal government. They are trying their hardest. They have given to us so far $23.4 million for us to use for COVID-19, mostly of course for health and social services but for other expenses because they gave us the flexibility in that. They gave us $8.7 million for airlines. They are promising more. They gave us $35 million for businesses recently. You know, I mean they are trying the best they can. The question, though, is: are we tracking it? Absolutely, we are tracking. The Department of Finance is responsible for tracking. All finance directors in every department has a special COVID-19 code that they use to implement any of the expenses we are doing. We are tracking, and we are trying to be as responsible as possible.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are trying to work with the other Minister and the Member to get some answers for her questions here. When it comes to public artwork, it is the responsibility for the department to care for it, to maintain it, to store it, and they can always reach out to the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre for advice. That is where the experts are. That is the situation right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister of ECE for that answer. Is there a policy or are there guidelines in place that describe how art in the government's possession should be cared for?

Right now, there are no government-wide guidelines. However, not just ECE but ECE in collaboration with all departments has put together the Culture and Heritage Strategic Framework that is 2015 to 2025 as well as four-year action plan that is 2019 to 2022. As part of that framework and action plan, one of the goals is to safeguard heritage, including artwork in government buildings that requires special consideration and preservation. We have put our mind to it, but the work has not quite begun yet. I will leave it there. I won't answer all of the questions in advance from the Member.

I appreciate that information. I think the time has come to start that work of putting those guidelines in place. My next question is whether there is a formal chain of custody for artwork so that, when they come into the government's possession, they are tracked from the time that they come in to the time that they are disposed of, sold, given away, or in other ways come out of the government collection.

No, there is not right now. The government has a lot of artwork. There are a lot of government buildings, and they have lots of things on the walls. That means there is artwork that could be worth virtually nothing, and there could be some large pieces, like the Member has referenced, that could be worth quite a bit. There was an inventory taken by ITI, I believe, about 10 years ago, that looked at all of this, but nothing has been done since. I think the reason for that is because this massive artwork, it would cost more than all of the work combined is worth to inventory it, so I think that what is needed is a focus and identification of some of these special pieces and a system put in place to ensure that we know where those are and that, once they are done their useful life within the government, they can be preserved either by the museum or an appropriate organization.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that answer. You know, I am going to say that every artist who does a commission or makes a donation of art to the government feels that the piece is special, so deciding on which pieces are special I think is going to be somewhat problematic. However, I think we owe it to these artists to acknowledge their work in the government's possession, to take care of it, and to make sure that it is stored appropriately when it's not displayed or even that it's displayed appropriately. I am looking for a commitment to begin work on this whole area of managing public art as soon as possible. Thank you.

Certainly, commissioned art is different from something that someone might buy at the store to fill an empty wall, and there is not much consideration put into that piece of art. No, it is a different level that the Member is talking about. I will work with the Minister of Infrastructure. The department has some expertise in asset management and combine that with the expertise that we have in the culture and heritage division and see what we can do to remedy this problem because it is a shame when you see a piece of art that means a lot to a lot of people buried under the snow and degrading away like that. Yes, I can commit to having those discussions and charting a path forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the previous Assembly, we had a Minister responsible for public engagement and transparency, and I think we can all acknowledge that those are severely lacking in the GNWT and much work needs to be done. Mr. Speaker, some good work was started. There was an open government policy. However, I think the implementation and the continued work under that policy has not been carried on in this Assembly. My question for the Premier: is she willing to create a Minister responsible for transparency and open government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member said in the 18^th Legislative Assembly, there was a Minister appointed, just in that Assembly, for transparency. The Minister developed a policy, and in all honesty, the Minister got blamed for everything in that Assembly. In reality, it is that every department has a responsibility, and every Minister has a responsibility for transparency. However, in saying that, I know the federal government is doing that, as well. We're a small jurisdiction. We're 19, seven on Cabinet. I would have a portfolio and a Minister for everything if I had the resources, but I don't. I hate to say this because I'm a social worker, that there would be other things that I would appoint Ministers for on top of that, in honesty, because there are so many gaps in our government.

However, what we've done recently is that we created a branch within the Department of Finance. It's called the Information Systems Shared Services. Through the creation of this branch, the GNWT consolidated the responsibility for all GNWT information systems, including what the federal government calls their digital government under the chief information officer. As I mentioned, the information shared systems is housed in the Department of Finance. I am not making her the Minister of transparency or accountability, but by default, she is actually the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe, in the future, I will direct my questions to the Minister of Finance. I do think that the centralization of ISSS will bring some of this work, but ultimately, they need to reach in the departments. Each Minister needs to be responsible for this. I think COVID has shown us that more and more government data needs to be public, and more and more services need to be online. One of the things that should come out of this: every single government service should be available online eventually. Is the Minister willing to put that in mandate letters to department that they work to bring all their services available online?

At this point, the mandate letters should have been in the process of being shared with MLAs, so I am not going to pull them all back from you and start adding things. I made a commitment, though, to the Regular Members that I would be open to feedback, not that I would make changes, but I'd be open to feedback. If that is something that the Member feels that should be on those, then I would welcome that feedback on those mandate letters.

That will be my feedback, that the mandate letters need a clear direction to get departments to make this a priority because when it sits on the side of different units' desks, it simply doesn't get done. My next question is: if the federal government has a pilot project open by default, this would take our records and make them open to the public, essentially our DIM system. I think it would also incentivize departments to prioritize record keeping. Is the Premier willing to keep a similar pilot project in the GNWT?

I do have to use some notes for this. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and the Members know that this is not my strength. I'm using help. As the Information System Shared Services branch moves forward with developing, formalizing the GNWT's approach to delivery of services, consideration will be given to how we can make government documents available online. This work will be informed by the GNWT's open government policy and our obligation and responsibilities under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. In saying that, Mr. Speaker, I do have to acknowledge that all departments are trying their best to put as much information as possible. We are in an unusual situation in these times of COVID-19, so I do ask to be patient. Don't expect everything to be on tomorrow. When there are gaps, also, at the same time, let us know because we are trying our best, all government departments. Let us know, and we will try to amend it.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are gaps. I think one of the gaps is we have that open policy, and that work was started by the previous Minister of transparency and engagement. That work has largely not been actualized. I'm unsure if the responsibility of that policy lies with ISSS. Can the Premier make sure that there is a unit where someone is clearly in charge of implementing the goals in the open government policy which was developed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I must say that we have an amazing Cabinet here. As soon as the question was asked, I've seen my Finance Minister shaking her head and saying, "I agree." Yes, we will make that commitment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.