Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'm going to try to condense my novel into a synopsis of the novel.
The first thing is that all of us as Ministers have regular calls with the applicable Ministers at the federal level to try to advocate for our needs.
One of the biggest things that this government has taken that's a little bit -- it's not different, it's just expanded on and is really focusing on partnerships. So we have regular -- I have regular meetings with the three northern Premiers, Northern Premiers Forum, that we all strategize. We recognize some of the issues will be individual but a lot of the asks, Mr. Speaker, are actually across all the North. So we work together on mutual asks which gives us a lot more power.
The other thing we learned with COVID-19 is the necessity to get buy in from other jurisdictions. So this government, when COVID hit us and everybody was saying "help us, help us, we have huge numbers" and the three northern territories sat together and we worked diligently on making all Premiers understand our needs. And it worked, Mr. Speaker. They supported us to get one the first rollouts in the vaccinations. And so that shows the power of having all Premiers on board instead of fighting against each other.
The other thing we did is right after the election, as soon as the Prime Minister was elected, I called him. I gave him a couple days so he could get his place and then I called him, because you've got to hit while it's time. And I asked for a couple of things.
I asked if he could put the North in every single mandate letter for the Ministers, the federal ministers. I don't know if that's been done, but he did agree that the North had to be a focus not only for the northern affairs Ministers but all ministers had to be looking at the North.
I asked him about the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework. I think that has been mentioned. He's going to make some movement on that. I asked him about base funding. We always have the problem if they fund us per capita we can't address that. Our needs are different. Schools, I mean, one school, the population in Ottawa, they might have one school on that block; we have got 33 at minimum plus, in communities. So our needs are greater. And of course flexibility in the asks.
The other thing we do with that is of course I asked for the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework. That's going to say on forever.
We also have -- well, we started with weekly and now they're moving to biweekly calls with the Prime Minister, again advocating for the North, strategically, not asking, don't want to offend our neighbors in the South. As well, the Finance Minister and myself are heading to Ottawa right after this session, no rest for us. We're getting on a plane and jumping on because the budget's coming, so we're going to be talking to the federal ministers about budget asks. That's our priority.
And then all-government, all Ministers are going down in January to hit ministers individually because by then the budget's will be out and they'll know what they have to work with.
The other big thing, and of course we work with our MP and senators as well when we go south. The big thing in this government that's a huge thing, and I'm proud of, is we started a modern treaty and self-government table and we started a Council of Leaders table. And previous governments had said give us the money, we will decide; it's our lands, you know, our jurisdiction.
This government has worked hard with Indigenous governments and said the money has to come to the North, to the NWT, but it doesn't have to come to us. Indigenous governments are looking at self-government. They're looking at -- talking about drawing down programs. It was already announced, one. So we need to get the money here. And if we fight against Indigenous governments competing, we're doing an injustice, Mr. Speaker. So by working together, Indigenous governments and the GNWT, hand in hand, will benefit the residents of the Northwest Territories, and that's what's new in this government. Thank you, I hope that was a brief enough synopsis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.