Mr. Speaker, one year ago, I tabled the Mandate of the Northwest Territories, 2019-2023. The mandate document outlines the actions our government is taking to advance the 22 priorities established by this Legislative Assembly and includes timelines and measures for tracking our progress. The priorities reflect actions that the 19 of us agreed needed to be advanced, and we collectively developed them in recognition that these actions were needed to strengthen the social and economic status of the Northwest Territories. To say that a lot has happened since the mandate was first tabled is an understatement.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us over the past year. It has changed how our government delivers programs and services and how we advance major projects and initiatives. It has changed how we work with our partners in the business and social sectors and with community governments and our relationship with Indigenous governments. It has changed fundamental assumptions about how people live, work, and do business in the Northwest Territories, across Canada, and around the world. While there are very hopeful signs that the worst impacts of the pandemic are behind us, it is not over yet. We collectively need to continue to demonstrate resilience and commitment to our communities and people.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that, despite the challenges of the pandemic and the delays we initially encountered as we turned our focus to our response, we expect that the majority of our government's mandate will be achieved within the life of this Legislative Assembly, reasonably close to our original anticipated timelines. With this in mind, later today, I will table the first annual status report on the implementation of the mandate. The report reflects on a full year of our government's work, from February 2020 to January 2021, to advance and fulfill our commitments. It highlights some of our government's major accomplishments from the past year as well as a number of expected achievements for the upcoming year. The report also provides detailed tracking of the status of the commitments, actions, timelines, and performance measures outlined in the mandate.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with Members some of the highlights from the annual status report. In the past year, our government has made it a priority to build and strengthen our relationships with Indigenous governments. This work has included establishing the Special Committee on Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs with Regular Members and continuing to work to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We have also worked to improve culturally respectful social supports, such as on-the-land healing programs and counselling programs, and to provide support for Indigenous governments to deliver mobile addictions treatment, family-based treatment, and after-care programming.
Further efforts to improve social supports for all residents that need them have included making policy changes to help low-income seniors and persons with disabilities address home repairs, improving access to social services through integrated services delivery, and putting in place a program for non-governmental organizations to fund facility repairs, address code issues, and undertake retrofits to support new childcare spaces.
Mr. Speaker, over the coming year, our government will continue to respond to the pandemic and protect the health and safety of our residents while looking ahead to capture opportunities for social and economic recovery so that we can emerge stronger. Many of the actions related to social and economic recovery we will take are already captured in our mandate, which we will continue to advance. These actions include continuing to advance the Aboriginal rights negotiations with Indigenous governments, making policy and program changes to improve social supports, advancing major infrastructure projects that will provide opportunities for Northerners, improving government procurement to maximize the benefit for Northern residents and businesses, and many, many more.
We recognize that we will need to redouble our efforts and continue working collaboratively with our partners, including Members of the Legislative Assembly, Indigenous governments, community governments, federal, territorial, and provincial governments to continue to advance the mandate commitments. We will also continue to build relationships with non-government organizations, the private sector, and residents throughout the North. Teamwork is now more important than ever as we turn our attention from response to recovery to rebuild and emerge stronger from the impact of the pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the work this government has completed so far, and I am optimistic that the momentum we have built during the first year of this Legislative Assembly's term and especially as we emerge from the impacts of the pandemic will translate into an increased rate of progress on our commitments. The work I have talked about today represents just some of the progress we have made to implement the mandate. The mandate will continue to be an important tool for measuring the success of this government and the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly, and I look forward to reporting additional progress in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.