Has the Department of Justice started working on the plan similar to that -- I meant to say a pronunciation, not spelling, so I will do it again - Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami to improve relationship between Indigenous people and that with the RCMP? And as part of this work, will the Department of Justice be implementing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls final report Calls to Justice? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So here in the Northwest Territories, the Dene Nation and the RCMP have begun working together. They started a pilot project, close to a year ago now I believe, and it's a one year pilot. But that is an effort for some Indigenous leaders, as well as RCMP members, to come together and work together to address some of these issues that the Member is talking about.

The federal government, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Public Safety, have tasked the RCMP to accelerate their reform with a focus on the MMIWG Calls for Justice as well as the TRC's Calls to Action. I've provided policing priorities to the RCMP as well, and they are based on those documents as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. To ensure the safety of Indigenous people and those of police officers, are body cameras worn on police officers? If not, how come? And I know they don't have body camera but can those be made mandatory?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know in Nunavut they started wearing body cameras maybe a year ago, a couple years ago, and they have been testing them out in cold weather to see how they work. It's my understanding that at some point, body cameras will likely roll out for RCMP across the country. And so at that point, you know, then it wouldn't be mandatory.

There are a number of things we have to work out - the technical issues, the storage, as in the data storage, and so there's some things that need to be put in place, very expensive things, before we can start doing that. But I expect that at some point in the future that will be happening in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi. Final supplementary.

Thank you. And I know there are a lot of people that want to know about this, too, as well so can the Minister explain to us what kind of de-escalation training do RCMP officers receive? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without a heads up, no, I can't detail the type of de-escalation training that RCMP officers receive but the Commissioner of the RCMP did receive a new mandate letter today from the Minister of Public Safety and in there, there was comments about reviewing that type of de-escalation training, to make sure that it is actually appropriate and doing what it is supposed to be doing. But I will provide the Member with a written follow-up regarding de-escalation training. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I spoke about renaming places. And the first one I'd like to ask about is our Heritage Centre, which I believe is timely, as the Prince of Wales, whom it's named after, was just recently visiting it. And Mr. Speaker, I think it's long overdue that we rename this place. And I just don't really believe there's much connection to the Prince of Wales and our history and culture. And as a bit of a sidenote, I note the Welsh independence movement is gaining steam so maybe one day there won't even be a Prince of Wales and we'll just be forced to rename it.

So my question for the Minister is are there any plans or an update on renaming the museum? Perhaps he got to ask ole Chuckie Boy there whether we could take his name off of it while he was here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can do what we want with government owned infrastructure when it comes to naming. We don't have to ask anyone's permission. We pay the bills, we can name buildings what we want to name them.

Any change in name would be tied to some sort of a retrofit of the building, some other changes. There are plans to look at how we can perhaps fund the museum differently. We're working on a revenue study. We expect some renovations, which are required for the building and so any changes would be part and parcel of that. But I foresee that in the not too distant future we'll likely be having this conversation about the name once these other elements start rolling. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that. And I think it's an important discussion to have with the people of NWT. And along those same lines, you know, I think there's been consistent work to stop using the term "slavey", to stop referring to things and, you know, the use of "slave", but obviously our lake, Great Slave Lake, is named after that history. I'm just wondering if the Minister can speak to whether we can put forth the same plan to rename Great Slave Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to commend the Member for the strong antislavery stance he took in his Member's statement.

The GNWT isn't the one who puts forward name changes for a geographical place. We have a geographical name policy, and it states that those changes come from the community. So we actually have received a request from the community to change the name of the Great Slave Lake.

We work with the Geographic Names Board of Canada on that, and there is a process. It involves community consultation, consultation with Indigenous governments, and we are undertaking that now. So the process is well underway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I look forward to the Minister providing a bit of an update on how that naming process goes.

And I guess I'll just carry up the valley, and I'll start with the river named after Alexander Mackenzie. Fine explorer. You know, he did some good mapping. But ultimately his claim to that river is that it wasn't leading to the Pacific. So I'm just wondering if, you know, many of us don't refer to the Mackenzie River by that name. We use Deh Cho already. I'm wondering if there are any plans to remove the Mackenzie River name? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And if the Member doesn't like the "Mackenzie River," he can use any of the other six official names. The Mackenzie River, in 2015, wasn't renamed per se but there were names added to it. So a single geographical feature can have multiple names, and they are all official, each one as official as the next. And so the Mackenzie River does have a number of official names. Can be used in official documents. So that work has already happened. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think there would be one last step in that perhaps is to just give it five official names and we could knock "Mackenzie" off the list there.

And similarly, I'd propose that for the mountains. I actually don't think many people know that the Mackenzie Mountains is not Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer; it's Alexander Mackenzie, the second prime minister, you know, well known for the Indian Act, an architect of Indigenous people's genocide. So I'm wondering if there are any plans to work with -- I recognize that one, it borders with the Yukon so we have to work with the Canadian geographic naming people -- whether there's any plans to rename the Mackenzie Mountains in the works? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And we have the Mackenzie Mountains. There's Mackenzie Islands, Mackenzie Island, another Mackenzie Island. And they're all named after different people. So we have quite a few different features in the territory. We are 1.3 million square kilometres after all, and we can't do everything at once. So we are not in the process of actively pursuing community support for changing names because that has to come from the community. If that came from the community, we would be happy to do that as per the policy.

And I will point out there are over 400 Indigenous names that the department is currently working to make official for different geographical features in the territory. So there is a lot of work happening on this front right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question will be for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Kind of in the line of my questioning with the procurement as the Minister of ITI under the review said, you know, they don't really have a say over what the Power Corp -- Crown corporations do. Would the Minister be -- with her board, which is a lot of our deputy ministers that are working in the procurement, would she consider looking at the way that their procurement review is done to ensure that northern businesses benefit from contracts as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can definitely bring that up with the board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's great news. And I'd also like to ask the Minister if within the discussion that they bring up with the board, you know, making sure that when they do it that the same things are put in place, the review, the follow-up, is put in place so that way they can ensure that any contracts that are given to corporations that they're following through with the commitments that they make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that NTPC has different needs, and that's why they went out to an invitational tender. Thank you.