Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have a fancy speech; I have bullet points so bear with me. I think overall, generally speaking, it's a sign of a good negotiation when both sides come away somewhat unsatisfied. I also want to thank the AOC chair and AOC deputy chair. These two folks have done a fantastic job for the folks that are here on this side of the House. Much gratitude to you both.
The conversations that I will continue to have with this Cabinet focus on four main areas. The first, after listening to my colleague from Yellowknife North, is the Office of the Children's Lawyer. When we have folks in legal aid pleading with us not to cut that office, I think we should listen to them. The second is midwifery. The conversations that folks on this side of the House, and I think most of the Members on this side of the House and some on Cabinet have had with the folks in midwifery in the NWT, have pointed to the lack of a system that truly supports making midwifery a strong reality in our territory. I think the benefit and path forward from these conversations that I see as a positive, and up to those conversations that I was having as late as today, Mr. Speaker, was that there is a door open for those conversations to continue, and I think the relationship is one that can continue to build, and I look forward to working helping to build that wherever I can. When it comes to extended health benefits, I want to thank Cabinet for increasing the threshold as I campaigned on the absolute dire straits that many people in my riding find themselves in with the cost of living. Any time we're asking people who are ill or disabled to have even more hardship is something we need to take a closer look at. I am confident the Minister of health is going to look at that very carefully in the rollout of this program.
And, finally, when it comes to the fact that we are in fiscal restraint, Mr. Speaker, and that very much means that the writing might be on the wall for the -- how do I put this -- one of the options available in the tool kit of this government is reductions in the public service, Mr. Speaker. And while I recognize that might be an attractive tool to save money, I would really encourage specifically the Minister of Finance, who is responsible for the public service, to heed the mandate letter that she just received today from the Premier. And that reads: The GNWT has an amazing workforce, one which continuously strives to provide services and programs to the best of their ability to residents. As Ministers, we must provide public servants with the guidance and tools necessary for them to work with us in our commitment to serving the people of the NWT.
So some of those tools should be how -- if their jobs are no longer necessary, how they can be trained up for other jobs in the public service, Mr. Speaker, and how we can support them to transition and give them lots of time to contemplate how that might look. So I will continue to press on that, Mr. Speaker.
One of my colleagues here in the House used the word in this session that I really, really like, and that word is heartful. Being heartful and vulnerable are assets in a consensus government, not liabilities. It's been very apparent to me that the more that you spend time speaking from your heart in this building, the more people will hear you and the more concessions on both sides can happen. Listening in a heart forward way I think is the way that the majority of us do our work here every day since November, and I hope that that can continue and that we can continue to have hard discussions and good conversations and make good choices for the residents of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.