Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and my colleague from Great Slave joined me in visiting Yellowknife high schools to hear directly from students what they think about this government's climate change action plan. Mr. Speaker, these young people were well spoken, thoughtful, and passionate, which wasn't a surprise, but what I did find remarkable was how laser focused they are on wanting to see action and measurable commitments to ensure a liveable planet even 10 or 20 years from now, let alone generations from now. They read through the draft plan, and they thought this plan is not speaking to me. Who was it written for? It's full of jargon and language about processes.

For example, one of the so-called actions listed in the plan says to update a climate change risk and opportunities assessment to inform the development of future frameworks and action plans. So to me, that says process piled on top of process.

There's a lot of emphasis in the plan on monitoring, but young people want to know what's the purpose of all that monitoring. How will that feed into decision-making? How will all this help us when we have low water levels and thin ice and caribou disappearing and forest fires at our doorsteps? How are we changing our energy systems to get off fossil fuels?

Youth are experiencing a lot of anxiety about climate change and the future, and so much is outside their control and even outside our control in the NWT. Political winds are shifting around the world, and chaotic and destructive decisions affecting the climate are being made without any of our input. It's worrisome how extremely dependent the GNWT is on federal funding to action most of our climate change and energy goals.

Now, the best remedy for anxiety is to take back control into our own hands. Yesterday the young people we spoke to named specific kinds of climate action they want to be part of that will also build community at the same time. For example, more community greenhouses, volunteering at the farmers' market, making our streets more walkable and bikeable, which also creates more traffic to our downtown businesses and boosts our local economy. While lots of things are harder in the North, the students notice that some things are easier. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.