Thank you. Committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document? Committee, agreed?

Thank you. Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with Cabinet support starting at page 123 with information items on page 125. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I assume this is probably the best place to be asking questions about the business plan. I just note that there's some business plan update and wanted to ask the department for -- ask the department some questions about that's.

The first one is on the negotiation mandate updates being done by 2025-2026. I've kind of -- I've said to the Minister a few times, you know, this seems like a bit of an underwhelming goal and, you know, I know there's a lot of pressure from everybody who talks about settling the land claims, getting them done, why can't we get them done quicker.

So the first question on this is, you know, why couldn't these negotiation mandate updates simply be done in a few months? Is it that it's really much more complex than it sounds? And secondly, Mr. Chair, what progress have we made thus far on the updates to these mandates? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So one of the issues is that I want to have a chance to actually meet with the Indigenous governments, talk about negotiations, learn from them what their issues and concerns are, familiarize myself with our mandates and our positions on the concerns from Indigenous governments or our positions on their positions. And, you know, we've been through a full year now. We've had a number of those meetings. And we are actively working on looking at ways to adjust our mandates, if necessary, to ensure that we can make some progress. And so I'm confident that in the first half of this year, we're going to see some significant movement on those mandates. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, understanding that negotiations are confidential and the Minister probably won't be able to share too much detail, I mean, if there's anything the department can share with Members or even share publicly about progress that's being made, I would certainly appreciate hearing it; I think a lot of people would. I know this is a high priority item for me and other Members. Yeah, if the Minister wants to elaborate a bit, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. So we have a number of different tables. I mean, I don't know if the Member wants me to get into each one and talk about where things are at but there's been progress on, you know, moving towards AIPs, moving towards finalized agreements. We do send -- and just so the public is aware, we do send the Members quarterly updates that really detail where things are at with those tables, and I'm happy to provide some in-camera briefings as well if committee would wish on these. But, you know, here at the table, it's really hard to sort of in broad terms talk about where we are with all of our tables. So I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Fair enough, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. And, yeah, I certainly personally appreciate the offer of a briefing on this and actually think it would be a good idea. It's been -- I don't know if we've had a briefing on the specific subject at AOC, but it's something I'd definitely be open for. So let's perhaps have the AOC chair chat with the Minister about doing that. I'll leave that as my questions for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This place is as good as any to find out, I guess maybe first, what are we officially calling -- in the most responsible sense I'm asking this question, what are we officially calling our super deputy minister, principle secretary -- I'm not even sure what we call them -- that has been migrated half-time to Ottawa? So let's start with the actual title name. I'm curious. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. As shared with Members and reported widely in the press, the title is senior envoy to the Government of Canada. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.

So will this senior envoy be still the current or future principle secretary as well? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

The position of principle secretary is currently vacant, and as we move forward with this new arrangement, we will see how things go and what the future holds. I can't say one way or another what the future of the principle secretary position is. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm curious on how many senior management assistants or deputy assistants of some sort that the Premier's offered to the cabal of staff that support the network of the executive he's added since he's become Premier. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Could the Minister clarify that again; I couldn't quite understand the question. Thanks.