Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

. Thank you. I'll ask the deputy minister to speak to that.

Deputy minister MacDonald.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our intention is to proceed with IGC direction on this. At this point, we'll be working through the secretariat to ensure that all parties are ready to proceed and are prepared. So we do have the intention, at least for our part, to advance this work during the life of this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member for Great Slave.

Yeah, thank you for that, Madam Chair. And I recognize that the Minister is just one party at that table so I appreciate that he may not feel comfortable giving firm timelines or deadlines, but I am glad to hear that that work will continue in this Assembly. So nothing further. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, would you like to respond? Thank you.

I take the Member's comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, I have Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to quickly ask: I know we're maintaining a leased space in Ottawa for, you know, business that happens in Ottawa and intergovernmental affairs in that way. But can the Minister confirm whether we're -- we still have a staff person based in Ottawa that is managing that office? Like, do we still have an office manager or are we just leasing the space? My understanding is that we're trying to find creative ways to, like, share that leased space with other groups, like Indigenous governments who might want to use it from time to time. But do we still pay an office manager? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

Thank you. So that position has been eliminated for the future fiscal years. So there is not a solid plan on who is going to fill that role or how that's going to be filled. That's still in discussion. Perhaps the deputy minister can add some more detail to this issue. Thank you.

Deputy minister MacDonald.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Premier mentioned, as EIA's contribution to fiscal sustainability, the position in the Ottawa office was eliminated. What we are exploring at this time is with our counterparts in other territories, looking at whether they would like to also utilize the Ottawa office, share the space, and use it for their engagements with the federal system as well. And, of course, we always maintain the office as available for NWT Indigenous governments should they be in Ottawa for meetings or negotiations or what have you. So it does provide an opportunity for us to support some of the partner governments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That was what I was interested to know, but it's good to know that we have looked for efficiencies and we're also trying to work other territories as well as Indigenous governments to share that space. That's fine. Thank you.

Seeing no further questions,

please turn to page 144.

Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Indigenous and intergovernmental relations, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $7,714,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to Office of the Secretary to Cabinet on page 147, with information items on page 150. Are there any questions? Member for Great Slave.

Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

Thank you. And I believe this would fall under the governance and service integration section, but I'm happy to speak to it here. We are presenting to standing committee on this in the coming weeks, I believe -- yes, next week. And so we should have some more information for committee there, but perhaps I can hand it to the deputy minister to expand on this. Thank you.

Deputy minister MacDonald.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Premier mentioned, we have a briefing scheduled before Standing Committee on Government Operations on March 12th. That briefing is intended to focus on the structure of the department, that is the unit that's focused on the work associated with integrated service delivery and homelessness, as well as anti-poverty now. But we also are planning to advance a separate briefing that would focus entirely on providing a government-wide update on the homelessness strategy, updates on each action, what departments and agencies have been doing, and what we're looking forward to be doing in the future and hopefully getting committee's feedback and comments on that work at that time. So we're hoping to have that ready to advance to committee probably late March, early April, depending on timelines. Thank you, Madam Chair.