Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to be clear, I think that that should be considered within the seven-year review.

If I could, with the time I have left, I'd like the Minister -- or sorry, the Premier to comment on the idea that perhaps GNWT could be providing better leadership at these tables, so. And what I am referring to there is often when I've asked about this on the floor, a process, the one that comes to mind for me, is the targeted amendments to the Waters Act. The Minister has repeatedly said, well, we are one member at the table and speaks of GNWT as being equal at the table. And I understand that that is the case; however, I think it's worth noting that GNWT is also very much the elephant in the room, right. GNWT is the government with a $2.6 million budget. GNWT is the government with significantly more resources than other partners. And so I think it needs to be looked to for leadership. And for what it's worth, it is still GNWT-owned legislation that is moving through that table. And so I am curious to hear the Minister's perspective on that thought, that perhaps GNWT could be providing stronger leadership on getting things moving. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I think there is an opportunity to look at the direction that is provided to the officials at that table on the GNWT side. I think government sort of moves at a certain pace, but there's clearly a desire from the Assembly, and I know from Cabinet, to move more quickly on things. And I think that might fall under the category of providing more leadership. Because the Member's right, we do have more resources. You know, we've -- so, I am trying to avoid talking about the GNWT as being the boss at the table and being able to push things through against the wishes of everyone. The leadership that is being provided now, a lot of it is trying to bring people together, find a common ground, get to a point where everyone can agree on. Like, that's the negotiation. And I don't want to say we're just going to start trying to bulldoze over or push too hard on things. It is a balance, and we are one partner. But I take the Member's point that this whole discussion about meeting more often, about having some timelines, those are the types of things, areas, where I am going to bring those forward as part of this review so that we can -- and I see that as a way of sort of providing that type of -- that leadership. These are ways to advance those projects, so I will just leave it at that, sorry. Thanks.

Okay, thank you. I am going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first question is an easy one. Just wanted to confirm that the $695,000 in the budget for contract services, is that related to the establishment of a residential schools monument or something else? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

The monument. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Next, I wanted to touch on something more broad. It's related to some of the overall goals that we have in the business plan for this department around integrating, in general, programs and services and also trying to empower the public service to deliver things in ways that better serve residents. So something I've heard about often and seen myself is that the way we do sort of consultation, even just about sort of day-to-day programs, policies in communities, we tend to send just a constant stream, army of different people from different government departments into various communities. You know, like every day, every week, there's different people flowing through, trying to each consult about their one little thing and they're often not very coordinated with each other. So, for example, there might be a public meeting or consultation in a community one week about something and then something very similar the next week, and people think why are we here again. We just talked about this. We just told you everything. You know, we answered your questions, and now you've sent someone else to ask similar questions or the same thing; what are we doing here all over again. And also I think there's a pattern sometimes of, you know, we may send people -- you know, again, a huge selection of different people to go and consult in communities who may be experts in their very particular field but they may not have any experience with public consultation or have any -- have ever been in that community, they don't have any relationships there. So every single person we're sending is trying once again to establish a new relationship but they might only be there once. And so it's often occurred to me can we do this more efficiently in ways that actually better serve communities and build better relationships so these consultations, we get more out of them and we stop sort of spending so much time going over and over and over and over the same things. And so I wonder if there's a role for EIA in better combining or coordinating the kinds of consultations and sessions and meetings that happen in communities, ensuring we're not duplicating with the same questions. And even having, say, a team of people that do know the community well, maybe they're even based in the region or in the community, and they can be the ones who are on the -- in front consulting with the community on a range of different topics, and maybe they're not the experts in wildlife, in engineering, in infrastructure, in all the things, but at least they have that relationship. And so they can be the ones -- instead of perhaps sending every single expert from every GNWT department, they can just get the information they need from those experts, but they can be the ones interacting on an ongoing basis with people that they've built that relationship with and in that way, we could get more out of these sessions.

So that's a long little speech. But I wonder if EIA has considered anything along these lines of better coordinating the public meetings and consultations and integrating things coming from different departments into sort of funneling or streamlining through some sort of community consultation team that may or may not be linked to EIA. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I am going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I can say that I have not put my mind to having a single GNWT consultation team that would travel around and do all different types of consultation, but I understand what the Member's talking about, the consultation burden that Indigenous governments and communities outside of -- especially outside of Yellowknife and the regional centres feel. So EIA's role in that is that we do speak with the Indigenous governments and we talk to them about the consultation burden and if they're experiencing it. And so if we learn that this community is, you know, seeing lots of these things happening, we'll relay that to the departments so that they're aware of it. It is a very large organization, the GNWT, and it's hard to keep an eye on every piece of consultation that's happening and, you know, sometimes people will go out because there's a timeline that they need to hit and they need to get that consultation. But we've made efforts to try and tighten things up a little bit. I think the Council of Leaders is an example of that where it's not necessarily consultation on a specific issue, but it gets people together, it gets people aware of the general issues. And I know that some departments do go out. They bundle their consultation. They'll do a couple of pieces of legislation or a few different initiatives all at the same time. I know the Department of Justice has been doing that. But yeah, to the Member's point about a unit, a consultation unit that would sort of encompass all consultation, I have not considered that. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I mean, I am just throwing things out there now, maybe planting a little seed but hope to maybe continue conversations on this idea. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. Next on my list I have is the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I brought up in the House before the potential of looking at having some more senior people in the regions, and specifically Inuvik. And I know we have superintendents there. I know we have regional management committees. But more specifically, you know, would the department consider having a more senior position kind of beyond that level of regional superintendent? Maybe someone who can actually work as well with the -- you know, department's envoy in Ottawa as well. Because given if you look at what's happening around with DND up there, with what's happening with LNG development, we've talked about several times in this House around land transfer, but actually having some boots on the ground in a region such as Inuvik at a senior level I think would not only benefit the government for having that, again, someone who knows the needs of the region, but also give the residents, you know, the -- you know, I guess, see that we're actually listening and have someone there on the ground to interact with senior officials in the community and relay that directly you back into the Office of the Secretary of Cabinet. Is that something, Mr. Chair, that the Minister would consider? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the Member has raised this a number of times with me, and I appreciate his enthusiasm for the work. We do have a regional director in the community right now under EIA, but in this activity here, Office of the Secretary of Cabinet, there's actually only two employees. There's a deputy minister and the executive assistant for the deputy minister. So from this budget here, we would not be looking at doing that. That being said, EIA has the GSOs, the government service officers, which are stationed all over the territory and we have a regional director, and so we're -- and now we have integrated service teams -- or service integration teams. So we're looking at how we structure ourselves in the regions. And maybe the deputy minister can speak to some of this because it is a good time to have this discussion. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, maybe just to echo the Premier, we do have a regional director, a regional manager in Inuvik, and we're also looking at a new framework for our regional leadership teams. From region to region, various departments have superintendents that operate out of those regional centres. And we're looking at how we might be able to enhance their coordination and their situational awareness, and it does harken back to a mandate priority from the last government and from the 19th Assembly which was around strengthening regional decision-making. We've not lost sight of that. So what we're looking at is, you know, how we can build in some greater accountability for those regional leadership teams, bringing them to ADMs and deputy minister committee meetings for example, where they can provide an on-the-ground update on what they're seeing and then also can be provided further direction as well so that they can go out and more accurately represent the government and respond to issues that are arising in that region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

You know, I appreciate that. And I know, I mean, the regional director is often kept busy enough. I know they're there, you know, looking at each department in the region, you know, fielding questions from that, organizing -- organizing, I guess, departmental work on the ground up there as well, working with the interagency committee. I see our regional director there when I attend those meetings when I am in town. I guess what I am thinking is work beyond that. I mean, that person is busy enough. They have -- you know, they have that work to do. But I am thinking more of at a strategic level, you know, at kind of a more senior position there, reporting directly in to the deputy minister from the region on things, like I talked about, on the bigger things that are happening and ensuring that -- because we've talked about before, one little misstep, Mr. Chair, or one little thing can delay a project for a year, you know, if you're not aware of the cultural relevance of a lot of issues, decisions that are made up there -- we have two Indigenous governments up there -- like, and I am not saying that the department is not aware of any of that. But, again, having someone in the region on the ground, I think would be just beneficial and would help move things forward a lot quicker and avoid any of those pitfalls where you can have, again, one small misstep that may not seem like a big thing, as we've seen in the past, can, you know, cause way more damage than it should. So, again, and it's more of a comment, but, you know, I do think the department should consider that. Even at an ADM level, Mr. Chair, you can -- you can have an ADM outside of Yellowknife. I know it's not something that we've normally done. I think it's been contemplated, I think, in Fort Smith, but -- one in Fort Smith. But we need -- you know, even at that level up there, I think would be something that would go a long way for the residents of that region, certainly for the Indigenous governments of that region, to know they have one there, and something that I think the department should at least consider. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I am going to go to the Minister regarding the comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the Member's comments. When we're talking about projects and the Member mentioned that some missteps could delay projects, we are looking at the work that is happening, or that will be happening around the territory, in Inuvik specifically with the Department of National Defence, and trying to determine how we can best structure ourselves to ensure that we don't have those missteps and there's support when available. So I will take the Member's comments and consider that as we are looking at how we structure ourselves to advance these big projects that we're going to be seeing around the territory, hopefully. Thank you, Mr. Chair.