Throughout this federal process, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made every effort to meet the timelines set by Canada, regardless of how they have evolved. That said, as a government, I will not support a document that does not clearly focus on a positive economic future for our territory and one that acknowledges the importance of increasing the power of northern voices.

One of the pieces that has been added to the current federal framework as a result of this collaboration is a section on the importance of reconciliation and self-determination.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The first thing to note is that this is a federal framework. The Government of the Northwest Territories has been vocal about ensuring that Northwest Territories interests, including those of Indigenous governments, are given priority by the federal government. We continue to stress to Canada the importance of having an equal representation of Dene, Metis, and Inuit voices in the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework.

In the spring of 2018, when there were initial drafts of the federal framework, the Government of the Northwest Territories shared them with officials from the intergovernmental council and sought their comments. This includes the IRC. Since then, we have been sharing with intergovernmental council officials and are actively passing on their comments to the federal government.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to working closely with the members of the intergovernmental council and to continuing this process throughout the development of the framework. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I said earlier, I think, responding to questions earlier, we have mediation coming up with the UNW on Friday. We are hoping to reach an agreement with them, and we will see what happens after that. As far as the other tables go, again, we are waiting to hear from Hay River Health and Social Services, and we are also looking to continue our talks with NTPC.

A strike is not something that anybody wants, and it is not something that the people of the Northwest Territories want, especially the employees. We feel that we have been very fair in our discussions with UNW. Again, that remains to be seen. We will have a better idea after the mediation this weekend to see what type of position that we are in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't agree with that statement. I believe that, at the time, if we had said no, we aren't going to do climate change, or we are not going to implement cannabis and we will just live with the backstop, the federal government was going to do it anyway. I didn't hear people saying, "Yes, let's just live with the backstop and just focus on our commitments," so I don't agree with that statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In my mind, I don't believe that all of the Members took into account whether all of these commitments were doable in four years. Some of the commitments were very, very specific, and as such they are difficult to fulfill. Others are ongoing commitments that were there before; we have been doing a lot of work on it. Moving into the next Assembly, they will continue.

It is not an easy process, to just say, "Okay, we've done this," and move on to the next one, and that is why we are tracking all of the commitments that were made.

If the Members want to take commitments off, that is always welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't see why we need to create another forum. The information is updated on a regular basis. We meet at Caucus once a week when we are in session. I think the process is already in place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We track and report progress on all the commitments and, as always, we welcome feedback and input from the Members as to what the priorities should be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.