Mr. Speaker, today I would like to make a statement to highlight the public and private services that all businesses and government service centres provide to the people of Fort Smith. I would especially like to thank all the service providers at the Fort Smith Health Centre, including management, doctors, nurses, wellness workers, supporting staff, and all the people who keep the buildings clean. All of these workers provided a service that is unique and professional and, while sometimes serving the public can be difficult, they always do it in the best interests of the community. I want to thank them for that.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank all the people who serve in the private sector within our community. They provide service that is client-based, and always serve all members of our community with dignity and professionalism, always keeping in mind the public relation aspect that is so important to the community of Fort Smith. Some of the businesses that I want to highlight in this statement are Northwestern Air Lease, Kaeser's Store, the Northern Store, the hotel industry, the local restaurants, the gas stations, and all the private industry within the town of Fort Smith. They donate a lot to the community in varying capacities, especially community events, and it is very much appreciated. I want to wish everyone a great weekend at the annual Fort Smith ice and snow races taking place this weekend.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge International Women's Day, which is a global celebration and recognition of women's contributions to the world. That will be celebrated on March 8^th over the weekend. I hope all my constituents enjoy these festivities taking place in our community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just further to that, I am in favour of making sure that friendship centres are funded properly, Madam Chair. It is really important because I know federal funding is not enough and friendship centres do a great job within the communities. They do a wide variety of programs that benefit a community. Some of them do soup kitchens, some of them do lunches for impoverished children, and there are so many other functions that they take care of that a lot of other organizations don't. I just want to make sure that the funding is disbursed evenly. The $170,000, I don't think it's enough, but anyways, that's another thing that we should have a look and reconsider in the future, that we upgrade that a bit. I know there's never ever enough when it comes to looking after friendship centres. I just want to make that point. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The $170,000 in grant funding to individual Northwest Territories friendship centres, could you give me the breakdown of the disbursements, please?

Madam Chair, I had a question for funding with regard to funding the Northwest Territories friendship centres. First of all, I want to ask the first question, I guess. I always thought friendship centres came under federal jurisdiction. This is just extra to that?

I don't have any other questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is where the department will see an increase of three positions in the 2020-2021 budget, these three positions are located in Yellowknife. It's the creation of the Office of Devolution Initiatives. Could you please explain to me exactly what that is?

She didn't ask for any comments when she made the statement, so I thought I was able to do that. I'm sorry if I'm out of [microphone turned off]... The third question that I had was with the department, for three new positions, and the creation of office of devolution initiatives. I just want to know the makeup of that department.

My second question is on some of the comments that were made in the statement by the Premier, a sunset of $170,000 to the grant funding, available to individual Northwest Territories friendship centres. Could the Premier please tell us the disbursements and who they go to, the $170,000?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of questions. One of them is: a couple of weeks ago I did a Member's statement on deputy ministers on boards. I, too, feel very strongly that, if you're going to be accountable and transparent and arm's-length, the board has to be neutral. It's the only way to go. There has to be input from various regions of the public to sit on these boards, and we have a lot of external people who are not in government, who will sit and give the perspective of the people of the Northwest Territories, and that's extremely important. For me, I would ask the Premier to consider that and give us a date as to when, actually, this will start happening.