Thank you for the response, or kind of the lack of it. There was still silence and a lot of radio silence from the ENR Department for this whole development. Going back to the agreement, in my research, I found out that the Indigenous governments largely have observer status. My question to the Minister is: are there any plans to have Indigenous governments play more of an active role moving forward with our transboundary water agreement with Alberta?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I will get the same magic that my previous colleague just got, but I will give it a shot. My questions are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. It goes to my comments earlier from my Member's statement on the Teck decision to withdraw.

I want to speak a little bit about the transboundary water agreement with NWT and Alberta. I really thought about this for the last couple of days. I was really surprised at the amount of silence we had from that end of the Chamber. It concerned me because I know that if we had a large project in the territories and the water spilled the other way, and we had any sort of environmental impact going the other way into Alberta, I guarantee you the Alberta government would be saying something right now. I guarantee you some other government organizations would come back, and there would be some backlash to that.

My question to the Minister is: what benefits did the NWT receive as part of this NWT-Alberta Transboundary Water Agreement? Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to share some remarks regarding the large oil sands mining project known as Teck Frontier, which, as of two days ago, has officially been withdrawn by Teck Resources Limited.

The news of this decision, in my view, is positive. The adverse environmental impacts that this project would have brought to our territory would have been felt for generations. We here in the NWT have always been feeling the impacts of the oil sands development for many years already. We have seen the impacts it had on our waterways, our interconnected lakes and rivers that flow from the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray, all the way north through the Slave River and into the Great Slave Lake. The water quality along these waterways has diminished. In some cases, the volume of water flowing through has decreased.

Along with these effects on water, there is also a major concern for the impacts to wildlife such as fish, moose, caribou, and others. These two areas of concern would have also exponentially impacted many nearby First Nations and other Indigenous groups to hunt and trap on their own land.

I believe that the withdrawal of the Teck Frontier Mine is a reawakening of corporate, social, and environmental responsibility for this country. Big business, especially multinational corporations, need to work with Indigenous governments all across Canada before any major projects are moved forward, to ensure that there are benefits for all parties that are impacted.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Alberta-NWT Transboundary Water Agreement should have played a larger and more active role in Teck Frontier Mine consultations. One of the core tenets of that agreement states clearly, among other main objectives, that both parties must work "to maintain the ecological integrity of transboundary water ecosystems." If Teck Mine had gone through with development, I seriously doubt that the ecological integrity of our lands and waters would have been upheld, which begs the question: if our government's participation in such agreements does not bear any fruit for our territory's interest, then why be a part of it?

I also have a problem with the lack of participation by Indigenous governments in enacting this water agreement. Why did they only receive "observer statuses" with this agreement as opposed to being fully active participants to this agreement? I see many problems with that approach, and I hope we can be more inclusive with our Indigenous partners when it comes to major decisions like this. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister responsible shortly.

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. I would like to move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Continuing on, if we truly support independent living for all elders, then let's show it. Let's start making our elders' homes more accessible for things like wheelchairs, for the walk to the bathroom, to make it more friendly to use and easy to use. If there is bureaucratic red tape for preventing this from moving forward, well, it's time to start cutting some of the red tape and allow the elders to receive the best service available to meet their needs. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to talk about elders aging in place with dignity. I know I sound a little bit like a broken record, but I'm going to keep on with this. I spoke about this issue last night and last week, but I want to take this opportunity to touch on the issue of mobility problems not being addressed for elders.

One of our 22 mandate items is to enable seniors to age in place with dignity. The treatment I have seen from this government toward our elders is unacceptable and undignified. I sincerely hope that all of our government departments start treating elders to a much higher standard than how they have been treated so far. I know we, as a government, can do better for them. When I say that, I am not just addressing any one department. I am saying it to the government as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, I was raised to hold our elders to a very high standard. They are our knowledge keepers, our trusted advisors, so they deserve utmost respect and top-quality treatment for whatever their needs may be.

My intent with this Member's statement is not to put any blame onto any particular department, but rather try and point out and root out the pervading, systemic treatment that elders have been receiving over the years by our government. I am sensing a strong sentiment from our department that this is the way things have always been done, so therefore, we must accept it and move on. There has got to be a better way of doing business.

However, Mr. Speaker, this is an issue that I refuse to simply accept in the long term, so just consider this image for one moment. I have an elder who is wheelchair-bound, and each and every time he or she wants to enter or exit their own home, they have to have assistance to move up and down their stairs, just to get some fresh air or to go visit, and they have to be picked up and physically carried in a wheelchair.

I wanted you to think about that for a moment. Just think of if your family member or friend had experienced that day in and day out. In my humble opinion, Mr. Speaker, this is highly undignified, and it should be remedied immediately.

Mr. Speaker, in cases like these, we should be prioritizing the immediate needs of our constituents so they, at least, can enter and exit their home without any burden or worry. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to continue my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

I would like to rise and report progress.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the responses. I just have one more quick question on this policy. I mentioned earlier about home business. This might be more a question for the Minister for ECE, but are we going to give home business better public units, some grace period to not have their rents just sky-rocket because they are making a little bit of income or have their income assistance be cut off because they are just starting off; they have a start-up business? Are we going to allow for a little bit of space for them to breathe, to get them started? Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to say that I was really pleased about the amending of the policy to the NWT Housing Corporation to allow appropriate home business opportunities with their units. I mentioned during our roundtable before we were assigned our portfolios that we have to help those single parents out there. This is a perfect one. I talked a little bit about humanizing our policies. This is it here. This made me really happy. I am glad that we are moving in that direction, and hopefully we see more of that from the department of housing and the department of health, but that's another battle.

When I look at this, I try to visualize a struggling single parent in their home. The kids are asleep, and they're on the computer, and they're trying to work out their next big thing. I look at these business opportunities for people within their units, and who knows? The next Amazon, the next Apple, the next big idea could be happening in one of those living rooms, and this is an opportunity that made me happy. That's the idealist coming out of me. This is a good start. I want to say I am very happy about that.

My question is to the Premier. I want to talk a bit about the distributions of 125 jobs. We have a breakdown of our KPI, our key performance indicators, from the fall 2020 to fall 2023, but there really isn't a breakdown by region. I know each of us in our own regions, especially for us in the small communities, you know, we could still be jobs alone in our communities, so that's something I think that should be addressed a little more. I will ask the Premier: how is do you project this is going to look by region?