Mr. Speaker, Northwest Territories' residents want a government that is transparent and accountable. On March 3, 2016, for the first time in the Northwest Territories, Members of the Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a mandate for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The purpose of the mandate is to guide the work of the Government of the Northwest Territories over its four-year term.

Mr. Speaker, the mandate enhances the transparency of the Government of the Northwest Territories by clearly stating what the government commits to do to advance the priorities of the 18th...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "2016-2017 Annual Report on Implementation of the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe we have committed to a meeting with the standing committee at the time of the May-June session to update Members on the work that will have been completed by that time and seek their input.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, consultation is being undertaken now on the energy plan and the climate change framework. We are receiving considerable feedback from the public on carbon pricing as part of that process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As we have indicated, we have a ministerial special representative that is working on behalf of the federal government and our government to have in-depth review of the process that we have been using to negotiate the land claims. Some of these land claims, negotiations, have been long-standing, as long as 25 years. Our expectation is that the ministerial special representatives will identify or have been tasked with looking at what the major roadblocks and issues are that are preventing us from moving forward and to make some recommendations that will allow us to move forward.

The way I see it is both the federal government and ourselves will receive the report from the ministerial special representatives. We expect to have it, we said, by the end of February. I expect that within the next couple of weeks we will have it. I will be meeting with Minister Bennett to determine a path forward, and once we determine the path forward we will take action. My expectation is that at some point we will work with our joint Cabinet and special committee. We will also work with the Aboriginal governments that are involved in the negotiations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to previous questions, I indicated that we were waiting for the Government of Canada to determine how they would approach their endorsement of UNDRIP. As the Member stated, in the United Nations, Minister Bennett indicated that Canada was going to unequivocally endorse the UNDRIP provisions. Subsequent to that, the federal Minister of Justice qualified that statement because we all wondered exactly what the Government of Canada meant. The federal Minister of Justice qualified that to indicate that they endorse the UNDRIP, subject to the Constitution of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is our expectation that the Ministerial Special Representatives Report will look at all of the challenges and issues that have prevented us from getting an agreement by now. So if that is part of the problem, I expect the ministerial special representatives will identify it and make some recommendations. Certainly before we went with the ministerial representative, we certainly felt or indicated that perhaps part of the problem was the mandates that we were working with.

So I am looking forward to receiving the report of ministerial special representatives, and I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. They provided general support. They are still available to provide that support as part of the shared services. The more detailed policy, we kept an analyst position in the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We are just following the procedures as laid out in the mandate of the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Chair.