Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, I'd like to say yes but the reality is is that it's work that's always going to have to happen. Like I said, it's a concern for all of us, and it should be a concern. We need to make sure that all communities actually have the economic opportunities, including jobs, which is economic opportunities, to be able to support their residents. Like I said before, Mr. Speaker, I think that the biggest achievement to this government has been the remote work policy. I think it's a little bit too early to actually give stats on that, though, because it's only been a few...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Learning from the Response to COVID19 Report and Recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within the priorities that were developed by the Legislative Assembly, there wasn't a decentralization; there was a priority around regional decisionmaking however and we're working towards that. However, in saying that, Mr. Speaker, decentralization has been a priority of the previous governments, and it's a priority of our government. It always should be a priority. Many of the Members from the Cabinet are outside of Yellowknife. They're constantly reminding us all the time that and I recognize that myself, that we need jobs in every single community, and we're...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think what I'll do is, again, I'm going to put it back, I'm going to say that the chair of AOC should write a letter to the any Minister that they want to invite in the spirit of consensus government. But I will make a commitment because I do want to give him a yes. And I will commit to bringing up the carbon tax concerns that we have to the Minister to the appropriate Minister. Although like I've said many times, my knowledge is that when we speak about the federal government, they are listening. So they're already hearing that. But I will raise the concerns of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In honesty it's hard to get a meeting with any Minister, especially the prime minister. Often, we get half an hour. We're very focused. We got to get we tell them what our agenda is, etcetera. It's not my understanding when I talked to my staff before about having Regular Members there, it's never been done in other jurisdictions. It's not something that's normal, that happens. However, I will like to say that Minister Vandal is coming here tomorrow, and I am assuming, if things go right, that he'll be a visitor in our gallery. So I can't guarantee that I'll get a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any time I meet with any federal minister, including the prime minister, I stand up for the people of the Northwest Territories otherwise I have no reason to be there, Mr. Speaker. In honesty, though, I will bring it up to Minister Vandal again. I had spoken to him this afternoon at lunch time, spoke to him about our needs, and I will continue to speak to him about your needs. I'll talk to him about some of the problems that we have with CERB as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to the CERB payments, I do know that the Member had asked the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about what we could do here. I don't know if it's just looking at the CERB payments when I lobby the federal government. What I've been lobbying the federal government is, even before COVID, is that our costs are high. The Speaker really outlined that yesterday in the House. I've asked to get a copy of his notes, actually, so I could use some of the statistics when I go to Ottawa. It's important that the federal government realize that the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is a good example. Like I said, I'm just learning about it, but it's an example of many things that have happened in the Northwest Territories. There's been, you know, either there's been mines, like you used the example Giant Mine. There's been uranium mines in the Northwest Territories. One of the mines my father worked at and died of cancer, but he was also a smoker so I can't trace if that was smoking or if it was working in the uranium mine. But many people in the Northwest Territories have examples of cancer that have impacted us because of we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I again, I think that it's always a concern when the majority of problems are in one community and we have many communities that we have to take care of. I know that we do try to make sure that we have regional positions for all departments within the communities. But I do think that there's more work to be done. And I don't think that it's only this government. I think that it's going to have to be work done for many governments to come. We need to look at the jobs. We need to look at the departments. We need to look at positions. So it's ongoing work. Our...