Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Chair. As stated earlier, the first role of one of the first roles of any Legislative Assembly is choosing your executive council, who are there to represent the interests of all residents of the NWT. And so therefore, Madam Chair, I would challenge to say that MLAs have to have faith in those that they elect as the executive council.

Madam Chair, there are I think we need to step back here a minute and look at it. If we we're signing selfgovernment agreements with Indigenous governments. If we really believe in selfgovernment, then we have to recognize that these Indigenous...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What can be addressed in what's going to happen in the next six months, I can't speak to that, Mr. Speaker, because there will be an election within the next six months. So what I can speak to is by the end of this government, we shall have that team organized and put into the Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, though, this cannot this issue is huge and it needs to be addressed. The reason that we did the homelessness strategy, the reason that we pulled it into the executive is because it's been off the side of the table for departments for many, many...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this concept of shared agreements comes actually from the BC legislation, the United Nations Declaration there. We had much discussion on that at the working level when we were drafting this bill.

The agreements might come in different forms. Martin Goldney can expand on that later. We don't know yet. We haven't had that experience and that's why we were careful with it as well.

But I do want to say, Madam Chair, that there's many agreements. The MLAs are not always part of every single agreement that the executive branch makes. For example, we make agreements with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't really speak for the next government or governments to come. The Premier does have the option to be able to shuffle departments, move Ministers as appropriate, consolidate as we did, or make departments bigger. That's always under the purview of the Premier. However, I did my best, Mr. Speaker, to try to make it sustainable within the Executive and Indigenous Affairs, and that's why purposely I brought the homelessness strategy under the Premier's portfolio in this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a difference. And, Madam Chair, the Member is right. There is a Regular Member that's invited to the Intergovernmental Council table, and there's a Regular Member that's invited to the Council of Leaders table. Those tables, both the Intergovernmental Council and the Council of Leaders, are the leaders of the governments GNWT, Indigenous governments, and organizations. They are chiefs, Ministers, Premier, presidents, whatever chair, whatever the title may be. The difference, Madam Chair, is that this is an action plan committee. There may be the occasional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I love openended questions; I can just answer them wherever I want. The reality is is that, Mr. Speaker, if I was to reflect back, there is advice to the next government would be always be flexible, always be open minded, truly hear what people are saying, not just what they speak but what they mean by that. Negotiations take decades is something I've realized. So, you know, I'd like to take credit for all the work. I'd like to be envious a little bit of the next government being able to sign some of these really early on. But the reality is is they take decades; there...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There's several methods that the Regular Members can use to determine progress on the action plan committee. In theory, Madam Chair, the Minister that's applicable would actually offer that to standing committee or make a statement in the House. But if that doesn't happen, then the Regular Members have the option to ask questions in the House of the applicable Minister and the applicable standing committee can ask the Minister to present to standing committee either as a technical or as a political one. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad the MLA's hopeful. I'm hopeful. We've got an extra month, but I'll see. If not in this government, early in the next government. We have a couple that are on the really close. One final selfgovernment agreement is out for section 35 consultation, the Norman Wells agreement. Pending the outcome of that consultation, it could move to the ratification process. I'm hopeful that that'll be probably the soonest one. One reconciliation progress agreement is out for section 35 consultation, the K'atlodeeche First Nation. Pending the outcome of that consultation, it...

I will pass that question to Mr. Goldney. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to pass it to Martin Goldney.