Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I think that they are kind of related in that the government's renewal initiative is looking at program evaluations, making sure that we're providing good programs for the money, bang for the buck. But the reamalgamation of departments, reorganization of departments, was not based on the government's renewal initiative. It was actually, like I said, it was a mandate letter of Premier's commitments from the beginning of the Assembly, before we were even talking about government renewal.

What I do want to say as well that the first phase of the government renewal was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start by saying that this merger of departments was definitely not about reducing costs or losing jobs. That is not my goal at all. It was just, like I said, one commitment was with devolution devolve and evolve.

The bigger thing for me was just my experiences in the last session and seeing the difficulties with smaller departments competing against bigger departments. So at this time, we're not looking at we're not expecting that this will be a cost saving endeavour. This is about making sure that the program's more effective and more efficient and better for...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start today by acknowledging the devastation experienced by residents in Hay River, K’atlodeeche First Nation, and West Point First Nation. Thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes and their lives behind earlier this month when floodwaters rose to unprecedented levels in the area.

Last week I visited the three communities with, the Honourable Shane Thompson, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; the Honourable Caroline Wawzonek, Minister of Finance; and the Honourable Diane Archie, Minister of Infrastructure, to assess the situation and meet...

This isn't my report so I shouldn't actually be on the stand. But in fairness, I will answer that question because it's an easy one. If you give me a hard one, I'm not answering it.

But really there is three roles. So we've always had the Intergovernmental Council that was formed part of devolution, it was before my time, the previous Premier. And the Intergovernmental Council is strictly around land and resources and royalties. I mean, that's their whole goal. But I noticed even with the last government that I was in, and this government, is that there was always issues brought up at that...

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I should start by saying that as Premier, I don't run the Legislative Assembly. That is the role of the Speaker. So it's not mine to address. But I do want to say as well that as long as we're elected into a system that's part of the constitutional monarchy with the Queen as the head of state for Canada, we appreciate that swearing an oath to bear alliance to Her Majesty is an oath to work diligently within the democratic system in place. It's no different than the oath that lawyers swear as part of their admittance to the legal profession of which the MLA is a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The final tally of the royal visit is not yet complete. The last royal tour came in approximately $180,000, and we expect that the cost of this one will be similarly the same. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time, there are no reorganizations being expected within the term of this government. It was a campaign commitment that was made and so following through with that. It was in a mandate that was followed through. There was no other identified reorganizations that were necessary. However, never say never. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So way back when devolution occurred in the last Assembly, actually Assembly before that, the Department of Lands was created and the organizational structure of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was changed. Some functions, in particular related to water, came to ENR, and others went to ENR, to Lands.

There was a commitment at the time to devolve and then evolve if needed after time was passed.

Since then, it became clear that there's a well, I'm missing a step.

First of all, there was a in my speech from to be Premier, Mr. Speaker, I said that I'd...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to thank the Indigenous governments for their input into this work that the special committee's been doing. I believe in my own opinion that the report is very fair and a balanced report. So I thank the committee. Good work, committee.

The work of the committee actually, I think, validated a lot of the concerns that I was hearing previously to the committee as well. I do also want to recognize the MLA for Boot Lake Twin Lakes, Twin Lakes actually. Not the MLA for Twin Lakes. I'd like to thank her husband who first brought the idea of the core principle and...