Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, I won't speak about the court process. That's still in the process so I'll wait to see what happens. But I am a bit puzzled actually. I was just talking to the chair, Duane Smith yesterday, and I thought we had a good relationship. So I'm not sure about the eroded trust. I know that health has been working closely with their departments. I know I get along really well with the president. But I will make a point, Mr. Speaker, because I am meeting with him coming up here in the next few days that I'll actually sit down and talk to him. If there's an eroded trust...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think in this term of this government we've done a lot in regards to land claims, selfgovernment agreements. In fact, we had two years of COVID that people don't would rather not remember, including myself, and that often I've said you can't talk about that. But the amount of work that this government has done in the two years after COVID with these agreements has been phenomenal, Mr. Speaker. As I said yesterday, we have three agreements in draft. They're not called draft because they're not done or proposed. They're called draft, Mr. Speaker, because part of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is being very transparent about how we feel about that issue. We publicly stated it's or interests parties. Mr. Speaker, I think that not all agreements have the cease and surrender. The ones that do, there are issues with it. I know that I get concerns on both sides. Sometimes Indigenous governments say, you know, you're taking too long, we want to have it general, and make it broader and we can look at it later.

But I've learned from reading agreements, and I've learned the problems that happen when you don't have clarity in agreements. So I've been a real...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did not mean to imply any negative. It was an observation. When I was talking, I looked at the Member and the Member was had some very serious facial expressions. It was an observation. I perhaps inappropriately spoken out. So I will take whatever consequences that the Speaker feels justified. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it all depends on semantics, how you phrase things. So you can say five out of 15 never signed, or you can say ten out of 15 have signed. And there was a protocol, Mr. Speaker, that within the Council of Leaders we knew that we wouldn't have 100 percent, and Indigenous governments said we want to have majority. They defined what it would look like because that was the principles we're working on. So as we're working with the ones that haven't, there was various reasons. Even some that think that the GNWT aren't a public government, I won't name, I have had...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated, right now all those agreements are in the final stage of them; they are in the consultation phase. I have sent letters to the Indigenous governments applicable saying here's the agreements. They are in confidence, let me know if you have concerns. I can't speed up I'm not willing to push them on that. But if the Member thinks that he should that we should, then I would invite the Member. I'll give the list of the Indigenous governments. He's more than willing to write a letter to them and say he wants it done by this Assembly. But, Mr. Speaker, I've been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, like I said earlier, all agreements are a little bit different in terminology. Some of the agreements actually have it that they can be opened at any time. I do think that if agreements I think that an agreement that's signed at any time should actually be looked into it. It should not be something that is one time, if you made a mistake you're stuck with it forever. However, in saying that, Mr. Speaker, I'm also very conscious of the amount of agreements that we want to get across the table and so, therefore, Mr. Speaker, I've been really focusing on getting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize the page for Range Lake this week, Kaylee Alacida; excuse me if I pronounce the last name wrong. And welcome to all pages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I actually agree with the Member a hundred percent, so. I heard from and I will use an example on that. The previous grand chief of the Tlicho government said that too many times politicians listen, but they don't hear. But that same grand chief, before the election came, said to all of his council this Premier not only listens, she hears. So I just want to say that, that's important that we all not only listen, that we hear what they're saying.

As for the ongoing implementation plan, yes, there will be some work on that. Mr. Speaker, this these this work is not going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the administrative regions actually predate the establishment of Indigenousrights agreements. And I think that like, I heard the Member when she was asking the Minister the other day on this, and I gave it some thought as well. The difficulty is it's not the regions aren't divided just by Indigenous governments. If we did that, that would be really cumbersome. I think we need to look at it but we need to figure out a better way. It's a little bit simpler with the Tlicho. They are one community, one government. But we have some regions that have multiple Indigenous...