Caroline Cochrane

That was a long wait, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by recognizing one of my favourite federal ministers. It's true. It is true. Minister Dan Vandal is the Minister of Northern Affairs. He's the Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and the Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development in Canada. Minister Vandal is not from the Northwest Territories but he's an Indigenous man, and he, like grand chief once told me, he not only listens, he hears our needs. And so he's always welcome to the Northwest Territories, and we'd love for you to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For change of protocol a little bit, I would like to  I'd seek unanimous consent to return to item number 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member kind of identified it. We're not I'm not going to wait. Indigenous people have been waiting way too long to get apologies from the Catholic Church, from federal governments, etcetera. I think that land claims is the way to go. I think that does give the land to Indigenous governments and so we're continuing with that process as well. I do know, Mr. Speaker, that the Dene Nation is all over this and working with them. We're there to support them. And contact me, I'm more than willing to support them.

But I guess, Mr. Speaker, I do know that the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple questions in there. What took so long, that I can't speak for. I can't speak for the Catholic Church and I can't speak for the federal government, although I'd like to sometimes. But I can say that the Northwest Territories, what we're doing is I think that in the Northwest Territories, we're one of the most progressive jurisdictions in working with Indigenous governments and, honestly, in all the whole of Canada. We were one of the first, I believe, to accept the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2016. We're very ahead of the game...

Mr. Speaker, homelessness is a reality that far too many people experience. The factors that contribute to homelessness are complex and unique to each individual who experiences it. The challenges and solutions vary by community and differ in the Northwest Territories compared to urban centres in the South. That is why we need an allofgovernment strategy to address homelessness in the Northwest Territories.

There is no onesizefitsall solution, or even a suite of approaches that work for every individual and family. Multifaceted, personcentered approaches, sustained effort, and collaboration...

I need my glasses, sorry.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize Mr. Tim Mercer, who is retiring from his role as the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly after serving our territory with distinction and dedication for almost two decades. Today marks his last day in the House with us in that capacity, and it's an honour to acknowledge his significant contributions to our parliamentary institution.

Throughout his 20year tenure, Mr. Mercer has overseen and facilitated several significant improvements and modernization efforts for the Legislative Assembly, including adapting to the pandemicrelated...

Mr. Speaker, I'm going to try one more time. I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery with unanimous consent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a few things. Like I said, there's many survivors and people think that it's only the survivors that were impacted back in the day or people that went to residential school. But we see the effects in generation after generation, and I still see them in my own family even. And so, you know, I think that we do have to do what we can. That's why the GNWT, we have the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was set up to guide the work aimed at this very issue. And we'll continue to advance that work as we go forward. We're working with the Calls for Justice, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Member for giving me a heads up that there will be questions, and I don't blame them. There should be questions. There was a lot of harm done. Again, I can't speak for the churches but what I can say is hopefully those days are done in the Northwest Territories. The United Nations Declaration for Indigenous People, the active past in this government, will make things different. No longer will the GNWT get to define what's best for people. It'll be working together with the Indigenous governments handinhand to actually define what our Acts look like...

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...