Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this point, I am not willing to take on any extra work doing a financial analysis of cost benefits for other economic areas. We do have some information. I do believe that there was a report done by the Housing Corporation that has an amount, I believe, to be able to get everyone out of core need. I think that's a document that we have already. I can ask that that be produced or be presented again to committee.

At this point, like I said, Madam Chair, we don't have a lot of money. We've admitted that. The Members all know that. Our fiscal capacity is, we're at the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we commit to looking at it. I am trying to think, but I don't think the Member has ever not given me the straight goods.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do agree that all organizations should be run on best practices. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe that the Member wanted the Minister of ITI to go into Hay River and meet with businesses and things, so I am going to say that she will do that. The other thing is that I do agree that they need to be fair. I agree that government employees are public servants; our job is to serve the public. However, you are absolutely right, it is about personalities, so we offer all kinds of cultural awareness, about customer service, you know, all kinds of training. The reality is that some people are kinder than other people, and, wisely, they do not give me the direction to be able...

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I want to go back to the 25 percent. Twenty-five-cent dollar is absolutely right. I am not happy paying 25-cent dollars, either. We are just in the middle of finalizing a federal engagement strategy. Like the Minister stated, we will be going down there and asking for 100 percent dollars. Twenty-five-cent or 75-cent dollars are no longer good enough for where we are in our economy and our financial statement. We all will be pushing that.

The other thing is that you can't expect the Minister to be held accountable for projects that have already been...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make sure I am understanding that the federal government has a procurement policy that gives a certain amount to Indigenous governments? If that is correct, then, when we look at our Business Incentive Policy or our manufacturers' policy, which we have committed to doing, then we can look at that within our review. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I will commit to is that I have given direction to the Minister of Finance and the Minister of ITI to check the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses to look at a measurement. That saves me doing it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree that we have infrastructure needs throughout, like housing, like education, like schools, health centres, et cetera, right across the board. We constantly go down to the federal government and explain. I hate to use the term, but I call ourselves the poor cousin. We have a huge gap before we could actually be at the same place as southern Canada. I am not only looking at the federal government for that. I have been talking to our other jurisdictions, Premiers across Canada, to address that, as well. When we met with the Premiers, our first meeting, they gave us...

Thank you, Madam Chair. When the federal government put the moratorium on the offshore oil and gas, that was not in consultation with the territorial government, is my understanding, being on the Cabinet from the last Assembly. We did not know about it. They did put a provision in it, though, that said that after five years it would be open to doing a review, a full review. That five years is up, and so we are actually already at the table. Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Yukon government are our partners in this, so we are working, doing that review at this moment, and we will be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the comments, and I agree. Especially as Cabinet, we have a responsibility to 33 communities, not one, not our own ridings. I have said that to all of my Ministers. Every one of them knows that we have 33 communities. I have always said that, if we support the smaller communities, the bigger communities benefit from it. I hope that the Member won't take that for all Members in this House. Even the Members from the bigger ridings would agree that they don't think about the smaller communities. I take the point that we all need to think about them. Thank you...