Caroline Cochrane

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't see NCPC actually being able to lower the cost of power. We still need the infrastructure. If we had solar panels and wind turbines and everything, even in our capital city, we would still need the infrastructure there to support the units. That has been proven over and over. I am not sure how many times we can say that as a Cabinet. We have been saying that for quite a while. I do want to say that the road to the Whati transition line is being used.

Yes, we could look at just doing small hydro projects, but the priority is also about, on the very next page...

Thank you, and I do take note, and it's actually a really good observation and a valid observation. When we all sat down as 19 Members before we elected Cabinet and the Executive, we made these priorities without all of the information that we should have gotten at the time. I think all Members would agree to that.

We also made a commitment as 19 Members that we would review the mandate, not the Ministers, the mandate, when that process comes about because we don't have enough money. We don't have enough money to deal with all these three infrastructure projects. We don't have enough money to...

Yes. "Knowledge economy" depends on how you define that. That is a hard word in itself to define. Of course, we need to work with our Indigenous governments for traditional knowledge. I think that is important to start with. We also have to work with researchers that we have in the Northwest Territories, all of the partners that we have coming up to the Northwest Territories. The City of Yellowknife did a study, and I think it was either $50 million or $80 million they were pursuing. It was coming through the North every year, annually, for research grants. We are not even getting a fraction...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no problem admitting my weaknesses. I think I have done as much as I can talking about Internet services for somebody who does not even watch TV, and so, in that case, I will turn it over to someone who might know more, the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The goal is to get communities off of diesel. The goal is not to keep it within our government or to have all of the power. The previous government, and I was a Member of that Cabinet, had taken the philosophy that, whenever government money comes from the federal government, give it to us, and we shall dissimilate it to the communities. I've been an advocate since I began. My first meetings with all federal Ministers, with our Prime Minister, is that this government will not do that. This government will work hand-in-hand with Indigenous governments. If Indigenous...