Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the issues with having municipal, territorial, and federal government is that we control the legislation for municipalities, and we often take our time to deal with it. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Will the City, Towns and Villages Act be brought forward during the life of this Assembly?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am wondering what the metric we are measuring this against is. If you actually look at the labour market forecast, we are going to lose far more than 125 jobs in the next four years in the small communities. That's just the economic reality that we are facing. When we see "increase by 125," do we mean that we're actually, despite the projected loss of jobs, going to increase 125, or are we just talking about ITI going out and creating programs that then offsets the projected loss by 125? What are we pegging this against? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Sorry. I am not sure that clarified my question. We have thrown money at this before, but, if you don't put enough money to keep pace with the deficit as it grows, you don't actually close the gap. Can I just clarify that? If it is 40, the goal is to get it to 35, and then this will cost us more than $5 million. Is that correct?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Spoken like a true Canadian lawyer, using the French interpretation.

My second question is: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides Indigenous people the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions, providing education in their own languages. Right now, the closest we are in the Northwest Territories to doing this is the Tlicho, with their self-government.

Are we intending to amend the Education Act, amend the education formula that would come with that, change the role of the education councils to allow...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is: in self-government agreements, we have two agreements concluded. Can I just have a little more explanation of where that number came from? Do we have any idea of whether they are the self-government land claim or which two, just some more background on that point? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. My question just mostly relates to holding this to account. We are going to get rid of 100 units, and we are going to build 100 new. We will stick with 2,400 units. To me, this is what the Housing Corporation has always been doing. We all recognize the Indigenous governments are much better suited to get federal money for housing. If the Indigenous governments build 100 units in partnership with the Housing Corporation, will we have met this mandate item?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to reiterate the comments that my colleagues have been making. They have kind of taken my opening statements from me. I think we are speaking at the right level, that this is pragmatic realism in what we can accomplish. I also think there is a recognition in this House that there needs to be more service-oriented government. I will have a number of questions regarding the substance of each item in the mandate, but I wanted to speak to form.

I think there is no doubt this is the best mandate the Government of the Northwest Territories has ever seen. The...

I believe this is why persistence is key, because without bringing the City, Towns and Villages Act to the floor in the life of this Assembly, a Yellowknife city charter is not possible. Is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs willing to begin negotiations with the City of Yellowknife to hear their concerns and see what a possible city charter would look like?

Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding is that the business plan and the feasibility of this project is largely contingent on the Grays Bay Port project in Nunavut going ahead. I see here that the environmental assessment is only to take the road to the Nunavut border. Is that correct, that we are conducting environmental assessment as if the Nunavut half is not going ahead?

I am well-aware that there are three parties at the table, and to not update our core principles and objectives because there are federal government issues seems to miss the point, and that is the federal government's whole purpose being at the table. My question is for the honourable Premier. Are we willing to reopen our core principles and objectives and negotiate them with Indigenous governments, considering our commitment to implement UNDRIP?