R.J. Simpson

Thank you. With me, I have John MacDonald, the deputy minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs; and, Tram Do, director, shared corporate services, with the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Thank you.

Sure, thank you. So I'm not sure where this is contained in this document but relative to where we are now, but integrated service delivery is a way of doing business where you design and deliver programs and services for the person. You don't design them in a way that is most efficient or, rather, most convenient for government. You design it with the convenience of the person in mind so that they can actually access all of the services they need easily. And so we are looking at various ways of doing that. Initially, there was a thought that we would just start integrating services across...

Thank you. And it's a political decision, I suppose, where it lands, under which department. I would say because it is most dissimilar to EIA, it's more appropriate to be in EIA as opposed to something like infrastructure where that Minister is often also the Minister of the power corporation. And so it is to give some separation. I will say that I've often struggled with where the different regulators are located. I think it was an ad hoc approach over the years, and where they sit now is where they sit. When we get to Justice, we'll see that OROGO is in there as well, which really no rhyme...

Thank you. That funding is for the extension of the program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here to present the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs' main estimates for the fiscal year 20242025. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $1.405 million, or 6.1 percent, over the Main Estimates 20232024. These estimates support the mandate objectives, while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories' fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

Transfer of Integrated Service Delivery Program of $854,000 from Department of Justice;.

Continuation of...

Thank you. When we talk about economic reconciliation, we need to approach that from a number of fronts. We are working on an Indigenous procurement policy. We do have agreements such as with the economic agreement with the Tlicho the exact name escapes me at this moment. We are also working on the UNDRIP Implementation Act action plan. And I expect that there would be economic aspects identified in there. We are working with the Council of Leaders and the economy has been flagged as one of the major issues that the Indigenous governments want to address this term. And so I'm excited about...

The proposal the process is not yet closed, no. It's midstream. Thank you.

Yes, I believe so.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As with any initiative, I expect that the relevant department will undertake a thorough review and reach out to experts as needed. I just want to reassure everyone that the Northwest Territories has no shortage of lawyers. I think we have four times the number of lawyers per capita compared to the rest of Canada. There's plenty of legal advice out there for the taking. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it's you know, in the last government the mandate commitments were to settle land claims. Well, that's just what we're supposed to be doing. And so the way to do that is look at the negotiations, figure out what the issues are, figure out where the GNWT perhaps needs to change its position or align itself with an Indigenous government to work together to help change Canada's position, and then make those changes in the negotiating mandates. And that may be uncomfortable. That may be a departure from the way thing have been done in the past. But we need to push the...