R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Government of the Northwest Territories certainly wasn't caught off guard. It was well known that this funding was time limited, but this is not a Government of the Northwest Territories program. And so what this does is it highlights the need for closer collaboration with the NGOs and, you know, to my earlier point, for information sharing between the government and NGOs so that these types of situations don't sneak up on anybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't want to preempt any mandate discussions that we need to have as a Cabinet, as a Caucus, but nonprofit organizations, nongovernmental organizations, are going to be essential and they are essential right now, but to the future operation of the territory they will be essential. They have significant expertise, significant ability, and flexibility to do a lot of the work that we need to get done, and so as we develop that mandate they will be at the forefront of my mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't make any commitments I don't want to make any commitments on behalf of the Minister of health. But I think that's a good suggestion. It is a very labour intensive program to offer. As Members know, it's not easy. It's not easy on the facilitators either. And so we also have to take into consideration that the people who are delivering this training, you know, there's an impact on them as well. So there's a number of things that we need to consider. I agree that it's something that I wish we could offer it across government, and there have been constant...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to look into that as well. I appreciate that when we are developing programs and policies, we need to have a certain mindset. I've seen you know, my time as an MLA, I've seen policies and programs that you could tell were missing a certain lens at the very beginning, whether it was an economic lens, an environmental lens, or a cultural safety lens. So I'm happy to go back and see exactly what the process is, what is considered, and how we may be able to improve that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're looking at all of our options. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're in the same place we were when the Member asked a couple weeks ago. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I do not have the authority to make that commitment. The GNWT is also signatory to the devolution agreement as are a number of Indigenous governments, and so it's that group of governments who would make that decision, not myself as Premier. And as I understand, the last direction was that the signatories receive those funds. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A consultation draft of the agreementinprinciple has been completed. It is with the Akaitcho leadership, and they are reviewing it internally. So the ball is in their court right now, and so I don't have a timeline on how long things will take but I can say there is forward progress on this file. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand that this the group in health has already provided that type of advice. I actually have someone in my office who is an expert in this area as well so I'm happy to have that conversation and see whether or not we can or how we can better support departments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question. The MLA noted that all MLAs actually participated in that training, and so I think we here in this room understand the value of it. Cultural safety, it's a concept that originates from health academics and the GNWT began, I guess, developing the program and offering it using federal funding, so under the health innovation fund I believe, and now through another pot of federal funding directly related to health. So that's why it has been situated in health. That being said, we have expanded the delivery of that program to a few different groups...