I'm not from Alberta, but thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm committed to reminding the government to listen and act accordingly on what they hear from the residents of the NWT. So during their public engagement, many thoughtful and detailed ideas were shared with Members as well as government on ECC's draft climate action plan. Most concerning to me is an overwhelming groundswell of feedback requesting clear, plain language, and direct tangible actions.
So to the Minister, I recognize that there will be a What we Heard document coming out in the near future, but can the Minister highlight at a high level what his areas of interest for changes are after reading all of the feedback. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you -- getting this right -- Member from Great Slave. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you very much to the Member for the question. As she said, there was a tremendous amount of engagement on this topic, and we extended the timeframe and continued to accept long-form submissions well into January. You know, throughout the process, we had 128 participants at a climate change advisory group gathering. We engaged with Indigenous governments, organizations, community governments, youth, researchers, land users, industries, other partners. We had 44 residents engaged through a public engagement on the website, and two Indigenous governments and six non-government organizations also provided long-form information.
So from my personal perspective, you know, resilience, ensuring that we have proper knowledge into this process, and that we're working to provide every option that we can to assist in the target for net zero by 2050 is certainly high on the mandate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I'm glad he took the time to review all of that feedback. Can the Minister outline if the next iteration of the climate change action plan will take the concerns of plain language seriously, and how is the department working to address and incorporate feedback on this particular issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the importance of plain language was the theme of the what we heard engagement throughout. And, you know, this is very important feedback for us in that we're considering the changes and improvements to the planned climate actions. We take this responsibility to communicate with the public in a clear, concise manner that everyone can understand very seriously. And to that end, already through the engagement process we have taken some opportunities to change how we were doing things. And the department worked closely with the local graphic artists to create some broadly accessible visual presentations that were used throughout engagement. And this is just the first step of how we will make change going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that. And I think graphic representations of conversations is a fantastic way to bring everybody in. But, you know, the other big theme I heard, and I know the Minister saw that, was that, you know, especially from youth, there's a lot of climate anxiety right now. So can the Minister explain what bold action he wants to see in his action plan that will address the concerns he's heard especially of our youth. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a topic that's close to my heart, ensuring that we are engaging with our youth across the NWT. I have grandchildren that are going to be coming along here into this environment soon and, you know, I'm encouraged by the participation that we had, and we had the NWT Climate Change Youth Council participate in a forum in October, Ecology North facilitated discussions, with a total of 190 students here in Yellowknife. MLA Morgan and myself are planning an engagement with high school students later in the month here in Yellowknife to discuss the issue, to listen to their concerns and their issues. And I think, you know, as a department and from my position as Minister, addressing the anxiety and the uncertainty of the changing climate with the youth in the Northwest Territories is a very high priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
