Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my questions, Member statements on Arctic Council. The concerns I do have going forward. Can the Premier give the House an update on what her government has done to allow the NWT to take full control of our Beaufort and Arctic Ocean? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So it's important that I'm not so sure if I'd want the GNWT to take full control of everything within our Arctic lands and waters. I mean, there is a benefit to having many parties at the table. With the Arctic Circle, we're a member of the Canadian delegation, and I think there's power in having Canada at the table with the offshore. I mean, we're partners with the IRC and the Yukon government. So I think it's important. There is strength in partnerships, Mr. Speaker. So at this point, I haven't contemplated taking it all on the NWT. I think it's important to work in partnership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we do have a Pacific Northwest economic group that we do work with with our territorial government, that we work with Yukon and Alaska and Nunavut with our panterritorial I guess working together. Can the Premier advise, you know, for the offshore resources that we do have, can the Premier advise that if she or her official concerns with Canada and about the Russian claim in the Arctic seabed. Is our government worried about that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the federal government is responsible for international relationships. We work closely with the federal government. I think, in fairness, Mr. Speaker, that all nations that have that are in the circumpolar are looking at the ocean and the opening of the waters and have concerns. So, yes, Mr. Speaker, all of us have concerns about the opening of the Arctic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for that. Mr. Speaker, the federal government, has the Premier been invited to take part in any Arctic Council meetings coming up or invited from our federal counterparts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, within the last year with Iceland being the chair and COVID, all of the meetings were put on hold. There was one just the other day and, unfortunately, it was at three in the morning and I had prior commitments in the morning and in the evening so we did send officials. It was the inaugural one for the Russian Russia taking over the chair. So it was more of an identifying the priorities, et cetera. But I do have we had officials at that meeting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, honourable Premier. Final supplementary. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, our oil and gas in Beaufort Delta, we have a lot of it. And it's quite concerning when you have another country trying to claim it. I guess, with the Arctic Council and stuff, we have to start discussions with Canada, with our Prime Minister in regarding in investing in the North, investing in the Western Arctic to have a port, a deep sea port, or able to bring in their ice breakers that they're building right now for the Arctic. We have two icebreakers that are that's happening. And, you know, getting our military more to the west with and it's not everything's in the east. We have nothing in the Western Arctic. We don't have no port, no nothing. We have the Rangers. That's it. We need to start looking at investment, Mr. Speaker, and I would like the Premier to bring that up with the Prime Minister and to work with our IRC and Yukon and to try to make something like that happen, because with the oil and gas jobs that we're not going to be Ottawa to ask them for handouts anymore, we'd be able to pay our own way. And people would have jobs. And we need jobs, Mr. Speaker. We're going through tough times. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to be able to say yes to the Member, that I will begin discussions with Ottawa but unfortunately, I can't. And the reason I can't, Mr. Speaker, is because I've begun those conversations over a year ago when we started. So those are conversations regularly at the federal table, and other governments as well are very conscious of it. It is a common theme throughout the northern jurisdictions that we often ask for this, and we are hopeful that we know that the Prime Minister is hearing us. So, Mr. Speaker, we're already doing that work so I can't say that we'll begin it because but we will carry forward with that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
