Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on some of the questions I had asked yesterday to the Premier regarding his special envoy to Ottawa, and one of the concerns, of course, I had was about how much this costs, and I'll wait for that return, of course. That said, I didn't try to come back to the question with respect to process.
Mr. Speaker, we all hear the theme over and over again we have to work together. Well, Mr. Speaker, the Premier was very clear he made the decision, he consulted with Indigenous governments, and furthermore, he consulted with his Cabinet. Maybe he could explain to this House why he didn't feel like working together with this side of the House in some form of discussion about his future plans and what he was trying to achieve. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just to be clear, I had spoke with Indigenous governments after the decision was made to let them know what was going on, and I spoke with my Cabinet colleagues because, you know, when we make changes in that hallway where we all work, I want to ensure that Cabinet feels supported as all the staff down that hallway support all of Cabinet in one way or another. So that being said, this was a decision that I made in my office based on the experiences that I had over the past year. So I'm happy to consult with the standing committee on policies, on programs, on legislation. This was one single position out of the entire Government of the Northwest Territories that was reassigned. And so, you know, I always want to hear what the Members have to say, and I take this Member's comments very seriously, and going forward, I will look at our processes to ensure that if there are any changes like this in the future that I will engage Members sooner. That being said, I do have a responsibility to operate my office in a way that I think is efficient, and I will be making the decisions based on my experience. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to wave off a second question until the Premier had said the last piece. I was going to concede on maybe his contrition in the sense of he'll communicate better or work better. For the record, Mr. Speaker, we work here too, not just Cabinet, and in theory the Premier's principal secretary should be working with Members and, you know, whatnot. That said, how much is this office going to cost now that he's made this unilateral decision? Because we know how much they're paid because on the -- what's online, the GNWT website. They're paid the highest employee we have. There must be an office cost, support costs. Can the Premier elaborate on this unilateral decision he has made without consulting Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There will be no change in the cost of this position. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier assure this House that there will be no office setup costs, there will be no staff costs, there will be (audio) sorry, the light went off. Maybe on the government too some days.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier assure that there will be no additional costs to setting up an office because if we're setting up a special envoy that we will now be referring to his excellence or something or other, I mean, are we -- what is this going to cost the Assembly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We already have an office in Ottawa. There's actually a desk and a chair there already so there may be an increased cost with pens, staples, things like that, but there's not going to be a significant cost implementations for this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
