Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question following up on my statement earlier is to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As the chair of the committee of internal trade, what key accomplishments have been achieved under NWT's leadership? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a collaborative table with all jurisdictions across Canada, and it's a collaborative table that I am very proud to be part of. As a group, the committee on internal trade has set four key recommendations across the country, and they include enhancing commitments under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, and that includes conducting a rapid review of all party's specific exceptions, prioritizing mutual recognition on priority goods and sectors to reduce regulatory and administrative burdens, Mr. Speaker. It includes facilitating labour mobility and then also sectoral priorities like, for example, direct-to-consumer sales system for alcohol, and that is specifically for willing jurisdictions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that information reply. It's good to see our government taking a forefront role in these national committees. The next question, Mr. Speaker, how has the NWT's leadership encouraged other provinces and territories to take a more ambitious approach to internal trade deliberations? Mahsi.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, even though the NWT has the privilege of sitting as the chair, I have to say that Ministers from all jurisdictions showed up to the table in Toronto ready to do good work on behalf of Canadians, on behalf of the residents that we individually and then collectively serve. And so there wasn't a need to encourage one another to go farther. It was a very exciting table where people were literally stepping out of the meeting room in order to call their Premiers and get expansions to their negotiating mandates, and there were commitments made on the fly at the table, and it was really encouraging to see how dedicated Ministers from across the country were to this work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that reply. It seems to me there was a lot of excitement on advancing in a productive kind of way during the session.
My third question: It sounds like there has been good progress. What are the primary barriers to internal trade that would remain? Mahsi.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so while we came together at the table in order to discuss the barriers of mutual concern across the country, certainly what exceptions each jurisdiction chooses to remove and how they choose to tackle those are going to be unique by each jurisdiction. There's been jurisdictions who have done reciprocal agreements, jurisdictions who have done, you know, a lot of work on their exceptions, and there was some who have even done a lot of work previous to this. So as it sits, Manitoba only has eight exceptions right now, and other jurisdictions are using that as a shining light.
The other piece that we're doing, that I'm really excited about for the Northwest Territories, is the mutual recognition of goods which really stands to have a positive influence on our industries here in the territory and on our administrative burden as well as the potential costs of doing business in the territory. So that's where I'm very excited, also very excited for the work to be done under the labour mobility piece that is in collaboration with the labour Ministers across the country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
