Caroline Cochrane

At this point, we haven't actually thought about putting a single-service window in Yellowknife. I have no problem asking Service Canada if they would consider keeping some of our brochures. I am not sure if I would want to go to the point of asking them to keep all of our application forms, the information, all of the different aspects of every department because, even though people in Yellowknife or in the major centres may not have access to internet or telephone, there is access to government buildings here that they don't have in the smaller communities. My priority will be on the small...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a few questions in there. For one, we are trying to do this differently. I've already met with Carolyn Bennett and told her that she needs to come to the table, as well. Instead of just negotiators, we need to actually have the leaders at the table sometimes. I think I caught her off-guard; she didn't give me a solid commitment, but it's a start. I mean, I realize that people have to be kind of talked to a few times.

The core principles, I mean, that is something that I would have to give more thought to. They're basic principles like, for example, an income...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There will be a number of things. One thing we are looking at, like I said, within our Cabinet package, we've talked about climate change being a standard that we'll look at all the time. Without disclosing too much of what goes on in Cabinet, we do have with every decision that comes on, there's kind of a risk-management description that comes with that. We can add climate change within that risk management so that every decision that comes through our Cabinet table does have that climate change focus on it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I hear the Member's concerns, but I want to go back to the philosophy. One, the Government of the Northwest Territories is not the only housing provider in the Northwest Territories. I've already said earlier that we are working with Indigenous governments. Indigenous governments are going to Ottawa and getting money. IRC is a great example of that, that they got money in the last Assembly for housing. I know that Dene Nation is putting their name forward for housing, for money. I'm not fighting those. Those are extra.

What I'm saying is that, out of 45,000 people...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Even if this wasn't in our priorities, the land claims and self-government agreements, I would be pushing this anyway. I believe it's a win-win situation. We've had Members talk about no economy means no social programs. The Indigenous governments, and I will use IRC as an example, who did settle, I look at where their nation is going. The economy is growing. More people who get jobs means fewer people on the GNWT burden, so we have fewer people on income support, fewer people in public housing, so it's a win-win. I've been putting that forward to every Indigenous...

I don't know if there is actually a laid-out plan. I could do a plan that says we have so many small communities and this is how many we have and this is how many I want to get to. I am more big on getting the work done. I do know that we are still working on it. The next one will be going into the Deh Cho region. My commitment is, because it is a great program, I think that we need to make sure that we try to get them in every single small community before we even start talking about regional centres or the capital city. I know people would like it everywhere. The reality is that the whole...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just heard that part of the reason he thought the joint committee didn't work well was because it didn't meet frequently enough. That might be an issue. It is hard to get everyone together.

Madam Chair, respectfully, I won't bump up the summer 2020 because, if you look at the wording, it says, "the internal working group will be established and the terms of reference developed by summer 2020." We're coming up on spring; it's not going to be very much time. This is going to take a process, and so I will not at this point be willing to move that up any further. Thank you...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Those are discussions we haven't had yet, but what I can say is that we are working with the other two territories across the North to actually look at how we address climate change. That meeting will happen in the spring, so, after that, I will have more information on where all three territories are going. At this point, I don't have the information. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just confirmed with my Minister. Absolutely not. Those are in addition. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely. That was the whole purpose of the initial calls, was to talk to them about their negotiations, to do an introduction, talk about doing business different, and we also talked about the UNDRIP and it being in our priorities. We have been soliciting feedback from them. We've already got, I think there are two or three that we've got already on this, so it has been put forward and there is already movement on it. I do want to clarify, it's not all Indigenous groups that I've met with; it's Indigenous governments. Because, if I was to call every Indigenous group...