Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's a lot of questions in that and just kind of trying to figure out who to best to answer.

I think I'll start with saying it's multifaceted. It's not as easy as that. The working group is done; there's one aspect of it. ECE is doing things around regional plans. EIA is working with the Indigenous governments on their own economic achievements. And I kind of like that model because I always feel that it's not good to always have your eggs in one basket. The more that we branch out, the more flexibility. But I think I'll take the chance because I did hear about the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I'm hearing the Member saying is that it's bigger than just the Municipal and Community Affairs. It's like an allofgovernment issue. I always like to get federal money. So what I can commit to is that I will I will bring it to a committee of Cabinet, I think the Member knows that, and so that we can have a more fulsome discussion as Cabinet to look at what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not seeing it on the list of mandates, but I will turn it to the Minister of ECE to see if he has anything he wants to add to that.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this mandate, the priorities were set by the Legislative Assembly, 19 Members that are in this House. Also the mandate was set by the GNWT. So it's only an internal document for us as this Assembly.

However, in saying that, I agree that it's really important to work with the Indigenous governments, and that's why we've started the Council of Leaders table. And in my opinion, one of the most progressive things we've done, not only the Council of Leaders, but also the modern treaty and selfgovernment tables that are looking at implementation of their agreements. A big...

Chair, that'll go to the Minister of ENR, Minister Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so the food security is a concern for everyone in the North, no matter what your income is. It's one of the highest things that we spend our money on; it's just the reality of being here. And so when you're low income, it's even more dire. So I agree with that. There's different components. The Nutrition North Program is about getting food. It's a federal government program. It's about getting food into the communities that don't have access to highway systems 24/7. And so that is federal government, and that I took on, and I when I asked, I mean, we got...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start it now and then turn it to Martin for more dipping into that and the timing.

So the first step we did was we reviewed the whole thing through Cabinet. Cabinet has reviewed them all. We will be working with the standing committee. We will also be working with the Indigenous governments. And then we will be releasing them.

But Martin, do you have more sorry, through you, Mr. Chair, if I could turn to the deputy minister to give a more definitive timeline for those actions to happen.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was on the last Cabinet so I do like to think that we weren't all that bad in the last Assembly. At least not all of us, anyway. But we are trying as a new Assembly. We've been really adamant about trying to work with Members. You know, pick your battles has always been a philosophy as I've said, so.

As for the Member saying that he hasn't done his homework and, you know, not really ready for this is that I can personally say that I think that the Member that was speaking was one of the hardest-working Members that I knew in the last Assembly. So I have no doubt that...

I mean, I have the same concerns as the Member. I mean, I I'm old; I'm 61 years old, and I don't like to borrow money. I learned a long time ago don't borrow it because if you can't pay it back, you're in trouble. And if you can't live within your means, you're in bigger trouble. So I think that we have learn that. It's not as simple as just going and asking for more money every time we hit the limit.

We're going to have to make tough choices, not only this Assembly, in the next Assembly as well. There's going to have to be really tough choices. When you got 22 priorities, you're not making...