Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Chair. We asked the departments to provide the mandate actions, and then the deliverable dates and the measurable outcomes. In fairness, the departments were a bit conservative in their dates because nobody wants to be set up to fail. Then we brought this mandate document in to standing committee as a draft, and standing committee said, "Be bold," so we went back to the departments and we told them to be bolder, because, again, I don't want to set up the departments to fail, either. They looked with a little bit more objective lens, and they put timelines that they felt would...

Minister of Finance?

Thank you, Madam Chair. What we would do with the working group is we would, of course, have it interdepartmental, because we all have contracts, most of us; and the other thing, of course, is we would bring in some industry partners to provide advice, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll take it as a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I can get the Minister for ITI to answer that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I absolutely agree. We need to not only look at natural gas. We need to look at things like hydro, as well. We need to get the communities, smaller communities, off of diesel. Diesel is not good for the environment. It's not good for people. It's not good for the cost of living, so we have an obligation to do that. I do know that some of the Indigenous governments in our northern communities, in Inuvik, are looking at not only for natural gas and how we use it in the territories, but also for exporting internationally. I think that we need to stay on top of it, and...

I have not sat down and had direct conversations with both Ministers that were named, to say what kind of board you are doing and those kinds of things. However, I was the education Minister before, and I know that education does have a timeline when they will be bringing in a board of directors. Ministers are responsible for appointing their boards, Mr. Speaker, and so, therefore, if they wanted a direct timeline, it's probably better to ask the relevant Ministers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I would like to be able to say that we'll get them done in a year; however, I can't. This is work that we're doing with the Indigenous and the community governments, so it is on their timeline, and so, to be respectful for those governments, we have to work when they are. I would like to say that some of the Indigenous governments already have economic plans; they're on board. Just because it says spring 2020 and ending in 2023, it doesn't mean that we're not on it already. We're already talking about it and, as soon as we can get them completed, that is my...

As I just stated in the last question, we have done quite a bit of research cross-jurisdictionally for our integrated service delivery. We can do research for the sake of research; we can do studies for the sake of studies and plans for the sake of plans. However, we have done this research. We have the program running. It is just been evaluated now. I would suggest, honourably, that we hold back for a minute from doing more research and see what the evaluations come up with first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I stated earlier, at this time, we are just kind of new into the area. We do recognize the importance of working together. Again, I will use an example that was used here tonight on how departments do already work together. We had a Minister stand up and say that Municipal and Community Affairs and ENR are working together on waste management. That does show how departments are, and we recognize they are, interconnected, that you can't do things in silos. We are trying to work better toward making sure that all the aspects are covered.