I think that's everything for me in this section.
Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? No further questions, please turn to page 123.
Executive Indigenous Affairs Cabinet Support, $2,443,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to corporate communications, beginning on page 125 with an information item on page 127. Are there any questions? I will turn to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe the Minister is smiling because he knows what's coming.
The runctional support and improvement plan for GNWT communications. The last update we received from the Minister was that a project charter is on the way, and it's looking at potential improvements to the function of communications across government. So as I understand it, this is an internal piece that looks for efficiencies. And when will the committee see further demonstration of the actions and outcomes of this project? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the Minister of Executive Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you. I'd like to hand that to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the functional review of the communications function is still underway. Just recently, the team has concluded interviews with the comms community so they're in the process of rolling up the feedback. So I would anticipate that we would be able to provide an update to committee in the coming weeks, which was something that was always intended as part of the project. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will now go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And so when that feedback and interviews are summarized, what are the next steps? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister or the deputy MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So once the feedback has been collated, the intention would be to circulate that back through deputy ministers, through Ministers, and to committee, seeking that political input and senior leadership input. And from that point forward, we'd be looking at how to action any concrete recommendations from the feedback from the comms community. So that would be how we would look to proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I guess what's contemplated is to provide recommendations and to act on them. That's great.
Will this be a sort of a continuous improvement project, or is this of boundaries and scope to like a closed timeline? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this was always envisioned to be scoped as a closed timeline. But recognizing that some of the input that we may receive from communicators across government may lead us to conclude that we need to implement other measures that may allow us to innovate on an ongoing basis. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Continuous improvement is always great. So I will leave that one there for another time being.
The other piece I have under this activity is in the business plan. It mentions the OneGov project to develop, build, and launch a unified GNWT web platform that can consolidate ten core websites, the flagship site, I think it's just gov.nt.ca, and eight specialty marketing sites during the 20th Assembly. Could we get an update on that work, please, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Indigenous, Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. A significant amount of work has been done on this. And in fact, it has, there is really somewhat of a final product that has just been circulated amongst the deputies. And we'll be seeing that soon. The expectation is that the site will launch in spring of 2026. So just around the corner. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister -- Member for Great Slave. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I always like being promoted. It's pretty fun. That's all for me on this function.
Thank you. No further questions? Oh, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair.So I know my colleague from Great Slave just asked some detailed questions about the communications functional review. And I am aware, I think that there was a previous communication, corporate communications evaluation framework completed several years ago.
As a non-communications specialist, what occurs to me is what is the point of any of these things? And hopefully, given that the topic is communications, someone should be able to explain in plain language why any of this matters to the population of the NWT? What difference is supposed to make; What's the goal here? Thank you.
I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So it's important to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently with the people of the Northwest Territories. And in my time as MLA, I've seen us actually come quite a long ways. I don't think we barely -- there was barely any social media use when I first started. We weren't live streaming things. But all of that has really changed over the past number of years. So it's important to always look at how we can advance and get better. There's a -- you know, government's been doing things a certain way for a while as well and so there's always the culture aspect of it. We want to ensure there's a culture of communication where people are considering communicating things right from the very beginning. It doesn't have to be an afterthought. And so while there's these reviews going on, there's also those efforts to immediately try and reinforce that way of doing business. And so there's a lot of work happening outside of the review as well. But for more information on the review, I will hand it over to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you, deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And while I am definitely not a communicator, I will try to be very brief. I think one thing would be to speed up communications. We want to make sure that Cabinet Ministers are able to receive the political communication support that they need, particularly in times where you, as the Premier mentioned, have social media and other areas where people can get information or disinformation rather quickly. So we need to speed up our response time. We need to improve the accessibility of our communications to residents. So our website, making sure that that's accessible from things like a readability to a visibility standpoint. And finally, I would say ensuring that our communicators' jobs are satisfying and that they feel like they're not buried within the bureaucracy, that they can be responsive in the way that they were trained. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No further questions on this one.
Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 126, executive and Indigenous affairs, corporate communications, $1,541,000. Does the committee agree.
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to executive council offices, beginning on page 128 with an information item on page 130. Are there any questions?
Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, what I am interested in understanding here is what kind of ongoing leadership and professional development support we're providing to our Cabinet Ministers. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Whatever they need. We take the approach that we want to ensure that the Ministers are able to do their jobs, do it effectively. And so because of that, there is a budget that can be used to provide different types of training, whether it's media training, which is something, you know, quite basic, or whether it's training to deal with more complex issues. This is something we take very seriously in the office. And I know my chief of staff has conversations with the Ministers to ensure that they feel like they're getting what they need. And if they don't, we'll go out and we'll look for something that they could use and provide those opportunities to them. They can take it or leave it if they want but we recognize that their roles are quite intense and require a lot of skill, time management, all of these things. And we want to ensure that we're providing them with the tools they need to achieve that. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And yeah, really appreciate the Premier's answer to that question. I just want to be clear. What I am suggesting here is that, yeah, being a Cabinet Minister is a challenging role. And I think if there's one thing I learned, you know, I spent a bunch of years as a municipal councillor before I took formal leadership training. And following that leadership training, one of the biggest takeaways I had from that was that it's an ongoing process. The process of needing coaching in difficult situations, in particular situations, and just constant development is a really important thing. So I want to make sure that we are providing that kind of support around our Cabinet Members. I am not just referring to this Cabinet, but I've kind of seen Cabinet Ministers get faced with, you know, really difficult situations over the years that I've watched the Legislative Assembly. And I just want to make sure that we are providing adequate levels of professional support to our Cabinet in the work that they're doing. And I advocate for the same thing for Regular Members as well. And I am constantly talking to the clerk's office about different supports that can be provided to Members because, yeah, leadership is an ongoing learning process. So just wanted to emphasize that and make sure that we are considering that and putting those supports in place for our leadership. Thank you.
Thank you. I didn't hear a question in there so just comment. Thank you. So I don't see any further questions. Any further questions?
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just wanted to touch on one item in the business plan that I didn't see how it falls under any of the other categories of things in the budget. But one of the roles of EIA, according to the business plan on page 23, is to try to coordinate or work across GNWT departments around land availability. And this is a topic that comes up often in this House because it's so fundamental to economic opportunities, you know, a number of different kinds of community planning. So it says that -- I mean, the overall goal is to increase land availability within community boundaries. And the progress to date is that discussions are continuing. And my heart always sinks when I see that what we're reporting we've accomplished is that we're meeting and deciding to meet again.
But anyway, I wondered if the Premier or his staff could clarify, like what is the role of EIA in all this; what's the value added? And, you know, how they can measure their success in all of this beyond just discussions are continuing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Executive Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, EIA's role when it comes to this really is the relationship with the Indigenous government and then the consultation aspect. There's also the role that I have as Premier in helping Ministers move files along. And so this has been one area that I've identified as an area that I am supporting the Minister in, who has made this one of his priorities to enable more access to land in communities for building. And so this is one that I am committed to having real concrete results before the end of this government. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thanks to the Premier for that clarification. One more clarification.
So when he talks about the real concrete results that we're going to see before the end of this Assembly, is that written down somewhere? Where can we find what are those concrete results that we're shooting for before the end of this Assembly, like the details of what the goal is? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister for Executive Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you. I will have to go and confer with my colleague, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. But what we want to see is the concerns that we've heard over the years addressed. I want to see land become available. We want there to be a clear process with clear timelines, either a yes or a no. We want to ensure that there's opportunities for development. So what we're looking for in terms of results is land that can be developed. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I will look forward to seeing some more tangibles in terms of goals if once the Premier confers with the Minister of ECC. But I think it's important we set clear targets for ourselves on this one. Thank you, Madam Chair. No further questions.
Next, I will go to the Member for the Sahtu.
