Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement, the town of Inuvik, Mr. Speaker, is well aware of what military spending looks like in the community. Pre-1986, there was 140 to 250 military personnel there as well as their families, which made up about 800, which were school kids that integrated into the community and teachers and nurses and that was the model -- the preferred model at the time. A lot of the leadership, Mr. Speaker, are still there. They lived through that time. So when the Premier talks about setting up an advisory council, or as my colleague from Yellowknife Centre has said, a committee, will the Minister -- will the Premier, sorry, ensure that when we set something up that we look at regions like Inuvik to ensure that we have representation on the committee that is expertise as we've talked about outside of this building that would fit excellent on a committee like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no committee at this point. I'm not sure what the working group proposal looks like. So I can't really make any commitments around that. That being said, obviously there's a lot of value in ensuring that everyone's on the same page and everyone's communicating. And so we're in the early days of this interest in the North and talking about investments and Arctic security. And my officials are working with officials from Joint Task Force North and the Department of National Defence, and we share information as required. And I know that officials from the Department of National Defence, or Joint Task Force North perhaps, are in contact with officials in the Member's community in Inuvik. I know that they're disseminating information as well. That being said, once we get to a point where we need to ramp up and ensure that we're all, you know, working together on the same page and in the same direction, I'll ensure that all voices, all relevant voices are at the table. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Premier. I appreciate that, and I know the Premier's live to this, and I know he knows that I get plenty of e-mails and telephone calls from my community on this as military, again, as I've stated before, is important to my community, to my region.
So, you know, the Premier's people and the people in Inuvik, everyone is aware and everyone is speaking to each other, I guess if the Premier is planning to send a delegation or heading to the -- I noted in my statement there's meetings at the end of May between Joint Task Force North, the Department of National Defence, with our territory as well as Yukon and Nunavut, would the Premier consider looping in potentially the mayors of Inuvik and Iqaluit for that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Member might be talking about the Arctic security working group, which is an officials’ level working group. They meet twice a year. I believe it's once in Yellowknife, once in the Yukon, and so this time it's in the Yukon. And we are not organizing that, the Joint Task Force North. I believe the Yukon might be co-hosting it so they might have a role in it. But we're not in a position to invite anyone to attend this event. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just hope the Premier will use his significant influence in that situation.
I also mentioned that there's a conference taking place in the Yukon this month called Conference Zero which is their Arctic security council have set up through funding through CanNor. Will the Premier or anyone from his office be attending that conference? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be able to attend that conference, and so we're still looking at options to ensure that there is some sort of presence there from the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
