Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier.
Mr. Speaker, I said in my Member's statement talking about putting capacity where it's needed most with the amount of infrastructure being brought forward with Inuvik being one of the operational hubs selected. Can the Premier, you know, speak to what, if any, their staffing plan they put together to ensure that we do have certainly boots on the ground there for this important infrastructure? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The investments that the Government of Canada has announced towards our national security in the Northwest Territories are significant, and we recognize that they present a significant opportunity for the people of the territory. We want to ensure that we capture any opportunities that come with these investments, whether that's construction or ongoing O and M contracts that we might be able to get, and we need to ensure that we're all working together and we're all coordinated. And to date, I personally have actually found it difficult to get coordinated because so much has happened in such a short amount of time, and there are relationships with the Department of National Defence that they have with the Town of Inuvik, with the City of Yellowknife, with other entities, and so what we're doing is looking at how we can organize ourselves internally so that there is a single point of contact that will understand and be aware of everything that's happening in the territory and then be able to ensure that what we need to do on our end to ensure we're maximizing benefits actually happens. So we're at the early days of putting something together to figure that structure out. But in the meantime there are meetings with the GNWT. The deputy minister just met with the Town of Inuvik, the City of Yellowknife, DND. So there are things happening, but we want to ensure there's more structure around it because it is such a large investment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. And it is early days, and I certainly appreciate that, and I know that the Premier has been engaged with what's happening around the DND investment. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, was the Premier aware that DND were doing a town hall in Inuvik on April 17th? And if so, do we have someone lined up to ensure that we are at that event as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I became personally aware today when the Member told me, but I was not previously aware of that. That being said, I am not sure if there is someone lined up to attend that, but we certainly have staff in Inuvik and we can line someone up to ensure they attend that. Thank you.
Final Supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it's on the town's Facebook website too now so it is a public meeting.
One last question. Given the structure the Premier talked about, what they're looking at -- I get that. They're looking at how -- the one point of contact. Can the Premier commit that if this one point of contact is going to be in Yellowknife that we have a senior position as well attached to that in Inuvik, whether that's an ADM or some senior position, to ensure that decisions being made in that region are being looked at by someone in the region itself? Mr. Speaker, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member raising this early on in the process so that as we look to design some sort of a structure, we have that type of input. I agree that Yellowknife is a long way from the Beaufort Delta. We need to ensure we know what's going on on the ground there. But that being said, I don't want to commit to something here on the floor of the House without some careful examination and some further discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
