Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Behchoko is the largest Dene community in the NWT. All four communities - Whati, Gameti, Wekweeti, and Behchoko - the majority of the people are Tlicho people who speak fluently in Tlicho language. With that in mind, Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. Can the Minister clearly explain what is preventing the establishment of a dedicated Tlicho administrative region from moving forward at this time? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take these questions as this does relate directly to ongoing discussions with an Indigenous government. We have a very strong relationship with the Tlicho government. We have a bilateral agreement. And the creation of a Tlicho administrative region is something that is a live discussion. We have discussed it at the elected officials level, at our bilateral meeting a couple years ago. There have been ongoing discussions at the officials level. We are working to get a better understanding of what the Tlicho government would like to see, what areas they're interested in, what information they would like. And so there's a dialogue going on right now, and I don't want to preempt that by saying we're just going to create an entire region, which is going to be quite a bit of work administratively and will take our efforts off of doing the other work that we're trying to do right now to advance government and for the benefit of the people of the Northwest Territories. So it's an active discussion with the Tlicho government, and we are committed to continuing to advance that discussion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
okay. Can the Minister outline the process and criteria government uses when recognizing or establishing an administrative region and confirm whether that same process is being applied in this case? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd have to go look through the archives to see if there is such a thing. But as I think you all know, there is no consistent administrative region of the GNWT. Depending on the department, the borders are different. The Naka and education, culture and employment, infrastructure, they all have different borders for the administrative regions. And so we don't have a process to do this. It's not something that is done very often. And so I guess that's the answer, that there is no process right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
When we do terms of reference and working group, it's going to take more than a couple of years to get the region. So I just want to ask the Minister, will the Minister commit to advancing and expediting the establishment of a separate and distinct Tlicho administrative region during the life of this Assembly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am committed to working with the Tlicho government and advancing a Tlicho administrative region at a pace that both of our governments can handle while we still continue to deliver the programs and services that we need to for our respective citizens. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Colleagues, realizing that we've been going over two hours, we're going to take a brief break as I have a number of Members still on order to ask questions.
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