Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my particular area of interest right now is an area I've talked about before, and I am trying to find out about population growth. As we all know, our grant from Canada is tied to that, amongst many other things, but, of course, key is population growth. And given the fact that we suffer a significant deficit in human resource, opportunities, and specialized skills, trades, etcetera, including doctors and nurses, and yada, yada, yada -- Mr. Speaker, we would be putting a full frontage on that. So my question for the Premier is, what type of mandate has he given his departmental colleagues -- ministerial colleagues, sorry -- to help stimulate the growth of the Northwest Territories through some function of population growth? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.
Thank you. So the question is how are we going to stimulate population growth? Well, Mr. Speaker, there's a number of reasons that, you know, someone -- many people want to move to the Northwest Territories. It's a great place to live. And if you like outdoors, if you like this kind of lifestyle, then this is a great place to be. You know, I am from Hay River, so I might not be able to go home after saying this, but Yellowknife is actually a great city. There's a lot to do here. And that being said, there are challenges. We need to make more land available for housing so that we can build more houses and bring down the cost of housing, and so we have committed to that. And I didn't need to give direction on that one. The Minister of ECC has made that a priority of his to ensure that that happens. So we're doing that. We are looking at massive investments from the Department of National Defence. I am expecting additional investments from the federal government in our major infrastructure projects. These are the types of things that will create an economy, generate jobs, open up lands for exploration and development.
And so there's a lot going on. The future over the next five to ten years in the Northwest Territories is going to look much different than the past, and there's going to be a lot of economic opportunities that I expect will draw people to the North. We need to make land available so that they have somewhere to live. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I almost had a tear in my eye, Mr. Speaker, when the Premier talked about how great Yellowknife is. It was very emotional, and I want to thank the Premier for bringing me to a side I didn't realize. Mr. Speaker, the Premier spoke to massive investments through DND. Please enlighten the House as to what massive investments and development are we intending to see through that description he provided. Can he be specific? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think people in this House are aware that the Department of National Defence had a pre-procurement announcement to allow businesses to get ready, that there could be up to $10 billion invested in forward operating locations in the Northwest Territories. I don't have further details on that right now, but we are trying to reach out and work with the Department of National Defence to get an understanding of what those might be. But the possibilities are endless. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, you know, a lot of that is all theoretical, of course. We know nothing's actually been committed to. So back to the population growth origins of the question, which is ultimately, is there any mandate to try to grow population in the Northwest Territories directed to the Ministers as part of their initiative or mandate letters? Because growth is key in population, and that will help sustain or lower costs here in the Northwest Territories, which at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, is one of the fundamental issues I am trying to raise by finding better ways to cost of living. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member snuck one by there, switching topics for the second question. But we're back on track now. The mandate letters are public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Member from the Yellowknife Centre, your time is up for those questions. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
