During the election campaign, there was a lot of talk about having a short, simple set of priorities for the Northwest Territories.
Well, here it is.
The collective statement of priorities drawn up by the NWT’s 19 new MLAs was made public on Tuesday. The list runs to 26 words.
Here are those priorities in full:
- the suitability, accessibility, and affordability of housing;
- a strong economic foundation;
- access to health care and addressing the effects of trauma; and
- safe residents and communities.
The list comes with an accompanying statement that beefs up the word count to 61:
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“We envision a Northwest Territories that places reconciliation at the forefront, prioritizing the well-being and prosperity of all residents. Achieving this vision requires good governance and collaborative efforts with Indigenous governments, communities, and the public.”
The priorities list marks the 19 MLAs collectively achieving something most of them had championed during their campaigns, but which seemed a hard task to pull off: boiling down the NWT’s priorities to a few key themes.
By contrast, the 19th Assembly – led by Caroline Cochrane, though she was just one of 19 people drawing up that assembly’s list – produced a 22-point document as its priority list.
Some politicians and observers had gone on to complain that the 22-point list was too many to effectively corral over the four ensuing years, particularly as the pandemic, floods and fires intervened.
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The priority list is not the same as the mandate.
Instead, the priority list informs the mandate, which is a document setting out what each GNWT department must do to make sure the overall priorities are reached.
“Members of the 20th Assembly have listened carefully and found common ground in these four main themes, which provide an ambitious yet manageable focus,” said Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan, the caucus chair, in a statement.
“Now the process begins to collaboratively create a mandate for each GNWT department, which will flesh out how the government will be accountable to achieve real progress in each of these areas.”
When that mandate will be finalized was not immediately clear.
Cochrane’s government had already published its mandate by this point four years ago, but the MLAs of the 20th Assembly used a new, looser timeline to set priorities this time around, stating that doing so would allow more time for collaboration and getting those priorities right.
