Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following six documents: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 12-19(2): Fort Smith Airport Infrastructure"; "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 23-19(2): Economy of the Northwest Territories"; "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 116-19(2): Tlicho All-Season Road Contract"; "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 159-19(2): Yellowknife Motor Vehicle Office Hours"; "Businesses Participating in the TASR Project," additional information for return to written question 5-19(2); and "Slave Geological Province Corridor Contracts List September 1, 2015-March 31...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I already mentioned before and in the email I sent you, we did do that exact thing with the RFP and changing one small item to encourage northern -- it was a situation where, if they don't even meet the minimum scoring, then they don't actually even make it to the financial part or evaluation, which is where all the BIP comes into play. We made that change very rapidly, very quickly, when I said to Dr. Dragon that we needed to do something in the meantime. I recognize that the review is going to take long.

I just want to email people or send out letters. I had my...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my understanding there is no criteria. I am just wondering if it's perhaps an education piece, that we maybe need to be letting people know that they could kind of come together with a proposal that would have more of a significant build or such. I am almost wondering if this is perhaps a function of small businesses just accessing the pot on their own and nobody really thinking to get together to create a large proposal for accessing the funding. My understanding, there is no criteria or limits to what could be accessed; it's just a request, and then the funding...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to hand this over to Dr. Dragon. Thank you.

[Microphone turned off] ...I apologize, but it's just that last bit of the question. I definitely would commit to having this conversation with the federal government about having the Tlicho involvement from the start. Once we have that funding, that conversation is going to begin with the Tlicho government. I made a promise to those chiefs, and I made a promise at roundup in front of those chiefs of what I was going to be doing with my department to ensure that Northerners worked and that we built meaningful Indigenous businesses out of that. I still stand behind that commitment, and I commit...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I definitely commit to having a look at this and taking the Member's points under notice and having that conversation with him. It sounds like he has lots of great ideas, so I would suggest that, if he wants to put them together and send them to me, that would be great. We will be having, as I said, that fulsome procurement review across departments. I understand that that will probably take longer than the Member would like, but that is the nature of what we have to do. We have noted the policy comment, and we will definitely incorporate that into our review. Thank you...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one second, here. Definitely, that is the goal, obviously, to not have it just become again a sort of shell company that gets a cut and then just gives everything to the south. Obviously, this is part of our mandate and our priorities that we all came to together. So, we definitely will be incorporating those types of suggestions into our procurement review and our, what do you want to call it, when we start making the adjustments to the procurement system. I am not really getting my word right. Yes, we commit to incorporating that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have to admit that I am not familiar with the context of what you are saying, to give you the more fulsome answer, but I commit to looking into it; I will take that back. Again, I think I want to reiterate the commitment that I personally have and that I am directing my department, that we need to start doing things differently and that we do have to have things stay in the North and Northerners working. Even if it's more painful for us as a department to ensure that that work is staying, we need to do it. That is the messaging I am giving my department. How long it's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have started discussions again with the federal government about the funding on the Frank Channel Bridge. As part of the COVID relief, the federal government's infrastructure stream is being allowed to have more flexibility within it. One hundred percent funding is one of the options. As well, we will be allowed to do the municipal infrastructure projects in schools and things.

Not super specific to the bridge. However, the bridge would fall under that funding, and we have had lots of conversations with the federal ministers about the fact that infrastructure projects...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there are a lot of policies within the Department of Infrastructure. Perhaps I will pass this over to Dr. Dragon for a little summary of all of those policies. Thank you.