Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to ask some questions around the liquor and cannabis revolving fund. And I note that NWTers are increasingly spending more money on cannabis, according to our main estimates here. Seeing an over $1 million rise from last year. So my question is and I'm going to caveat this with that I grew up in British Columbia. So the cannabis culture has been around for a very long time in that province. And through that, there's a lot of, you know, opportunities for things such as cafes and other cannabisrelated businesses that are currently at the moment not allowed...

Mr. Speaker, my riding is unique in Yellowknife in that it consists mainly of residential homes and apartment buildings with a few exceptions. There is the Catholic Church and the City of Yellowknife's water treatment plant as well as the NWT Geological Survey, Taiga lab, and Con Mine. And Mr. Speaker, there is one school, Sir John Franklin High School.

Sir John was first constructed in the 1960s with additional phases added and renovations carried out over the years. The building is also home to the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, or NACC, one of the few theatrical arts spaces in our...

Thank you. If I can come up with one that makes sense. I guess yeah, so my understanding is that we can't give back then the direct money to people at the or going forward, based on what the government is changing, but we can still give rebates and things under other programs; is that what the Minister's saying? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I mean, yeah, I take that as a good sign too of an expansion but then we all know in the past too, sometimes if someone expands too much too quickly, they can't financially keep up with that. So I'm a little concerned we're in a little bit of a teetery position here when it comes to our airlines. And I guess it's worth noting as well that, you know, the issues that Canadian North faces, or Air Canada for that matter, are obviously a lot different than what our small regional carriers face and such and I know that's a bigger conversation. So I will leave that one...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is about the aviation sector support. I do know obviously that was the money that was put in during COVID to help keep our airplanes afloat, for lack of a better word. And so I note that there was an additional amount of $2 million put in in the revised estimates that we hadn't planned on. Can the Minister speak to I probably should know what that is, but if she could explain why we ended up putting in another $2 million last year that we didn't plan? And then I guess I'll ask my other question after. Thanks.

I think we could all safely assume there's going to be a deficit for this revolving fund next year so I'll so then my and I don't want to go down too far down the accounting rabbit hole, but why then do we not sort of try to anticipate what this number would be and include it in the forecasting? Why is it only added in retroactively, if I've got it right. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, I've definitely had the opportunity to work with several of the technical people in the department, and I do agree. I just know that yeah, as stated it is competitive and one where we wear a lot of liability. I think it's an area where you can't just sort of say it's the general issue with, you know, recruitment because you can't just put warm bodies into these positions. So it is something that I think the department really needs to start getting a grasp on. And given also too that I'm not sure where we're at from the recruitment or sort of the graduation...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, can the Minister or department please tell us why Marine Transportation Services has disappeared here from this part of the budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I support this motion and I want to thank, first of all, my colleagues for doing all this work on this. I am not on this committee and it has been a struggle to keep up with everything that's been going on. So what I like about this or what I think is really important about this one is that I don't think that the people of our territory or the residents of our territory, private business, should be paying for the failure of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to maintain its grid properly. It was really shocking to me when I came into Cabinet...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I'm good. I'll let the Minister off the hook for the rest of the minute and a half. Thanks.