Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. So first I just wanted to start and I do apologize, if I'm repeating others. But the healthy food for learning program, great program. I can't say enough about having and helping kids have access to healthy food.

Given that we are seeing a high cost of inflation, which is affecting food prices, grocery prices, etcetera, and I've had actually people reach out about how important and more we need help here, I'm just wondering we're staying pretty stagnant; has there been any sort of assessment of, like, the needs of this program; is there more money that's going to be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I won't get into the debate about what I feel about the comment of, like of the forprofit being the designation between helping and not helping. I would actually want to reterm that as the, you know, for barelyprofit or barelyforprofit would be more accurate, I think.

My question, though, is when this money was announced, you know, I had hoped that we would be able to look into putting money into small communities to pay relatives, etcetera, that take care of grandchildren or nieces and nephews and such. And then upon my conversations and my many conversations with day...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get a commitment from the Minister to help fund this specific pipe burst or pipe issue with Sir John Franklin? And the reason that I bring it up is that I have to wonder that while it's not your department, there was also a break in the main in the parking lot area of Sir John Franklin over this last week which then sent water down 49th Street to then go all the way down in front of a large, like portion of the next street's houses. So I can't help but wonder if some of that is maybe perhaps related. And given the way that the school board is situated and this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know been a very very long week for all of us. That is great. I am not really reassured, though, by waiting to hear what the federal government says and what they're going to do in a national program. To me, again, people speaking to me that, you know or telling me, and even my mom's own, you know, history and experience as a teacher teaching grades 1 and 2, that when kids are showing up to school hungry they don't learn. And given that we're having such an issue in a lot of our sort of social programming areas and wellness areas, you know, in the North, I think this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm not trying to get super hung up on the numbers changing from the COVID year because I do understand that a lot of that had an impact. Again, I sort of have the same question around the sheriff services. You know, there's a $400,000 increase from the COVID year to the next. And I'm just curious to know, again, is that just a rebound from COVID, or is that an actual increase sort of in funding, if that makes sense? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not going to touch the lawyer comment. I'll keep my opinions to myself. Just looking around compensation and benefits, I note that again during the pandemic, we were at a much lower cost. We have increased. Is this the compensation for the judges, etcetera, that was recently approved? Is that why we're seeing such a large jump there? Thank you.

I think I've got a few more minutes left. So I'm really glad to hear that we didn't just decide to kind of go backwards in time and that we are keeping up with some of these opportunities. And I think that's great if people don't have to travel when they don't need to. Is it safe then to assume that some of this upgrade then is the increase for the materials and supply costs for this unit? There's looks to be about $100,000 that was during the pandemic time versus last year and this year or the upcoming year. I'm just curious to know if that's for that type of service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister was responding to my question before that one. I asked how much of the $20 million that has already been secured and is being used towards all the work that she's listed, like the regulatory and the prefeasibility, how much of that is being retained with northern businesses and how much is being sole sourced to former bureaucrats? Thank you.

Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we know, building infrastructure across the million square kilometres that make up our territory is a huge challenge. From an economic point of view and from an efficiency standpoint, we should be looking to expand our infrastructure corridors to benefit communities and encourage investment in the territory wherever we can.

As often mentioned in this House, the NWT is largely dependent on diesel and gasoline for heating, electricity, and transportation. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we sit stalled on a renewable energy project that could connect more communities to...