Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess just sort of more out of, like, a bit of curiosity, is there any way, and I'm assuming this has probably been looked at in the FPTs and such, but that people could create a legal challenge around the fact that they weren't able to come in person to a sitting? Is there anywhere it impacts people's rights that they're only able to come virtually? I am just curious to know if it opens up the government to any sort of liability or challenge? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm just curious to know a little bit around how lessons learned during the pandemic with having some of the stuff moved towards more virtual or having defendants appear remotely by camera, etcetera. Has there been an improvement to our system? I think a lot of us can see in other areas that COVID firmly, you know, forced us to upgrade and become, you know, evolved quicker in our work. So I'm just wondering how any of this has translated into court services for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it's good that there's been no final number before now so that we don't have to listen to how the cost of the supply chain has driven that number up and that's the reason why nothing has advanced on the project. So I'd say that's a good thing here.

Can the Minister speak to how much of that $20 million will be retained using northern businesses and how much of it is sole sourced to former bureaucrats? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem with the theme day is sometimes your questions get asked and answered ahead of you getting your opportunity, so bear with me. But I'm really excited to hear that one of the routes that the Minister says they're looking at is the west side of the lake. I just want to emphasize that given my statement today, about allowing for future development, I would prefer that versus going across the lake; therefore, we could have expansion off the power lines on the west side of Great Slave.

That being said, can the Minister please tell me where the total costs for the...

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.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is around hotel rooms, etcetera, in kind of a little bit not budgety but I think something that really should be aware of is it's come to my attention recently that a lot of the hotel rooms are quite full and that people are struggling to find accommodations, particularly if the accommodation, you know, needs to be booked in a short timeframe. And so I guess that really comes back to I know that some of that space is being taken up by contract workers, etcetera. So I'm just wondering has the Minister or the department had any further conversations with the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the clarification around the essential services. Although I do want to note that the Status of Women does do a lot of other work that is quite key, whether or not it's actually deemed essential by the government. I know that they've been doing a lot work with, like, RCMP and analyzing things around domestic violence, etcetera.

Can the Minister or the Premier answer whether or not the gender equity unit is actually being positioned to replace the Status of Women given that there's more funding there than there seems to be to the Status of Women. Thank you...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just comment that I find it quite concerning that nobody seems to be aware that this is happening in the Premier's office. This position has been empty for months now, not just one. I think almost at least since the fall.

My question then is given that NGOs are often underfunded for wages and benefits, etcetera. Given that we're only contributing $444,000 to this organization, how does the GNWT expect an NGO like this to attract any sort of good quality people to work for them if we're not going to be properly or they're not being properly compensated? Can the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also agree that the work of the Status of Women is super important. And I'm just wondering if the Premier can speak to the process for hiring an executive director. It's my understanding that that position has been empty for quite a while and if the department could speak to what's happening there, that would be great. Thank you.