Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Could the Minister please provide us with an update on the Tulita Health Centre? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And if I don't already have this in the schedules, could the Minister provide me with the breakdown of the different community futures and how much money they're each getting? It perhaps is in the schedules and maybe she just needs to remind me of which page that's on. I'll let her answer that.

But I just want to do one last thing while I've got 17 seconds left here. The northern food development program, glad again to see that we've sustained the funding of $550,000. However, again, my comment being that it's probably too low. Can the Minister speak a little bit to...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's response, and I'm sure Cabinet will be willing to work with her to ensure that the CRTC does recognize that it's not just the Minister of Finance that would like to see that. But I think I speak for my colleagues as well, that all of us would like to see this looked into.

Can the Minister speak a little bit about the fact that Vista Radio or True North is still a BIP'ed registered company with the Northwest Territories government? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, again, as I echoed, said before, I think you would definitely find support from the Regular Members for more money into that. We often talk about getting money into communities, etcetera, is better for our economy than having it sit in the government pots.

Speaking of that, the community futures – sorry, the community transfer initiatives no, I'm looking at the wrong one. What am I looking at here? Community futures, sorry. Perhaps maybe we could think of some different naming for some of these pots, but.

I note that it's at $450,000. We had given $600,000 before...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, a lot of my colleagues have already spoken about what they feel is lacking in this budget, and I think I'm pretty vocal about what I also think. So instead I wanted to focus today on the economic outlook of the Northwest Territories going forward.

The Northwest Territories economy has shaken off the effects of the COVID19 pandemic. Economic activity, output, and employment expanded throughout 2021 and 2022, recovering much of the economic loss that occurred in 2020. Labour markets have performed particularly well with resident employment and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's wonderful. I'm sure the Minister's aware we had our food security panel recently and have had a couple, actually, of different presenters come in. I just really can't underscore how important food security is and that also it isn't really always, though, a money issue. So if the Minister hasn't watched or her staff hasn't watched that food panel, I would definitely recommend that they take a look at that.

My next question is just I note that there is some sunsetting here of different supports, which I would assume are because of the COVID funding etcetera...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm good.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the BF for this or as the public doesn't know, the email for this question that I've asked the Minister is not due tomorrow. It is actually overdue, and I would like that to be clarified for the record. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm disappointed to hear that the Minister doesn't have this answer, considering it's an outstanding request that I have into her department that I've yet to see a response for. Maybe the question is when will the Minister respond to me with my answers to my questions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll make sure to follow up with the ECE Minister when he sits in the hot seat.

My last questions are around the scientific collaborative research projects. I'm always a big, big proponent of this type of work. We've only seen an increase in the number of universities and other institutes that are in the North and working and providing great collaborative relationships in that area.

Can the Minister speak a little bit more maybe to, we obviously we didn't spend anything last year it looks like but then we're back up to the 350. What do those projects entail, and do we...