Katrina Nokleby

Mr. Speaker, I'm tired. It's been a very long and exhausting week with serious debates in the House that have taken a lot out of me and my colleagues. Last night, after an extended sitting in the Ledge, I was looking forward to heading home, snuggling in with my cats, and putting on some escapist TV to help myself unwind. However this is not how my evenings seem to go these days. Rather, my evenings are spent speaking with constituents and residents over the impending staffing crisis at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

This week in the House, I have tried to ask questions of the Health Minister as...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm just going to take this opportunity to ask the Minister if this includes at all the collection points around the lake and maybe if she could provide me with a quick update on where the one is in Great Slave. Thank you.

Thank you. I actually do think I understand what this is. So I do really appreciate that.

I guess my next question, then, and again it could be something for the briefing or in the detailed dive with the departments but is how much validity or certainty is there around this number?

So, for example, using your own example of asbestos, oftentimes when the government is dealing with the decommissioning of a building, they don't know what they have until there's a time that they come into that building and start assessing it. And as any consultant in the environmental world will tell you, and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize to the Minister, but I am going to ask a little bit further along this but just because I think I have an understanding, but I want to make sure I do. And if we can't answer it here, I'd welcome the briefing and maybe it'll direct some of that, how that briefing going.

So in the past, we've seen amortization of of assets that have been accounted for. And now from what I can gather, you're saying is this amount is the extra amount, like technically sort of the amortization if we knew that we were going to have to pay for the removal of asbestos...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I might as well stay on this vein because it did spur a question in me.

It's my understanding with the MARS program, which, yes, we're way behind and I know that industry and explorers have been crying for it for a while, and it does deter investment in our territory.

My question is, there is an economic spinoff for this as well, is there not, and maybe with her Finance hat on, the Minister can answer. It's my understanding that there will have to be a large amount of actual ontheground surveying done in order for this work to be implemented. Is that correct, or am...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm glad that the Minister supplied even some further examples of areas in which the local community can benefit.

And so I guess my next question is what is the Minister going to do or what requirements will be filled into the project plan in order to ensure that those small and local businesses and contractors are competitive in bidding on work for this project. Does the Minister commit to changing how RFPs are written to ensure greater scoring for those who incorporate training, Indigenous and community engagement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that we have a lot of conversation around small communities and retention of money there, can the Minister briefly describe the community engagement process that's been undertaken until now and tell us what she's been doing differently to ensure that the benefits of the project are retained within that small community and are not being lost to businesses from the south or in regional centres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one sec here; my computer has been very finicky these days.

The Mackenzie River Valley Highway will provide an all-season connection between the small communities in the Northwest Territories Sahtu Region, from Tulita to Norman Wells. The highway is being advanced as a series of projects along the Mackenzie River Valley route, with one such project being the Great Bear River Bridge.

The proposed Great Bear River Bridge will be constructed adjacent to the hamlet of Tulita, replacing a section of the winter road that is currently constructed across the Mackenzie River...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just wanted to ask -- or maybe, again, more of a comment to in the small capital projects last year, we had a significant increase in money, and a lot of that was -- it was a great idea by the department to get money into small communities for small contractors and businesses locally to do work around the parks, etcetera. I'm really in support of that.

Can the Minister speak to whether or not the $2.9 million is enough, or would there actually be extra projects that are -- that we could be funding to have more of that work continue this 'COVID winter', for...

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the Minister for the update. Perhaps once the MLA for Hay River's fish plant is built, he can give us some of the money back and we could get a park in Great Slave at that location.

Could the Minister maybe speak a little bit to how she's working with industry, and I guess this is a little bit off topic, but on the -- on that location. I did notice that this at the end of the fall there, there was a deployment by Terra-X, I'm not sure if that's their updated name, of their equipment out of their mine site using that location. It was the first time there...