Rylund Johnson

No further questions, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just have the Minister speak to whether we anticipate to run into the kind of last mile problem when we get fibre to Tuk? I know we have fibre running up the valley, but it actually doesn't exist in many communities because any internet service provider has not then taken it, built the hub, and ran it to peoples' homes. That's often cost prohibitive for even Northwestel to do with millions of subsidies.

Is there someone on the other end of Tuk or expecting to become the ISP to actually make sure we complete the last mile of this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. How much of the $6 million is federal money through investing in Canada infrastructure fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The rest of my comments and the points that I made in my opening remarks, I will illustrate through each department that each of these projects comes with long-term commitments of O and M, which is simply not room we have fiscally. So no more further questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Firstly, I appreciate all of the work that ITI does up the Ingraham Trail, and I think that there's kind of an insatiable demand for recreational infrastructure on the trail, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

I'll note that in the Infrastructure's budget there's a few million dollars for planning that highway to eventually go to Lockhart Lake, and I expect that the recreational demand will just never stop as that highway progresses further and further to more and more lakes.

But specifically, I would like to raise a concern many of my constituents has brought...

Mr. Speaker, many of us know here Mr. Dunbar is the director of research for the last three years, but he has served in various roles in this institution on both sides of the House.

He was an executive assistant to the Premier, a former Premier, a long-time special advisor to Minister of Health and Social Services. He has worked in this building inside and out.

Mr. Dunbar also has one of the few published academic documents on consensus government. He is an expert. He is a long-time volunteer with the Yellowknife Ski Club, and I think we all know the vast importance in the role of the chief...

Thank you. I know this is a lot of questions, but it is $70 million.

One last question: I don't quite fully understand what having something on your books means and, you know, putting it in the operations budget, it kind of in this $8.5 million for every year doesn't mean that we're, like, putting it in the bank and then when the fuel tanks need to be moved, we have that money. It's just kind of taking up space, is my understanding.

Can I just get the Minister to explain how having something like this on our books actually makes sure we have the money on hand when it comes time to retire...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a mandate commitment and a priority of this Assembly to increase employment in small communities, specifically, in the mandate, by 125 jobs, Mr. Speaker. I will have some questions later today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about exactly what that looks like and what that means. It's a hard number to put in context.

But I think firstly, Mr. Speaker, in developing this work, we have to realize what we're up against. The Northwest Territories is not immune from the globalization that affects all communities where somehow High Liner fish bought...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, can the Minister assist me in a bit of how we reached this $70 million. I'll just you know, I'm thinking of some of our more remote communities that inevitably have assets that have hazardous materials, and then they have landfills that actually are not set up to dispose of hazardous materials.

Was there some consideration given when calculating this figure to the reality that we just don't have the tools to dispose of many of the current assets?

So were we actually doing costing, like if a building is in Ulukhaktok, what it costs to get it to Alberta. Was...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also heard that there was $8.5 million in the operating budget. Can I just clarify that we are now required to have $8.5 million every single year going forward, or was it a onetime $8.5 million. Thank you.