Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hear the Member and absolutely appreciate her comments as these decisions continue to unfold. And in all of the decisions that -- the staffing decisions that have been made here, we've indicated a desire to see it respected, where even if it's a headquarters position, that if somebody applies on the job and wants to use the remote work policy, that they can stay in their home community. And so really making sure that we're encouraging people to apply on these jobs is critically important, and them knowing that they can use the remote work policy if the job falls within...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for his kindness.

So, Mr. Speaker, we did have the chair position for 2025. We have happily passed it along to Nunavut for 2026. But we are ensuring that that momentum continues as a national team. We are going to see, as far as the 30-day service standard, work continue on that one here in the Northwest Territories as I alluded to previously as well. We rely on other jurisdictions in order to see some of those realized, but we also do have some regulatory bodies here in the Northwest Territories so we as a government are working closely with...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think everything we do in the world has room for improvement and that we always need to be asking ourselves how we can do and work better together. And so one example of a change that has occurred was the group felt that working on everything as a conglomerate was too much and, you know, how do you kind of make, as the Member referred to, timely change or timely decision-making. And so one of the things that happened was smaller carve-off groups with more focused mandates. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, ITI went through a very extensive review of their entire org chart and rewrote, actually, 83 job descriptions as part of this work to make sure that people's roles would be shifting, that we were trying to work within the staff means that we had within the department. And the need for an added director is because there is a requirement to ensure that we are separating the regulatory versus the mineral promotion roles within the department, because the roles have changed and the expectation on the department has changed as per the co-drafted...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as with much of what we do, we try to be as transparent as possible. So absolutely there will be a public publication of the report itself, the review itself, as well as a management response. And we want to ensure that at the same time we are aligning the MRA regs and so my understanding is that we're looking at next winter for that, but I would want to confer with the department and come back to the Member with a more definite timeline on that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So certainly there's the increased demand on the funding mechanism but these positions do a lot more. They are managing multiple programs, including the producer incentive program, the film rebate program. There's also the SEED for film sector funding schedule. Currently, there is very minimal staff that work within this. But they're also supporting the film producers themselves. People often call to the territory and are looking for, okay, we want an old bridge, where is there an old bridge in the Northwest Territories? Or, hey, we want to film another season...

Waiting for -- oh, there we go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, new jobs, we always ask if they can be regionally located, and then in addition to that, we ensure that we are also using policies, for example, the remote work policy so that if somebody wants to apply for a job from another community and live in their home community and not relocate for it, that we are always using the policies that we have available to us. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for continuing to keep the conversation around internal trade barriers alive and well in this House. Much appreciated.

So, Mr. Speaker, last year we had really an unprecedented year as far as focus on internal trade barriers across this country. That included health care, of course. And often really what we saw was due to duplication in licensing and regulatory requirements of different supplies. That's where those real cost increases were coming. Last year we ended up with a 30 percent reduction in party-specific exceptions across...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to reassure the Member and all Members in this House that we have not stopped talking about this at all over at the Cabinet table and with departments. We are very much having the same conversations and working through the same motions that the Member speaks of and that it is not just ITI; it is absolutely every single department. If you are all of a sudden having to stand up significant projects in this territory, that has an impact on housing. It has an impact on health care. It has an impact on our roads to be able to bring material up to the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we previously had federal funding for community engagement position roles, so supporting with helping communities do engagement across the territory. And in addition to that, the funding that you see in this year's budget, and we're trying to make sure that we are only requesting funding that is needed for the implementation of the MRAR, as well as getting all of that done. And that is a key focus of the department in the life of this Assembly, and so what this also includes is a director position that will be required. It is the director of...