Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, you know, always coming with the caveat that circumstances can change at this point, certainly the letters that I've seen come across to date have spoken to deferrals of projects, delays of projects. And in some cases, those projects weren't necessarily at an advanced stage where they were proceeding. And there's other occasions -- that's right, there's some of the projects also had surpluses on them and so we were able to take the surplus from a project to put it towards this.

So, I mean, I don't want it to sound like we're cobbling the money together but in some...

Madam Chair, I do have witnesses available so I'd be happy to have them in the room and ready to go.

No, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wasn't here in the last Assembly but I'm more than happy to talk to the Member about the fees. There's ongoing work happening right now in terms of developing the Mineral Resources Act and the regulatory system that is required to bring that into force and to have it implemented. So that project is underway. The engagement processes for it are underway. It's a huge project. It's a huge piece of legislation, and the regulatory aspects of it have many branches, including this one.

So I will go back to the Department of ITI and find out what the schedule is for engagement...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm not aware that there's been any additional costs at this point. Let me just turn quickly to Ms. Salvador and see if there's anything that's late breaking that I'm not aware of, please.

Mr. Speaker, later this afternoon, I will table the Report of the Procurement Review Panel, which provides a review of the GNWT's procurement policies and practices, as well as recommendations on how these can be improved.

Government procurement, especially in the Northwest Territories, is far-reaching, and the steps that we take to respond to the panel's recommendations will support the GNWT's mandate commitments.

To adopt a benefit retention approach to economic development; increase employment in small communities; increase economic diversification by supporting growth in non-extractive...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, Madam Chair, the Government of the Northwest Territories is not an internet service provider. We are obviously the owner of the Mackenzie Valley fibre line which gives that backbone through which other companies can then, as was described out of Inuvik, provide internet services directly. We are obviously a customer, and we can certainly be an advocate and a supporter, as we have been, and I would suggest that that's been successful given that what the obligations that CRTC has imposed on to Northwestel to provide additional services.

But the government is not the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly was listening earlier to the Member's statement to the concern that the process is unwieldy and difficult. It is not a GNWT process, Mr. Speaker. It is a process governed by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to which we're a member. But it is not unfortunately, a process that I can directly change. We have offered support in the past. And I've not had anything raised to me until now that there's been any delays. So we're going to keep an eye on that. I'll certainly make inquiries to see if, in fact, there's been other delays. And if so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, firstly, just the Northwest Territories Power Corporation has its own policies so I'm not in a position to speak to what efforts they may or may not have done on their end.

With respect to the GNWT's policy, we certainly did consider the cost mainly in the form, obviously, of the PPE but particularly of testing. I anticipate the costs of PPE, we're not expecting that to be significant. But certainly the cost of tests can grow to be more significant over time. We do have some estimates. There's ranges of low to high. It depends obviously on what number of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those communications have gone out in a variety of forms. At this point, our website is currently up to date explaining the policy and has a fairly detailed Q and A on it.

One of the next steps though, Mr. Speaker, and I expect it will be out this week, if not early this week, is that each department was asked to look at their specific work site and provide a determination of what appropriate PPE might be. Everyone's individual work site certainly will have individual requirements that allow them to operate safely if the worker is choosing not to submit...