Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there have been meetings with the city already, between the city and ITI, and I understand that those discussions have been positive. I understand there is public consultation now, I suspect with the Department of Lands so I'll certainly confer with my colleague and get that information out to be sure we can share it publicly. And then lastly, Mr. Speaker, it would be again with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who would have the final sort of critical role to be playing in terms of the repair work at the Con Mine dock. But indeed have been engaged with us...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yes, so, you know, while we were in the past relying predominantly on federal programs, the benefit of that is that we were able to gather quite a bit of data around the number of operators who were accessing the funds  the relief funds in the last year. There are operators in the Northwest Territories, about 70 percent that have been so far receiving relief funding. Operators located outside, about 30 percent or 17 operators. But that said, Madam Chair, I do want to highlight that although the operators sort of base their  or owner might be located...

Madam Chair, I think that's a question for the Minister of Education.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just by way of preface, there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of any kind of design, the final design, which could look a variety of different ways. But in short, the main access, or the main interest area, indeed, is to create a fish collection station so that fishers can offload from the lake and have it shipped down to the, but then, hopefully, constructed plant in Hay River. And as such, this will be one of the associated sites that fishers around the lake can be attending. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's confirmed to me that the 75,000 is expected to be in fact ongoing.

Madam Chair, there are department staff watching these proceedings, and I think the comments will be well taken. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding of the system is that it's the disaster assistance committee that has the ability to make the final decisions on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think as I said at the beginning, this is an industry that contributes one third of the GDP of the Northwest Territories, over 1300 direct jobs in 2019, not to mention indirect jobs, over $813 million is spent in procurement. That's supporting all the other industries. If the Department of ITI wasn't having regular meetings with the industry representation, I would be facing very difficult questions in the House to explain why we aren't. There are regular working group meetings with the fisheries sector right now. I have regular meetings with Northwest...

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.