Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an area of quite a lot of interest to me as well, and I was very pleased that the department was willing to undertake this area when -- beginning of this government. It is not only the Department of Infrastructure, Mr. Speaker. It involves municipal and community affairs, housing, as well as infrastructure. I can say that we certainly have come together as multiple departments. There is a working group in place, and what the next step is is to really put in place some recommendations of what it will look like to bring all the different pieces together to have a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has been raised now on a couple of occasions. There's not an active plan underway at the moment for any all-season roads beyond the Whati all-season roads that came in -- or the Tlicho all-season road that came into use just a few years ago. So, again, at this moment in time, no. But, again, I know it's been raised. What I would say the next major road in that area is probably with respect to the planning around the SGP, the Slave Geologic Province area, and I've heard suggestions that maybe there'd be a spur off of that, but this is all very much really just an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so some work that we do certainly does already include using things like a GANT chart or other strategic tool. This was really meant to be one that would look, again, at that process from a different lens. So, you know, you can say, for example, if you use that lens and you identify a process that's not efficient, this is the committee that would be then led or tasked with fixing the problem. So even a small example would be using eApprove for approving monthly variance reports that come through and obviously -- I shouldn't say obviously. But Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, there is, indeed, now some money there that is available for this stretch of highway. There's -- tender packages are being prepared to be ready in time to be out for this construction season and we -- there's about $18 million in total for this entire stretch of highway between now and 2027 and 2028. So it's over a course of a number of years that this -- that really from the border through on the entire stretch of the highway. So as far as breaking it down beyond that, I -- again, I would perhaps want to just ensure that we are doing so in a way that, you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, Mr. Speaker, without being able to source some additional funding, it's difficult to come up at this point in time with a simple answer or simple solution. We certainly do look forward to continuing to work closely with Arctic Energy Alliance. They're a critical partner in terms of delivering programs in this space.

Mr. Speaker, I'd already actually spoken to the Member with respect to setting up my own meeting to make sure that we can do what we can to work directly with Arctic Energy Alliance, identify where the shortcomings are, identify if there's particular...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, I can assure the Member, the House, that there is a lot of interest in this area. It is not only under the biomass energy line item which is a program, again, administered by Arctic Energy Alliance and which was fully subscribed.

Mr. Chair, there is also work that happens within our asset management division, and I know we'll get there at another point in time, but it is relevant to this question. There's that crossover here where this division does also support communities in their efforts. So we do have other funding that comes under the greenhouse gas...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am also quite excited about this. It is very much an internal committee though, so I'm going to turn that over to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the regional projects, Mr. Chair, these are -- the changes that you're seeing to the 2025-2026 Main Estimates in particular is simply with respect to adjustments due to the collective agreement. There's -- yeah, that's for 20 -- between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, the increases is due exclusively to collective agreement changes. Thank you.

Oh, and sorry, and again with respect to the staff employed in the Tlicho region, Mr. Chair, under regional operations we have nine full-time equivalent staff in the Tlicho region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in sort of an unusual approach, perhaps, the federal government is -- they issue invitation letters. So anyone who is eligible does receive, in the mail, a letter from ISED, I-S-E-D. That's the industry, science economic development. So people do need to be watching their mail for these letters. Those letters were going out over the fall and into December of last year. If someone thinks they are eligible, so if they fall into one of those categories, there is a process. It's on ISED's website about what to do if you lose your letter. And so, Mr. Speaker, I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, this is a program that is administered by the Arctic Energy Alliance. With respect to its individualized functioning at that stage, I'm not well placed necessarily to describe how AEA administers it. I'm happy to commit to getting that detail. We provide this fund, and I know there would be some expectations surrounding its use but, again, I'll have to make a commitment to bring that back here. Thank you.