Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are not specifically targeting men with this program. The intention at this point is to target Indigenous Aboriginal Northerners with respect to the framework, and that would include everything from ensuring that we look at the recruitment front end of it. If there's more Indigenous Northerners applying, I suppose if there are more Indigenous male Northerners applying, then that is more opportunity to have them hired. Once they are hired, if they are again able to participate in lots of the different programs that are currently available, whether it's management...

I certainly do have those numbers and can provide those numbers to the House and to the Member. I don't have them at my fingertips, as I wasn't expecting to be called on to give those numbers here, but I would be more than happy to provide that. I just would note that, certainly, succession planning has been and remains a challenge for many organizations, and the government is no different. I certainly appreciate bringing some attention to the need to continue our succession planning here in the GNWT.

That's an easy yes. I'm more than happy to continue that kind of engagement, and I say "continue" because there is already the building capacity in Indigenous governments program. It is an effort to do precisely what the Member is getting at, to support secondment arrangements with Indigenous governments across regions. There will be funding from the Department of Finance for up to 10 placements a year and then up to $40,000 placement. It is certainly my hope that that will be a successful program to encourage the exchange of knowledge, the exchange of experience, and the increasing of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I am happy to make that commitment. I would just say for the moment that we may have to do it confidentially. I don't have the contribution agreement in front of me. In the event that there is something in that agreement that would require it to be confidential, we'll do so. Otherwise, one way or the other, we'll make sure to share it.

I am glad that the dire situation that is facing hospitality is being spoken of here. I think that, as the Minister of Finance at one point, under that hat, I had spoken of the fact that we're seeing a recovery in so much of our employment sectors, but that is not true in the hospitality sector and the tourism industry. That is an area that is going to continue to be struggling for some time. Really, the response has to be to be able to fill those gaps, so the Business Advisory Council that was brought about by ITI to assist us in figuring out what the best ways are to support relief and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If there is not support for the supplementary, then the extreme end would be to have special warrant for funding to support the actual response to COVID-19, which isn't really something we want to have to do. I don't think that's where this is going, though, Mr. Chair. If there is a removal of some random amount of money, and I don't mean to be disparaging, but essentially a random amount of money that just gets pulled out, then there is less money to deliver on the things that it's meant to deliver on. I don't know where we could take that out of, Mr. Chair. Something...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two things being reflected under this section. The first is the funding to the airlines, a large proportion of which did come through Transport Canada. Then the second part is that there is a transfer of funding here to Health and Social Services that came in through Finance as part of the federal government supports. It's just the way that it has worked out that it looks like a negative, but it's because it includes both those two portions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and Municipal and Community Affairs have had a discussion. There shouldn't be any secrets around what amounts are going to which communities, that division has been agreed to between those parties, so this was a very engaged process, one where, again, the association of municipalities and the Municipal and Community Affairs have, indeed, figured out what an equitable distribution will be between all the different communities. Indeed, if this does go through, as we are certainly hopeful that it will, there should...

Members of the 19th Legislative Assembly committed to "increase resource exploration and development" in the territory. This priority reflects the importance of the mineral resource sector to our economy both today and into the foreseeable future. Our efforts to support the mineral resource sector are further reflected in our commitments to develop regulations for the new Mineral Resource Act; to develop and implement regional mineral development strategies; and review our Mining Incentive Program, socio-economic agreements, and our territory's fiscal regime around mining. Later today, I will...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the Member already listed quite a number of the cost-saving measures that are being quite actively considered. One of the functions and sort of one of the expectations on the secretariat staff right now is, in fact, to go out and provide some of the background for potentially reducing those costs through things like an RFP process for the isolation centres and revisiting a consideration of, in fact, who is being paid for, whose travel is being paid for.

I did want to note, Mr. Chair, it's not as simple as just drawing a line and saying we will not spend money or we...