Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is growth and recovery by investing in tourism. The Member makes a good point. It's not necessarily meant at the relief stage. It's not targeting the relief stage that is, obviously, needed by a lot of businesses. There're a number of programs both within the GNWT but also from the federal government that are much more directly targeted at relief. The growth and recovery by investing in tourism has three different streams, if you will, under which individual businesses can apply. The first one is for new product development or innovation meant to be for, again...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that the Premier's office has engaged in a pretty wide variety of conversations and engagements over the last little while, so I'd ask that we direct that to the Premier, please.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think there is a sort of general rule that I am not supposed to run down the clock, but I could easily talk about the resource sector for 20 minutes. I won't do that, Madam Speaker. The mineral resource sector is, I would say continues to be, extremely important. It's still the foundation of the economy here from the private sector and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

There are quite a number of things that are happening right now in the Department of ITI to support that sector. For example, there have been quite a number of active conversations just...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the idea behind that suggestion. I can tell the Member that the Department of Finance, and me as Minister of Finance, along, of course, with the Premier and the Minister of health, do meet regularly, weekly, with the Chief Public Health Officer. What I will do is commit to raising that at the next meeting, having brought this forward here and being responsible for bringing forward the supplemental. I will commit to raising it and getting back to the Member as to what the response is, but I am concerned that that might not be as easy as just saying that we'll...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can give you some detail on what the funding is intended for, and then I would turn it over to the Minister of health for any update as to what may or may not have happened in the course of the pandemic. The funding under the agreement is to be used firstly for licensing of the various types of software that is required; the hardware itself, which would include iPads, iPhones, and laptops that will actually allow for that care to be provided virtually; and also support for staff in terms of setting up that hardware, training, and setting up the teleconferencing...

Yes. I am actively looking at that. That material came across earlier on, and right now the department is looking at what we can do and whether or not there are some elements of what's happening in the Yukon that we can adapt here. Similarly, with respect to the isolation centres, we are using, to some degree, some of that hospitality industry here with the isolation centres and are continuing to look at whether or not there are ways to better support the hospitality industry while having the isolation centres up and running. That is a very active question, and I am glad to have that question...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can speak to one example, being that the ProtectNWT is meant to start to have essentially a connection to the business community so that there is a better connection between what's happening with businesses and with ProtectNWT, so that there is more streamlining that is being done within ProtectNWT and enforcement and compliance, so that the exemptions can be done in a more straightforward fashion, can be done more quickly, and can be done, rather than sort of as one-offs but rather by groupings by type. That policy work is being done in the secretariat, and then the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first round of funding came in without the same sorts of strings attached, but when a second round of funding came through, there are requirements now that the airlines that are benefitting do have to sign an agreement with the Department of Finance. It includes minimum service schedules. I would also note, Mr. Chair, there is a small hold-back amount where they have to report back to the Department of Finance before the complete amount is paid out to them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to suggest that maybe, rather than slow, the response here has been different in terms of its approach. We certainly were, I would suggest, faster than the Yukon in terms of delivering some of the relief and expenses for the industry, but then, rather than rolling out money quickly, the Department of ITI here opted to wait and see how the federal government was going to be putting forward their programs and their money, which have been significant. The goal was to find a way to fill gaps rather than duplicate efforts. The Department of ITI has partnered with...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that my message around, "Don't ask for more if you're not taking something out," is at least falling on some receptive ears. Notwithstanding that, Mr. Chair, the comment about the projections and a lack of certainty or clarity around the projections, the way that we come up with the projection of $31.7 million, Mr. Chair, was by looking at the actuals that were spent by and across all departments in the initial response, April, May, June, and I think July, as well, which was in and of itself a bit of a process by having to initially putting up codes and...