Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is an item where there are a number of different things happening that are specific to women in the North and the response under COVID. There certainly has been funding that has been under specific pots of the relief funding that we received from the federal government that is required to go toward supporting vulnerable populations. That would be particularly people fleeing relationships of violence, certainly, the majority of which do tend to be women. There has also been funding that has been directed toward supporting women who would be more vulnerable, for...

In some ways, it's a simple yes in that that is the goal of the Department of Finance through Procurement Shared Services, to ensure that we are providing value not only, obviously, to the people of the Northwest Territories in the expenditure of public funds, but value to the business community. It really is an easy answer, in that sense, but how we do it is where it becomes more complicated. As I have indicated, we are fast-tracking efforts to have procurement review but also looking at some immediate measures that we can bring into place, hopefully before the next sitting, again, on an...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Member's statement earlier on actually identified that this, indeed, in large part, does involve the procurement of resources and procurement of projects through the Government of the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned in my own Minister's statement today, we acknowledge that there certainly has been a lot of discussion around ensuring that the procurement processes we have are indeed providing best benefits to the people of the Northwest Territories and the businesses of the Northwest Territories.

Again, and I know the Member acknowledged it, there is...

Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: "Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021." Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Again, I am very confident the department is listening carefully to the ideas that are coming through on the floor. However, as far as coming up with new streams of funding, I can also say quite confidently that the Minister of Finance does not want me to make commitments around funding, short of using my due diligence to do that. I will go back. We will put some due diligence to it, see if there are some other options here. There certainly are funding options right now through COVID, and I realize it's not a perfect system. Nothing is. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What the government can do and what the government is doing is assessing the feasibility of this project so that we can actually determine what the actual costs will be and then be able to make an informed choice about whether or not the government can find a way to fill a gap, if there is, in fact, a gap in the market. By doing that, we can also go out and see if there may be potential partners. This may be an opportunity where the Indigenous governments of that region may want to become involved, but it's difficult to go and have that conversation in a meaningful and honest way without...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done a number of things since the time of June. We have already responded back. This same enquiry was made by some of the chiefs from the Member's communities, as well as from the Yellowknife mayor. We have responded back to them to let them know the work that we have undertaken. We have some initial costing that would demonstrate the costs of either partial or full coverage between the Whati junction to Yellowknife, so we have that initial costing done. That was done in conjunction with Northwestel and the Department of Finance, and we have communicated that...

I certainly want to acknowledge that I appreciate these questions in the House. It brings attention to the matter. It certainly demonstrates the urgency of the issue. There are always asks and always needs, and so many of them relate to the well-being of the people of the Northwest Territories. Just to give some context, it would be $90 million in estimate to cover only 65 percent of all of our roadways in the Northwest Territories. Now, that is not the section that I recognize that the MLA is asking about. That section would be, initially, for a full coverage, about $10 million, but then...

We went out and did exactly what we said we would do, which is to get in touch with Northwestel, who are, in fact, the largest provider of cell coverage and cell services in the Northwest Territories and would be in the best place to actually be the provider of cell coverage and cell services on this stretch of highway. Having done that, we have an initial costing, and now we are at the stage of doing an evaluation on final costing. The infrastructure acquisition plan that is in front of all of us this week, if the Member is suggesting that this would make its way into that, that was not ever...