Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present the Government of the Northwest Territories' Capital Estimates 2021-2022.

These capital estimates total $451.2 million to support and continue infrastructure investment in our communities. Major highlights of the plan include:

$188.6 million for highways, winter roads, bridges, and culverts. This includes funding of $61.3 million to continue the Tlicho All-Season Road project, $23.5 million for Great Bear River Bridge, and a total of $18.5 million to advance the environmental and planning work for the Mackenzie Valley and Slave Geologic Province all...

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear the comments around what makes it so positive to have a program like this. It is positive. There are labour shortages. There are gaps, and our businesses and business community here benefit from the strength and the diversity that we have by drawing people to the North to contribute to our economy, so it is a good thing. Mr. Speaker, we are no longer accepting these deposits. We are getting in line with what's happening in the rest of Canada and making ourselves a more attractive jurisdiction.

When there is a business here from someone who is a new resident...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are always some expenses that get incurred when programs are administered through the Government of the Northwest Territories. I am sure there is no exception to this one, but unless I look back over the last 10 years and am able to actually reconcile expenses versus program benefits, I am not going to be in a position. I certainly will do my best to go back to the department to see if we can provide that kind of reconciliation for the Member. Thank you.

If it's kept, it reverts to the government, but its purpose was never to shore up or provide any kind of background insurance to private industry or private businesses. If an individual is dealing with someone who happens to be in this program, the good-faith deposit would not be used, as I say, to engage in whatever the private business relationships would be.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you may be gathering from the past tense, this program requiring the $75,000 deposit has now been discontinued. I understand that, in the past, this was one method by which the department was able to help ensure that applicants were, in fact, serious and had the capacity, the financial capacity, to see the process through. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recruiting more healthcare professionals is a mandate item for this government. There is already a health recruitment unit well under way, which is a partnership between Health and Social Services and the Department of Finance. In short, yes, I certainly can commit on the part of Finance, on the part of human resources, to taking some steps, to developing some ideas, and to having them ready. Aside from that, this will be something that becomes a multi-departmental response. I am confident that, as I said, human resources will do its part, and I am confident that I will be able to work with my...

[Microphone turned off] …down, Madam Chair.

---Laughter

The simple fact is: as I said earlier, having only been really up and running since the accounts were set up at the end of March, there hasn't even been an application yet, but I think, at the very least, as I've said already, whether it's a small-R internal review or whether it's a question of putting out some guidelines to help understand the interpretation of the criteria, which are admittedly short, I also have it in front of me, I think we'll have to do that to make sure that we are actually, again, capturing and targeting good projects, good ideas, so that we can actually demonstrate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am hesitating only because I don't want to get mired in reviews on a program that hasn't even really barely rolled out. I agree with some of the comments the Member has made around ensuring that there is enough flexibility in this program to really capture true innovation, and so that we are really encouraging a sea change in terms of how we deal and how we can really use this funding to advance green opportunities and green mining. Whether it's maybe a small-scale, internal review that happens, that much, I think, is probably safe to say. Thank you.

Yes. I do happen to have those numbers now right in front of me. For the fiscal year of 2020-2021, we are projecting $25 million in carbon tax revenues, which, based on that projection and assuming no drawdowns, at the end of this fiscal year, the large emitter individual accounts would be estimated to be just over $2 million.