Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interests of having only 59 minutes, I'll try to be a bit brief. It's a huge question. A few highlights, really, and I want to acknowledge at the outset that there is always more that can be done. This is a territory that is 50 percent Indigenous, and many of the communities are 100 percent Indigenous. I first want to acknowledge that there is always more that can be done.

A couple of things: there are regional economic development plans that fall under the responsibility of ITI, and if we can be successful in delivering those in partnership with the Indigenous...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Returning again is deputy minister of Finance, Sandy Kalgutkar.

That is the first time I've had it raised to me that that is an option or a solution that we should be pursuing, and I agree with the Member's statement that there is short-term and there is long-term. Yes. Absolutely, short-term, I'd like to see this project to Whati in partnership with the Tlicho Government advance, and then, beyond that, to get the satellite communities to the state where they have gained access to low Earth orbit satellite system. Then, beyond that, I will give you the words that I was told by the federal counterpart, which is: dream big. If we're being told to dream big...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Finance is able to support up to 40 internship placements every year. That works out to being roughly $40,000 per year per placement. Thank you.

Madam Chair, the $451-million proposed capital budget brings with it 990 estimated full-time equivalent jobs, so there is quite a lot of potential here to really have a significant impact at a time when, as the Member has just pointed out, there has been a lot of concern around economic downturn. This plan does have a lot of possibility in it. We've broken it down in different ways between different communities. The goal isn't to spread the dollars in some sort of fashion where we parse it out by community but to ensure that every community's needs are being met.

With respect to schools, for...