Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for clarifying that a bit more, to the Minister. And what I will say, and I'll leave it at this, is just, you know, we all heard from NWTAC when we were all new Members in this Assembly, and they are definitely vocal about everything that they are wanting from this government, and I really hope that the partnership deepens and becomes even more close over the next three meetings. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Minister of Finance, yesterday when I was asking her about evaluation capacity throughout the government, mentioned that the Department of ECC is working on building an evaluation capacity within the department. Can the Minister speak to that a bit, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I don't mean to pick on the Minister of MACA precisely on this, it's just I don't see how a quantitative measure -- it doesn't matter how many times you meet with these organizations it doesn't really demonstrate the depth of the partnership. It doesn't really demonstrate if -- you know, if people feel heard. And so it's just a comment to maybe improve that metric in the business plan however you might see fit. And if the Minister has comments, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as a first-time MLA, I have noticed that in our regular work when we are broadcast to the public, both in our committee work and here on this floor, there have been issues with technical difficulties, audio/visual difficulties, and I was wondering maybe if the Speaker or his staff could speak to if any budget is contemplated in the Office of the Clerk for renewing the systems? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. And thank you, yes -- I'm sorry, I'm reading the 2022-2023 Actuals as being slightly higher than that. I was just curious. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I guess more specifically to my statement earlier today, what is the GNWT doing to fully support Canada's zero waste plastic agenda? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that.

Switching gears ever so slightly and moving into wildlife, I notice that the contributions on page 106, caribou monitoring, remote sensing, monitoring and range planning, all of these line items are reducing. Could the Minister please speak to whether, you know, that's sort of just a cyclical nature of range planning and monitoring herds or if there's more funding that needs to be found in this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister of ECC explain how the GNWT is diverting as much plastic from NWT landfills as possible under the current regime? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister. I wasn't entirely sure.

So under the business plan, one of the actions to support economic activities includes supporting a forest industry development, and I note that over time -- sorry, had it here a moment ago.

Yes, I do. Okay, so in 2022-2023, it was $75,000. 2023-2024 it was $50,000. And now it's reduced again to $25,000. So I guess my question to the Minister is, you know, how are we going to support a forest industry with a diminishing budget line? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm assuming, yes, that's a yes, it's due to the merger and also the reduction of printing costs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.