Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: 2026-2027 Main Estimates; 2026-2027 Government of the Northwest Territories Annual Business Plan Update; and, Letter from Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, dated September 2, 2025, to the Board of Directors regarding the 2025 Direction Letter to Board of Directors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, it was a vacant position, or it is a vacant position right now. This is with respect to the analyst. The expectation is that with GRI as a sort of having kind of been spun up and had to be established, the full inventory had to get done of all programs and services, you know, the matrices of what programs come through had to be brought together, a lot of that preparatory work was no longer -- was not required, and so that's where it no longer needed to have quite the same level of capacity. Again, obviously everything we do could certainly benefit from more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point in time my hope is that we will see some additional funding coming in the near future through some reallocations that we're looking to do. So the Mackenzie Valley Highway roadway itself, outside of the environmental assessments, had some allocations made in the 18th Assembly, projects that didn't move forward back then, and we're looking to take that money and actually put it towards this work to get it done now, projects that are shovel ready today, including the idea of community readiness, so working with the communities along the highways...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I could say some of the earlier iterations of briefing materials I had had more detail on how those decisions were made. At this point, we were just completing the work. So happy to provide the earlier tools that were used to determine which programs might be most appropriate. I don't -- yeah, I don't have it here. There was a matrix that departments were using to try to figure out which would be most appropriate and which programs might benefit from it. I mean, quite frankly, every program would benefit from it but the capacity to do that was simply -- is simply not...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a couple of items I could speak to. One specifically is to try to reduce the number of times that either entities or organizations, businesses that have to frequently request, can stop having to do that on a repeated basis for when they're doing the same event every month, for example, that they can reduce having to go back almost on a continuous basis. And secondarily, and perhaps related, when there's an event happening in an already licensed premises, Mr. Speaker, we're looking to reduce having to do an existing -- or sorry, to have to come back and do a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, again, this is something that has evolved I think fairly significantly just in the last year or so as compared to where this policy has sat since 2007. It is something that gets filled out by the departments, but they can certainly and do seek support from management board secretariat, which is the division that supports the financial management board, and it's part of that element that goes in. But then one thing that happens is that the financial management board does get an analysis done in support -- that's meant to really support the financial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so just, first of all, an occupancy load is a requirement for every event separate and apart. That is something that is issued by the fire marshal's office, and I can say the departments are working together with respect to coordinating the requirements of both. I can say online special occasion permit applications have already been launched on the eServices platform. That came about in the last year. That does allow people and parties to apply for the SOP, or the special occasion permit, more efficiently, more simply. And we are looking to move that along...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So that's not a suggestion that we had received and -- or one that was being under consideration here. I mean, the sums are fairly small. They're not really on the scale of what, obviously, Alberta has the opportunities to bring in. I mean, the one exception would be in the extremely rare, and I think now going forward unlikely, circumstance where a few years ago there was a significant discovery license that was turned back in and there was a bit of a windfall from that but with the changes under the minimal resource regime that we are in, that is no longer to be --...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, build in any revenue changes to part of the fiscal framework that we have in terms of understanding what are the total revenues, what's the spread between revenues and expenditures. How that, in turn, impacts the operating surplus which could impact, you know, what number of projects we want to advance under capital in a year or can make a decision obviously to enter into a deficit position, mindful that there is parameters within the fiscal responsibility policy. So it is exactly part of that bigger picture, is that when we know that there's going to be a...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that I will deliver the budget address on Thursday, February 5th, 2026. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.