Caroline Wawzonek
Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, Mr. Chair, this will not be fully complete in the coming fiscal year. Where we're at at this point is that there -- the MIT system is expected to be fully replaced over the course of this fiscal year, and then MARS as a whole, best guess here that I can give, Mr. Chair, with fair limited -- with the sort of limited notes that I would have for the purposes of this supplementary appropriation is that will happen in the following fiscal year, so in roughly a year and a half from now, and then over the course of that fiscal year, so 2026-2027, some of the timing issues...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is work underway. This is a problem that was anticipated; it's not new. And so there is, of course, the Northwest Territories active living framework. It is a framework that is, you know, covering the next several years right through until 2033, and in that framework, I can certainly report -- I'm happy to report that there are some new funding agreements that are being signed with different sports partners, different territorial sports organizations, not for the coming fiscal year but for the year after which, you know, hopefully, will start to...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, there absolutely is a limit. It is -- it's whether or not a project's request for carryover complies with the financial administration manual, and so that is specifically whether or not there's already a contractual obligation in place or if a department can demonstrate that there's been substantial progress on a project. And so, you know, if a project is slowly moving along, it will, in theory, meet that test -- I say in theory because it is still subject to approval by the financial management board. So all projects where departments are seeking...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This specific amount of funding, Mr. Chair, is suggested in order to help fund the cost associated with 2026 Arctic Winter Games which will be held in Whitehorse March 18th to 15th of 2026. The funds do need to be confirmed well enough in advance for teams to be selected and the associated coaching and support staff to be selected, and so that's why it is coming through now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just bear with me for one moment, Mr. Chair. This project has now been underway since 2022-2023 and the solution, as it does sometimes prove to be the case with a number of different IT projects, what was initially expected to be the final solution has proven to, in fact, be more difficult in terms of it not aligning to the needs of this -- of the office. So at this time, Mr. Chair, yeah, so that did delay the project that we didn't have -- it wasn't -- the suitability of the originally anticipated solution. So instead, what we are looking to do is it's called the one...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: 2023/2024 Report on the Departmental Indigenous Employment Plans Results. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me start, if I might, with the health information systems charting tool. There's a couple of items all listed here so just so I'm talking about the right item. But this is the electronic health record project. This is a multi-year project. It is underway; I can say that much. But there was -- let me just see if I can -- sorry, Mr. Chair. There's been some changes to the project timeline, and specifically, here we do have -- sorry, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure I'm on the right project.
Let me see if the deputy minister has it, the right one in front of...
Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to talk about how the Government of the Northwest Territories is making improvements when it comes to our technology systems and online services. Our main goal is simple: We want to make government services easier to access and safer to use. We want people to be able to securely access services like applying for a permit, or accessing a marriage, birth or death certificate, no matter where they live in the Northwest Territories.
Residents can now access a wide array of services digitally, from applying for vital statistics documents or renewing driver's...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, Mr. Chair, I realize my answer wasn't very clear. So originally, this was a three -- projected to be a three-year project. It is now projected to be a four-year project first, on the firsthand. And secondly, there was an additional amount that was added to the project, not in this supp. But with the addition of the extra year on the project, the original timing of some of when things were being spent has changed. And so originally, the total projected -- the total projected spending now for 2024-2025 is just shy of $200,000 which leaves a balance available of --...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there certainly is some ability to do that. You can have a contractor or a subcontractor declared to be -- I'm not -- the word's escaping me, Mr. Chair. But to have them noted so that future procurement does look at them as being -- yeah, and would have that noted on file as being a known contractor with whom there have been problems. That's a fairly significant consideration, fairly significant marking to have (audio) so it would have to be fairly certain. I'd certainly be happy to take it away and see whether there is something more that can be done. I hear...