Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, essentially the main estimates that would have been seen by the House earlier in the Committee of the Whole process is what comes through financial management board and gets approval. So it's a similar process, although because the corporation not housing another department, that's why it the money shows up here going through the Department of Finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand it is the Tlicho government that would ultimately own that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This was negotiated as part of the collective agreement some years ago, and it goes to the Public Service Alliance's of Canada social justice fund, and 50 percent of that goes to United Way Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, again, 172 is just the budgeted and I shouldn't say "just." It is a budgeted amount. There are other numbers within the budget that are based on a projection, then there are standard bases by which they come up with the projections, while meanwhile over on the yeah, we don't put actuals into the budget, you just put budgeted or projected amounts. That's where you will see the way the department's budgets get built up, of having the actuals. Main estimates is the budget, then the revised is things that have changed over time, and then finally ending again with new...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Department of Finance doesn't believe in tokenism. There is, of course, a number of efforts, as I know the House is familiar with respect to Indigenous recruitment and retention generally. So, again, Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework, which was introduced now a couple of years ago but which is starting to roll out and I believe will be bearing fruit. So one of the things is that individual departments now have specific targets. I think that's a big deal, and it's worth focusing on a little because if you don't even have a target you could...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not a formal target in place. I will say that for the last three years summer student numbers have continued to go up. We hit 327 in 2022. So if there are some competitive supervisors or managers out there, they may want to try and beat that for the coming here. That would certainly be great. There is and I would just note, Mr. Speaker, it is early days right now, but they departments shouldn't hesitate in getting their papers going now and reaching out to the Department of Finance if they want to hire a student. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of programs, and just in coming up to the last question before this, what are we doing this to solve and what are some of the challenges. To the extent that training and opportunity is a challenge, there is a number of programs now, the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Program, there's the Gateway Program, the internship program, student programs, secondment programs. All of those are opportunities to increase our presence within smaller communities and to increase awareness of the opportunities to work with the GNWT.

Another thing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the current language is still outdated. It is referencing Aboriginal persons, it is very old, and so that's where it is for that reason that we are looking for a new definition, not certainly to exclude people. The new proposed definition is around prioritizing descendents of the Dene, Inuit or Metis people who are indigenous to the present boundaries of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I have had some conversations with the Member from Hay River around this and was surprised as I started to hear from him, from his constituents, about their concerns...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, prior to the release of Budget 2022 by the federal government, the three territories did write on some shared priorities. I would be certainly happy to share that with my colleagues. I can't share letters penned by others without their confirmation but certainly can go to MLAs. With respect specifically to the issue around the airfares, whether it was in that letter or another, I will double check. Whether we raised directly at the finance Ministers', I can confirm with my notes.

With respect to this pilot project, again I am happy to look again at whether...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very motivated now to answer these questions the right way. Mr. Speaker, I certainly am aware of the recently published guidelines and certainly aware that there are some discrepancies around that. One thing that I want to note, Mr. Speaker, it's been alerted to me by the department actually that this is a pilot project, and I hope that's going to give me some openings to give some positive responses of where we might go, because pilot projects mean that they are ripe for some change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.