Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that the MLA is referencing discussions that were had between myself and colleagues on the other side when we were preparing the main estimates and passing the main estimates. And I certainly can, you know, provide I believe this information has been provided, but I'm happy to go through it again.

There were increases, at the conclusions of those discussions, made to various program budgets within Housing NWT. It was, I believe, $6.6 million that was committed in addition, as part of the main estimates’ discussions, to fund projects that are specifically...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, one of the sources of, you know, concern that's been raised has actually been colleagues in the federal government who have said, you know, why aren't you spending more? What are you spending? You know, and they want to have accountability for the dollars that they are committing to the Northwest Territories. So if there are projects that are delayed or stalled, again for a variety of reasons, but it may well but for whatever reason it may be that attaches to any particular project, you know, they would rather know that when we have a properly sized budget...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so, you know, there were updates that were provided back in, I believe August, when we were preparing for this session. As I said, numbers related to the information that was received through the spring and summer as flood remediation work was ongoing certainly were being updated through the course of time. All of the information does go into the main estimates documents. I can see if we can put some sort of package together, you know, more urgently than that, you know, without having anyone from the department here in front of me and even if they were...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, let me try and answer it, and I am sure the Member will let me know if we need to bring the witnesses in. There are finance witnesses in the witness room.

Madam Chair, yes, it's 174 I don't have that number in front of me, but it does sound approximately correct from my recollection. But I think the question is really getting at what that does to our fiscal situation. And, yes, having an over hundred unexpectedly over $100 million in costs associated with the floods takes out the surplus that we had been projecting for 20222023 and puts us into a situation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, subject to there being any legal reason that I can't do that, I would not have a problem doing that on a confidential basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The property's actually relatively undeveloped and as such well, I mean, I can't speak for what the company may have decided upon but I can certainly say that the GNWT is selling the property as is, and that was part of the that will be part of the asset purchase agreement, that they all the liabilities, to the extent that there are any, will be transferred and that, of course, is the basis on which the agreement is moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can confirm that the initial $1.5 million payment from Fireweed Metals was received in June of this year. And further to that, Mr. Speaker, they were given 18 months in order to do some due diligence work. I understand that there has been some work done over the last exploration season this past spring/summer and that we are expecting that the final agreement will then be signed or rather the purchase agreement will be signed which will trigger the further payment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, I mean, as I said, certainly that's the point of bringing the matter here is for us all as an Assembly to have an opportunity to discuss how to spend the public dollars we are responsible for as a collective. And certainly, you know, some budgets could be adjusted, and maybe there is, you know, money made I know there's going to be probably requests to increase some areas. I would just sort of keep in mind, or urge people to keep in mind, that if we are increasing the overall plan, then we are again adding dollars into the plan that we know we will not...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, this is the proposed capital budget. So that's it's before the House now for discussion, and, you know, that's exactly the point here. It's not approved before it's approved by this House. So, you know, that's precisely the discussions we are to be having over the next short while. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, this isn't just, to be clear, a function of the circumstances of the labour market shortages that all of Canada and the world are experiencing today. This is reflective of, you know, the last ten years that we saw that, you know, the average spend in the last ten years year over year is around $250 million per year. So it's not new that we simply don't have the capacity in the North alone to be getting out to have much more than that spent in any particular given year. So it's not entirely a function of current labour market shortages. It is a function...