Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The expression of interest is a tool that we're using right now in the Department of Finance essentially to suss out what the options might be. An expression of interest is just that, to go out to the private market to see what options they may have, what ideas they may have available to us so that, indeed, we can look for a solution to this problem. As I've said before in the House, there is not an obvious market solution. There are no profits to be made or gained from opening up cell towers, but technologies are constantly changing, technologies are emerging, and it...

I can't disagree that the indexing or the lack of indexing is certainly a challenge. It doesn't allow us to be matching up to inflation, necessarily, but we certainly do get a benefit in terms of our northern residence deduction, so I want to be a bit cautious before biting the hand that feeds us all. That said, the last year, I've had a lot of engagement with the federal Finance Ministers, both of them, and it's been positive. The focus has been on COVID-19 relief and supports. It is certainly my expectation that, as we have all gotten back a bit more to some of the more regularly scheduled...

Again, this is something that comes out through each department, where any employee who wants to take on any kind of outside activity, employment, service, volunteer, anything of that sort, obviously needs to be outside of their regularly scheduled hours of duty, and they are expected to notify their deputy head in writing. Quite often, each department has their own form that they would fill out in order to examine and explore the nature of the activity. The point here is to avoid, certainly, conflicts of interest, but also the appearance of conflicts of interest. That would then be approved...

No, we have not, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am sure I do have those numbers. I just may not have them in front of me right now. Perhaps I will turn it over to the deputy minister. He may have those numbers at his fingertips.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to propose to have that question directed to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a particular act where there had been quite a lot of work done a few years ago, back in 2017, and a fair bit of engagement done with employees and stakeholders, and there were already materials being drafted under a "what we heard" type of approach. Of course, an update was done last summer, again, as an update, not a complete full further review or survey but an update to the work that was done only two or three years before that, and consultations throughout with the union, the UNW, as well.

However, as I just mentioned earlier, it was on track and a lot of...

Would that it be so easy. I cannot make that commitment at this point. What I am going to commit to, again, is that we are going to get the information with respect to the stretch of highway between Behchoko and Yellowknife and to see what that costing might be, what those options might be. Once we have that in hand, we can start to look at other stretches of highway in the Northwest Territories. Again, it's not lost on me, the aspect of safety, and it's not lost on me the costs or the fact that we are behind coverage compared to the rest of Canada. There is a lot of attention on this issue...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, as I was just saying, there are a number of contingencies fairly conservatively built in. I am not expecting right now that there would be any need for this, but it is an item that is, again, put in here to ensure that there is sufficient flexibility and room in the fiscal plan and in the borrowing plan to not have anything unexpected that's not built into what we are projecting. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, you said short questions. The short answer is, yes, we are continuing the conversations with Transport Canada around the aviation sector support. I don't have anything more to say yet, other than just that. We are working on, indeed, a third phase that would, I hope, be similar in nature to a partnership in terms of Transport Canada and the GNWT providing supports. With respect to the cost of living and the wage top-up specifically, that is still ongoing right now. Those funds have not been exhausted. As for the specific timeline over which that will be unfolded, I don't have an...