Caroline Wawzonek

Madam Chair, I know there is quite a lot of ongoing work with the city. Let me see if I can get the latest on where that is at from Deputy Minister Strand, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Community Futures Regional Relief and Recovery Fund: the purpose there is to fund Community Futures organizations, which are in individual communities across the Northwest Territories and specifically with respect to COVID-19 impacts on those communities, outside of the regional centres in particular, so anything from short-term stability for the communities, various economic readiness activities. It includes small, repayable loans to some of the local small- and medium-sized businesses. Again, it's an infusion of funding to those Community Futures organizations that is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a busy unit. It has a lot going on and across different areas of the department. This is where the socio-economic agreements reside. This will be where the remediation work, the remediation economy resides. This is where the Northwest Territories geological survey resides with all of its scientists. There's actually only a small percentage that is minerals specific. It is quite wide-ranging and quite broad. We have our client services community relations section that's here which supports, in fact, small businesses and small prospectors to take action and to be...

This actually allows me to answer the last part of the previous question that I realize I didn't get to. With respect to curriculum, that certainly falls very much within ECE's purview. With respect to the kind of programming and opportunities that are available for students in high school in a young age bracket, I absolutely will commit to speaking with ECE, with my colleague, to see what we can do so that we can find some complementary programs and ideas. One thing, Mr. Speaker, that ITI is right now at the idea stage of, and it's an exciting stage, is looking at bringing junior achievement...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Fisheries regulations specifically, to the extent that there would be changes, they may well involve either ENR or the Department of Oceans and Fisheries from the federal government. The work that we are doing right now, from ITI's end, is to support, firstly, the Tlicho Fishers Cooperative, as they are getting ready to operate the fish plant that is being built as well as working with some of the other Indigenous governments or communities around the lake to build up their capacity, whether in terms of training or whether in terms of local processing, small-scale micro...

Thank you, Madam Chair. No. Madam Chair, just confirming. I did certainly confirm back with the department after the discussion here in the House that there is continued interest to have some sort of a coupon once again. Hearing it on the floor of the House is an important tool that raises its profile in the department, so we are well aware, and we want to have that ready to go. As I said, again, the dates for bookings do open in May, so a bit of time, but we want the information out. I am conscious of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I don't have my tourism section open just now, but there is a close relationship, obviously, working with federal partners. It is our intention, much as when COVID first hit, to continue to work with them to understand what they are able to fund so that we are prepared to support their programs, complement their programs, or fill gaps if there are any. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can certainly go through the details of what is specifically ongoing right now. I'm not seeing that we've added one, but let me just double check that back over with Deputy Minister Strand, please.

Madam Chair, typos are pretty rare in the main estimates. No, it's not a typo. Look, the mineral resources sector has had some pretty significant struggles over the last year and, we are expecting, likely will continue to have some pretty significant ups and downs in the year to come. The estimates in the forecast are perhaps a bit conservative, but I suspect the Minister of Finance would rather have a conservative estimate than have a wide variation in terms of the own-source revenues that we are expecting to have come in. If, in fact, the diamond markets continue to rebound, as they seem to...

BDIC's statistics do show that approximately nine percent of total loans go to businesses where women are the sole proprietor. Approximately, 55 percent of total loans go to those where there's a woman who is, at least, a part-owner of the business.