Caroline Wawzonek
Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
The return to work site work plan was put out by the human resources division about, I want to say, a week ago, perhaps two weeks ago. It was circulated in the House. I believe it is actually posted on the website. I will double-check that the link is available and will certainly circulate that again. It is a phased approach. It is a phased approach that looks at ensuring those who are already back at work can continue to be at work, that the increase in the number of people who are able to return to work in a more formal capacity, and that, as the Emerging Wisely plan unfolds, that the GNWT...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Generally, I think the Member is accurately stating it. Just by way of a bit of a further example, the secure image management is quite specific to the DMV because it involves, as I said, facial recognition and the printing of actual licences that have people's photos on it. The Enterprise licensing and permitting system is intended to be the e-service delivery in order to access licensing and permitting across departments. It is really meant to be a direction in terms of getting us onto a single unified platform for all of the GNWT's general permitting and licensing...
Madam Chair, almost every Minister here is scrambling right now because almost everyone wants to add something. I'm hearing that there are a number of projects that are underway to support moving elders out of Yellowknife and back to their regions, that there are aging-in-place retrofits being looked at for the smaller centres across the Northwest Territories. I'm being reminded, also, that the committee will be seeing, hopefully, a draft of the 2021-2022 Capital Plan by July. Once they see that capital plan, there will be an opportunity for Members from across the Northwest Territories to...
Thank you, Madam Chair. When something is incomplete in the previous year, then it has to get carried over into this year in order to then be continued on with. Especially the Sissons school project, which is multi-year project, the funding that would be approved in one year still needs to get reapproved into subsequent years.
Again, I don't know exactly what stage the project is at, and if the Member wants a more specific answer, I can certainly turn this back to the Minister of education, but the overall school project is a multi-year project. For that reason, the funding will have to get...
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 7, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures) 2020-2021 be read for the for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Any major policy changes would certainly be accompanied by a communications plan, and it has been our practice, of course, to share it with Members first before handing it out to the media. At this point, I don't see why we would do anything differently.
Madam Chair, FMB will sit on an emergency basis if it needs to, as it has been throughout the last several months as we have been dealing with COVID-19. That won't change in the next couple of months. As the Minister of ECE has already noted, there needs to be determination within the department whether or not they need to come back to FMB for money or whether they can find other sources of funding. I am confident in relying on what the Minister of ECE has said, that as soon as they have made that decision, if they need to come to FMB, we don't need a lot of turnaround. There won't be any...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know the exact stage of the project. I can find out the stage of the project, and that would hopefully provide the Member with a bit more certainty as to the timing of the project and how that would benefit, hopefully, his members.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, the priorities of the Assembly are the priorities of the Assembly and not only those of Cabinet. This is not the first time that I've had the chance to hear what previous Finance Ministers may or may not have done. I have no difficulty in saying that I am who I am, and I intend to follow through on promises that I make. Madam Chair, I have already gone through the process of asking the department why I see certain words over and over again, giving me general explanations. If there is an explanation, then we should be following through on it and fixing the...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am happy to make sure that we give those commitments and provide that information, but I don't have that information on the infrastructure supp. I only have information regarding how much is being carried over from last year to either continue the work that is under way or to follow through on contracts that were previously signed. I am quite confident that the Minister of ITI is going to have to give a fairly detailed briefing about the stage of the fishing projects and these particular projects, likely in advance of the capital plans that are coming forward in July...