Caroline Wawzonek

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Madam Chair. A few comments. I meant what I said earlier, some time ago now, in my first budget speech. A budget is a collective effort and a collaborative approach will be the best way to build a financial plan for this fiscal year and beyond. Through this budget session, we have worked with Regular Members to evaluate our priorities with the result that we are committing $1.9 million in additional investments to round out the 2020-2021 Budget. These additional investments include the following:

$600,000 to support the revitalization of Indigenous languages. We will contribute $150...

I would love to give another really quick answer. Let me go so far as to say "yes, probably." However, what I'm concerned about is: the example being given is the budget, which is certainly numerical, very quantitative, and in that regard, probably much easier to simply turn around into excel spreadsheets. In speaking about whenever the government puts out information, that opens up a door that I'm not prepared to make that commitment to. In some regard, yes, there should be a policy to make government information more accessible, easier. When it's quantified like a budget, that's not a...

That's a slightly more difficult question to answer. I took note yesterday when the Member gave a very impassioned speech about the importance of being quick, sometimes, with what government does. Certainly, in our COVID-19 response this government has been nimble and quick and responsive, in my view. Taking action with government data that includes personal information, private information, health information, information with all sorts of privacy concerns, privilege concerns, labour relations concerns, that is not something that we're going to be able to rush through quickly. The information...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can reassure the Member I think in this case that, while I don't necessarily know all the reasons why the past iteration of the committee might have been hesitant or in terms of what they're funding, there are two things that are happening that I think are positive. The biggest one is that the committee members have now met in person. They met in person; November 25, 2019, was the first time they met in person in, I'm told, quite a long time. I had the opportunity to meet with them. They sat down. They were really brainstorming around where they want the committee to go...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I suspect many of the other creditors might still be fully compiling some of the data, we are in no different of a position than many others in that regard. I can say that in 2019-2020 the GNWT did collect $14.6 million in terms of taxes. Obviously, I'm not sure if that's necessarily the same. With COVID-19 some of the reporting dates have been deferred and delayed so that data is going to still have to continue to come in. We do, again, have the royalties that do come into us. Again, that reporting date was delayed. In addition to which, under regulation, I'm unable...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We certainly can provide the metrics in terms of the reduction in wait times. There have been reductions. I'm looking back to 2017-2018, and it's been by 22 percent the one year and then to 29 percent after that. The wait times there are only one metric. That is influenced by the fact that there are now two part-time rental officers hearing that. That changes the wait times, but it doesn't necessarily change some of the other metrics of the service, wait times to a decision. There are other ways of measuring the effectiveness of this public service, and I want to be...

There are three priority needs that are related to broadband and telecoms that have already been identified from the GNWT. The 50 and 10 megabytes per second, that's the speed which has been spoken recently in the House; the importance of resiliency and redundancy in our networks which hasn't come up here but has certainly come up in the past in the House; but the third one is cell coverage. I certainly want the Member to know that I know that this is a priority. It's already a priority within my department. As far as providing that as a service that we have to increase the ability to have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do know that those numbers, the lag time between the filing of an application and the hearing date has been continuously dropping, and indeed, I believe as of February 2020, it was roughly at five to seven weeks, which is an improvement over the last few years, certainly. Some of the initiatives that were undertaken in order to get there were around the fact that they do not need to conduct in-person hearings, and that certainly made it a lot faster. There has also been an attempt to increase the staffing, although I don't know that we are quite yet at two rental...

I am not a risk analyst, and I'm not going to pretend to provide to the House or to the people who are on that highway my own personal views on what is or isn't a risk or how much of a risk it is, but I do acknowledge the point that's being made that there are people on that highway. It's a stretch of highway that, while frequently travelled, still has lots of parts where there are risks in terms of it being a highway. There can be an accident, and then there is maybe no one there coming along who has a phone or a satellite phone. I certainly acknowledge that that's a reality and that there...