Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a four-year, four-fiscal-term agreement, so it will be running until 2023. I'm sorry; I'm having trouble hearing the Member, so I think I may have missed some of his question. I will put my earpiece on. I apologize if I didn't hear all of it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me this afternoon, I have Jamie Koe, deputy secretary to the Financial Management Board, and Terence Courtoreille, the director of the Management Board Secretariat.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Interestingly, as I understand it, right now at the airport in Fort Smith, they are, in fact, using the grader and snow blower and other machinery, and that by investing with funds that are fully offset by Transport Canada, they will actually be freeing up the machinery to do other work in the community. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020,” and “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2019-2020.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our environmental assessment takes us to the Nunavut border. As I said earlier, there is going to be, most likely, some partnership ongoing with Nunavut on the Kitikmeot side, but that that portion of it would be, I presume, under their jurisdiction to manage.

The viability of this project and the importance of this project to the Northwest Territories relates entirely to the possibility and the potential within the Northwest Territories. There are believed to be tremendous mineral resources within the Slave Geologic area. This is an opportunity to, in fact, study this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Certainly, as I mentioned, in order to have this project being shovel-ready, it will require baseline studies to understand the current situation facing the wildlife in the area and in the region, as well as conducting whatever studies will be no doubt required for the environmental assessment process that I expect would be required for this kind of level of project. That part of the money will be going precisely to do that, to engage in that process, to engage in that study, to ensure that we have the baseline data, and to ensure that we are prepared, going forward...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, there was. In order to partake in the Trade Corridors Fund, there was a complete business case assessment done. It was my understanding that quite a bit of that information was shared during the last Assembly, but I'm sure that what was sent to prior committees can be resent to the current committees as they are constituted, so that the information about the business case can be provided.

I think the next step is that a matter will come to Cabinet, and after, it will, I am sure, receive a thorough review at this stage. Depending on what comes to Cabinet, then it goes forward into the process. As far as a timeline, I would think, at this point, we are expecting a next step over in Cabinet within the next month or two, keeping in mind that the Department of Finance also involves preparing the budget and that people are fairly flat-out in that regard. I am tempted to say the spring. We will know one way or the other where the winds will blow. That is probably the best I can give...

I appreciate that this shows people are listening to a Minister's statement. I acknowledge certainly, and I believe the department acknowledges, that we can and should, must, do a better job of getting word out on the programs that we have. There are good programs in the GNWT to support the development of our staffing and the development of a representative workforce. This is a good program, and it is one that the Member has pointed out rightfully is perhaps being underutilized. There is more space to utilize it. So, as I have said earlier today, we are committing to improving our...

In 2018-2019, there were seven in Yellowknife, one in Fort Smith, one in Behchoko, and three in Inuvik. For 2019-2020, there were an additional two to Yellowknife, three to Inuvik, one to Behchoko, and one to Hay River.