Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, firstly, the rough math of about $50 million is correct insofar as what I've listed here. There's additional money that we get from the federal government, so this is not the sum total of all that we spend. And, indeed, there is some further and additional funds that do go towards the climate change framework that is out of my colleague's department in ECC. The energy action plan or the energy strategy that is being renewed right now, some of that I can list out as being at around $2.1 million, but that does not necessarily include staffing costs that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to lay out why I make this point of privilege this morning -- or this afternoon. There's two parts to meet the initial threshold. Question of privilege, as you know, Mr. Speaker, must be raised at the earliest opportunity. The nature of the matter described must show on its face to be a breach of privilege.

Mr. Speaker, I became aware of some accusations made last night only after the rise of House. This is my first opportunity to bring this matter forward. As to the second part of the test, I'd like to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the MLA for Kam Lake I think touched on majority of what I wanted to ensure was clear which, namely, is that this is, again, voting to take $5 million out a budget for a department takes 5 plus million dollars out of the budget for the department. Period. There is no guarantee as to whether or not Aurora College will or will not come back with a plan that any of us find palatable. There is no guarantee that ECE will be able to find other staff since they will not have the $5 million allocated to this initiative -- that they will have other staff to support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe at least one, if not two or three, such requests have already come in, and we certainly will do our best to make sure we're coordinating with all colleagues here for folks -- to the best of our ability that there's not a delay or that there's an ability to be a bit flexible where feasible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Happy to say that the silos certainly are breaking down, in my view, over the last five years or so, and I've actually been recently working with housing and MACA on other funding opportunities trying to get the federal government, quite frankly, to be more flexible with us. So certainly happy to commit to have that conversation with my colleagues if there is anything that we can do more likely to lobby the federal government as opposed to finding things that are sitting there waiting for us to come take them, but certainly happy to commit that we will do that and go...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 19-20(1), Report on the Statutory Review of the Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have a good relationship with the mayor of Yellowknife and, again, I don't want to create false hope that I have great faith that there's an easy pot for us to latch onto in the federal system right now. They, of course, are going through their own political changes, it would seem, in the next few months. But, again, certainly will commit that, at least from the Department of Infrastructure, to the extent that we are aware and do work with federal funding opportunities, again, we'll work with my colleagues here, and between myself and the Minister of MACA...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not an independent pot of money that sits in the Department of Infrastructure. We do manage infrastructure demands that come from individual departments. So, for example, if MACA were to advance an initiative of some sort, then certainly that could come and we could support the design and the build of it, etcetera, but we don't have an independent set of money, like a federal department might, for individual projects of that nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's sometimes forgotten that the Inuvik Wind Project also included with it a battery system that allows for greater integration of renewables. And to that end, while there are still some -- there were still some deficiencies over the course of the fall, it is expected that ultimately the solar array will be delivering up to1000 kilowatt hours to the grid. Again, just working out some of those kinks, but that is still expected to ultimately be the source of power that's integrated into that system. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 11-20(1), Report on the Review of the 2023-2024 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Equal Pay Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.