Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following ten documents: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 305-20(1): Heating Oil (Infrastructure); Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 323-20(1): Dempster Highway and Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway Conditions; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 325-20(1): Project Cost Overruns; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 343-20(1): Impacts of Climate Change on Winter and Ice Roads; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 374-20(1): Mackenzie Valley Fibre Line Backup; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 421-20(1): Regulations for E-Scooters; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 333...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I'm not mistaken, this particular bill actually might be with committee and so not for me to comment further on here. And as far as trying to circumvent whether or not we're supposed to comply with a federal law, again, Mr. Speaker, the only response I really can give is that we are supposed to comply with the federal law. But, again, the bill is before committee and so certainly happy to see how that process may unfold. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it's -- I mean, I may have my own personal views as well but let's keep it to the processes here. And, Mr. Speaker, if or when this tax gets cancelled on a federal level, this Assembly can certainly expect to be revisiting that issue as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's quite a range of items under this. So as I mentioned, the sort of action committee that's formed from across departments, one of the very first tasks that they, in fact, have is this particular action item. It's to ensure that there are mechanisms and effective mechanisms so that employees can provide feedback and suggestions and in a way that they feel safe.

Mr. Speaker, we do still have, of course, an MOU that exists for safe disclosure that is, frankly, underutilized and so happy to have this opportunity to remind folks that that is there for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the line of questions. This is yet one more of the suite of things that we are trying to address and trying to implement across the human resources processes within the GNWT. We have, as a part of responding to this, now implemented the national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace across the GNWT. So it creates a very specific target by which staff can understand what their rights are and what the processes are and whereby supervisors and managers can have some toolkits available to them.

With respect to that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, when this first went out a year ago, or about 2023, rather, for rounds of consultation, the proposal was to do an approach where we would have First Nations, Inuit, Metis persons or members or descendants from groups within the Northwest Territories' boundaries as a first priority and all Indigenous Canadians second priority. As I said, there are a number of people within the Northwest Territories, Indigenous, who -- part of that process and said, look, this doesn't capture me, please, can it be more inclusive. Again, there's no policy that's going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not looking to take away benefits from Northerners. Firstly, the definition under the affirmative action policy isn't always what people think it is. You can be born in the Northwest Territories and move to anywhere else in Canada. You are still going to be benefitting as a P1. So it's not necessarily as simple as all that. And, yet, that reality has been on the books for 35 years. So there's lots of folks who come up to the North, who live in the North who are not P1s. In fact, they have no category or status whatsoever. There's folks who may live...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the work of committee. I was relatively agnostic towards most of the recommendations and quite happy to just accept them and to -- yes, again, I'm not on the committee. It's a lot of work to go through these things. I'm glad they've done it, and I appreciate the recommendations. This one, obviously, has come up now, and there's been a lot of discussion. I have had a lot of opportunity over the last five years to sit in the witness chair during Committee of the Whole between different departments, particularly the Finance. It is actually a great...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is something that is a commitment from the very end of the last government in carrying forward and one that I'm certainly happy to action. One of the first things that we do need to do is make sure we design what an appropriate and professional board and non-deputy minister board is going to look like. So the intention there is to ensure that we are outlining what the criteria will be for an expression of interest. That is right now underway, determining what that should look like -- it is being led by the Department of Infrastructure -- to ensure...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 16, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2025-2026, be read the second time.

This bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.