Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just trying to pull the report out fast enough. I have it in front of me, Mr. Speaker. But, really, at this point, we -- and I've gone through this many a time. We spend far more as a government on -- in terms of our energy, energy supply, energy policy, climate change initiatives, energy efficiency programs, energy and electricity programs, significantly more there than what we take in on this tax. What we don't do in general, not just with this tax but any other form of tax, any other form of revenue, is pick out a certain type of revenue and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not necessarily designed or intended to run with surpluses. It is intended -- our program is intended to align with the parameters that the federal government has imposed on provinces and territories around the carbon taxation and while doing so, doing so in a manner that we can continue to see some benefits here in the territory by not misaligning with the kind of large emitters that we have. So, again, not designed for surpluses but, again, really designed for that kind of compliance mechanism. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've said, I will go -- I've been waiting to see what is happening on a national level. I'm happy to go back to that group and receive from them and push them to see what their recommendations are. If it's possible to put those into a regulatory process, that's a little bit faster. If we're talking about a new piece of legislation, that is obviously not typically a lot faster. So let me go and see what they are recommending on a national level so that we can then look to where we could fit that into our process. In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this did certainly come back through my office, and I recall that it was not deemed to be appropriate to put into the miscellaneous statutes bill. Mr. Speaker, there is some work happening on a national scale. So some jurisdictions, larger jurisdictions than ours, are in a better capacity to maybe perhaps do their own thing, but there is also a national level working group that is trying to tackle this issue, and we are relying on them so that as a smaller jurisdiction we can benefit from the work that happens in the larger jurisdictions and not have to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can speak for the work that's happening within the Department of Finance and that has been underway for sometime. We have advocated and continue to advocate to CRTC, as well as to federal colleagues, in ISED responsible for the broadband fund, that these funding pots need to be available to support telecommunications around the territory, around remote communities, and to better support these access points. So this was an opportunity when we saw some increases in funding. For example, when the broadband line went up to Whati, it was an opportunity for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the importance of ensuring that we get now a process as well that's clear and that's well thought out in terms of what we are looking for before the expression of interest goes out, designing a matrices of board composition. This is actually the kind of work that's been happening slowly over the last few years in the GNWT, is to move a lot more boards towards having a matrices of what competencies are required for success, what kinds of backgrounds, what kinds of education, what kinds of regional representation, to ensure that the board is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the challenges of some projects is on -- when there's federal funding and moving too quickly. That has certainly been a concern. The other problem is not having enough planning time done. So, Mr. Speaker, something folks may have noticed in the last couple of weeks is that there often are planning dollars associated to projects rather than the big dollars associated to the announcement of the project. Mr. Speaker, it doesn't look very exciting in a budget but it means that we're actually putting something out, taking the time to do the design and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've rather made a bit of an effort here since the start of the Members' statements to try to figure out the reference that was made. Mr. Speaker, the best I can discern, if we're going to actually speak about data, that this came from Open NWT's data source; it's a reference that goes back to 2004 listing, 2,000 contract that is go back some 20 years. I will note the last three years have single digits in terms of the count of contracts that have had change orders and would suggest that, perhaps, the situation is not as dire as it used to be in fact.

Moreov...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do want to speak to the letter that was sent, much of which was ultimately read into the House.

Mr. Chair, that letter was very lengthy and spoke at many points about wanting to see a plan, see a cultural shift, to see leadership change, then in other respects to see a plan, again, to see more changes in policy, to see changes in procedure, to see action plans, to see ambitious planning, and so on and so forth. That's not all that was there, Mr. Chair. I certainly don't want to leave that impression either. But that is a lot of requests for different plans...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've also been hearing from residents in Inuvik asking why alcohol prices, liquor prices are going up. Again, at this point, Mr. Speaker, the prices on our end haven't changed. Why there needed to be an extension, I've made that inquiry as well. It does seem like there was a delay -- that the last contract was coming due, there was a delay in getting this one out, so there's now an extension in place and so that there can be sales available for residents in Inuvik. And as I said, the new RFP is now out looking for a permanent proponent. Thank you.