Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is right now a request for proposals out. That closes on November the 8th, Mr. Speaker. There's also a separate procurement process in place looking to actually have a new lease for the space where we would be able to sell -- or where a proponent would be able to sell alcohol in the North -- in Inuvik, the hope being that by splitting up the contract a little more it brings on, perhaps, a bit of competition and an opportunity to try to keep some costs a little bit lower, understanding that it's getting more expensive to do just about everything in the North. So...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will try not to take the full ten minutes here. Mr. Chair, I wanted to make sure there's some clarity -- I hope there's some clarity around what happens by voting down the capital budget and what message is being, in fact, sent.

Mr. Chair, respectfully, we are saying no to capital projects and to the capital -- when we vote down the capital budget. And contrary to a lot of things often asked about about improving our planning, improving our efficiency, doing better in all of those regards, this does the opposite. We vote down the capital budget, there is no...

Mr. Speaker, when the public utility board, or PUB, accepted the terms of sale from the Hay River utility franchise to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, or NTPC, earlier this year, it set a deadline of October 30th for the filing of a general rate application, or GRA, by all Northwest Territories' utility companies. On Wednesday afternoon, NTPC filed a GRA, and so over the next several months, the PUB will review the application to ultimately determine whether the costs that NTPC has presented are reasonable and reflect the true cost to deliver electricity.

The GRA process is managed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do have some closing remarks with respect to the consideration of the capital estimates. Mr. Chair, I would obviously like to support the 2025-2026 Capital Estimates that are still currently under review by this committee. These estimates outline a significant investment of over $339 million in the Northwest Territories to support essential infrastructure. They advance several key projects across the Northwest Territories, and they provide procurement opportunities for businesses around the Northwest Territories.

These proposed capital estimates, Mr. Chair...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there's a private company out there that thinks they can make money selling power in the territories without a large industrial consumer, I am open to hearing about it. Right now, Naka Power obviously saw themselves chosen against in Hay River and, unfortunately, that led to ten years of litigation. But the decision by the PUB to allow that sale to go forward is what has now led to the filing of the GRA. So, again, individual communities can make their choices about distribution agents. Naka Power is a private corporation. They draw private rates. They...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of those policy changes have been under development for many years. I've not been in this role a whole year yet myself, but I can say that a lot of research has been done in the Department of Infrastructure, working with colleagues across -- in -- colleagues in the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, other utilities, Indigenous governments, consultations. And Mr. Speaker, I am very much looking forward to an opportunity to start to bring some of those forward I was going to say as soon as possible. I know that people like to have more specific...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to transportation planning studies, we are in discussions with Transportation Canada. They are aware of the challenges of the North. We've raised the number of regulatory problems that continue to arise, which do impact costs and impacts opportunity. So we are in contact with them. Again, I can't speak for where or when Transportation Canada might opt to move forward with us, but we have certainly thus far had a good relationship. I'm hopeful that they will see the need to better understand a region of the country that is unique and distinct...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to say that I have a resident of Yellowknife South here in the room with us today serving as a page, Mr. Ben Mager. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following six documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 11: An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act; Statement of Consistency for Bill 11: An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act; Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1 to June 30th, 2024); Public Service Annual Report 2023-2024; 2024-2025 Consolidated Budget; and, Northwest Territories Carbon Tax Report 2023-2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do want to give another shout out, as I have on more than one occasion, that when we first put out the Restoring Balance initiative, we went to the public service and the public service responded. We had over 900 public servants respond directly with over 1800 suggestions, many of which were directly involved in the planning of how to develop and build up the main estimates within that context, a number of decisions -- or suggestions around efficiencies, department amalgamations, even fleet management came up in the course of there. So those processes and...