Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to acknowledge I have become a bit of a generalist in this job, not an expert. So I'm not going to purport to be an expert in flattening hierarchies. I certainly will commit to take that back to the Department of Finance. We -- you know, things have come up here over this last session,b looking at Indigenous hiring, looking at empowering public servants, and looking at morale. And so I've already asked that the department and I sit down and take all those under consideration as soon as session's over. I'm going to add flattening hierarchy to that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be more than happy to encourage every public servant to take the opportunity to use, whether it's the red tape reduction working group firstly, which @email -- always happy to get that in when I can. But to submit if there's a specific process that is burdensome. Obviously it's the frontline workers who know that best. If they're running into a process, running into a program, running into something internally or even outward facing that is red tape-esq, then raising it specifically to the attention of this group is really quite important...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't present at the meeting so I'm not going to try to quote anyone that was present. Mr. Speaker, whenever there is a situation where individuals or staff are facing a change in their status, we have what are called the staff retention policy guidelines. We have staff retention policy, and we always make every effort to ensure that any employee who is facing a change in their status of employment has that full benefit.

What happens is that under the staff retention policy, a staff member would get a 21-week notice period. That clock starts to run when...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe there are still conversations underway right now with the Department of Finance on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories and NorthwesTel. We were also involved just this past summer and into the fall in terms of producing -- or, rather, providing completion of a fibre line all the way up into Tuktoyaktuk, and stemming from those conversations we were -- again, this is part of the -- part of the bigger conversation that's happening with them about how we can maximize the services in the telecommunications space in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is a part owner on a P3 which is the Mackenzie Valley fibre line that goes up the Mackenzie Valley. And recently, we are now connected in to a project that goes through the Yukon which is creating a loop that goes down into British Columbia. So we are well underway to having a loop that connects all throughout the two territories. And of course then beyond that, there are services that go down into Alberta through our line or through British Columbia through the other line. So once that is all in place, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: The 70th Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission 2023-2024, and the 70th Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board Enforcement 2023-2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say at this point staff are not being given layoff notices, but we are trying to take a much more proactive approach here. As such, there was an informal initial meeting held in October 25th with some senior members from the Department of Justice, Department of Finance, human resources, in order to start to communicate to staff so that when the time, it does come, that the funding here is for one year, and so if the time is coming up, rather than waiting until formal notices are provided that staff actually have information in advance, they could have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have what's called an indefeasible right of use or the ability to use the line that goes from McGill Lake down into British Columbia. That's that last piece that connects our loop. It ensures that we are using -- we have the ability to use that infrastructure which would otherwise be entirely that of NorthwesTel just as -- as there's agreements with us and the government of the Yukon to use either side of this network or the loop, as I was describing earlier. Mr. Speaker, with respect to what happens after McGill Lake, that piece does belong to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project certainly was -- did get to -- or was delayed over the last short while. I can say that at this point there's been some positive developments that at this point we are working with the Tlicho-Kiewit partnership, and it is expected that there's going to be a start-up project -- start-up discussions have already begun. This -- for this year, this concurrent year, there's a production of aggregate underway and the next stages would have an estimated completion date -- I believe the construction itself will start in 2026, so in the next fiscal, with a...

Mr. Speaker, this has the ring of a Minister's statement. There's so much that really needs to be said in this space. The territory has a population that is not reflected in the public service right now and arguably never has been, so we need to get to a place where that changes. I can only imagine that that impedes people's morale. That would make certainly sense to me if you don't feel -- see yourself reflected around you or in the services that you are receiving as a resident. So I want to reflect that first as just understanding the gravity and importance of this.

It also -- if we can get...