Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance does continuous monitoring of the fiscal health of the Government of the Northwest Territories and we do periodic updates to myself, to Cabinet, and to all Members of the House. As part of our capital budget and part of the changes we've made previously, one of those was to do a fiscal update here. And it was in preparations for that that we have identified that, indeed, we would be in a position that we would have to go to Ottawa because we'd be within that $120 million target. That is what led to the letter being sent. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can always do better, we can always do more. So certainly happy to continue the conversation around how to continue to engage our process to be more strategic. I actually did find, Mr. Speaker -- it's the very back page of our capital planning document that's in -- those of us sitting in this House have it here. It's the very back page has the capital planning process in detail. Members of the public will see it in the tabled document. You know, and, again, the infrastructure acquisition plan and the process of GNWT dollars being assigned really does...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to do justice to the process that is undertaken. There is a risk-based analysis that's done. It's done -- it comes up through -- from frontline department staff through to each individual department. There is a peer review process that then goes on where the ranking is reviewed, it goes to an ADM committee where it's again reviewed, and only at that point projects that make it through that process with sufficiently high ranking go on to the deputy ministers and then ultimately on to the financial management board to determine which project might...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate that question. NTPC is very conscious of the fact that they play such a critical role in the Northwest Territories. There's a lot happening on this front. Right now they are working on a continuous improvement initiative which is meant to help manage their project management -- or to improve rather the project management. So, and coming from that one of the things is to look at the Inuvik project and do a bit of a lessons learned, do a bit of a post review of what went wrong and what could be done better. A lot of things went right. It...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a number of challenges that arose in 2019 or post 2019 where budgets and projects that were in the past Assembly -- actually two Assemblies ago now, then run up against COVID. There was a number of delays and as really I think everyone out there, whether it's government procurement or private procurement, saw increases in the huge numbers in terms of what kinds of impacts fuel had, inflation had, interest rates had, labour market challenges had, and the government is no stranger to that. So what we saw across the private sphere certainly impacted...

That's definitely a little outside of my wheelhouse, Mr. Speaker. And I'm honestly just going off of a briefing I happen to have about where I was present with the Minister for housing. So I don't want to commit on her behalf. I know that she feels it's a priority. Again, brought that initiative forward to really help this Assembly to understand how things happen there. So I will commit to getting a number -- or to getting a date, and we'll make sure that that comes back to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to say it again. At this point, the conversation has only just begun. So we've put Ottawa on notice that we're going to be coming to them in order to make this request, that there's more information coming. Our offices here in the Department of Finance and Fiscal Policy are looking at what kind of options we are going to be looking at, what kinds of needs we might have, what is on the capital plan for the next several years, what is in in the operational plan for the next several years. Mr. Speaker, if the Member doesn't believe me when I answered...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT does indeed, it's correct, take under -- undertake, rather, its own capital needs assessment process and that then -- and, frankly, starting from their own LHO. So each individual LHO is feeding up into the Housing NWT's system and then ultimately those reports are coming forward to financial management board when there's an ask put forward to support additional funding based on that work that was happening within the housing LHO to Housing NWT and then to determine what the needs might be. So it still is part of the total fiscal financial...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: 2025-2026 Capital estimates and Public accounts of the Government of the Northwest Territories Section II Interim Non-Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year ended March 31, 2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, let me say I would say not enough conversations. I hope there's more attention paid to these opportunities. It would be expectational to see this kind of funding flow to Indigenous governments here within the Northwest Territories. I know I've mentioned it in passing at Council of Leaders of meetings and in opportunities, for example sitting with colleagues at the Taltson steering committee, and department officials certainly do point their counterparts and colleagues to the 2Y2 Indigenous single window funding portal that exists with the federal government. But, again, any...