Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with respect to the Inuvik facility, it is not my understanding that there was a change to the Act, but rather a challenge with terms of the actual structure of the building itself and challenges in terms of staffing it.

With respect to other facilities that remain underutilized, the Trailcross facility in Fort Smith is also underutilized, and the community is looking at an opportunity to have that rendered as a surplus. So that is also a facility that comes from a correctional background, but the community is actively already engaged in what they can do to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I may be responsible for financial management board management, the Premier's office is responsible for the relationship with NGOs. And right now, in EIA's business plans for the next four years, there's a significant amount of work planned out to happen in this space to ensure that there's the advisory group that is formed to provide exactly the kind of feedback that the Member is asking and that the recommendations from the report of, I believe 2023, can be looked at towards implementation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the existing or the specific amounts under the MOU in front of me. I'll have to just double check. There's been no reductions to the Taltson work, and there is federal funding involved. And, as I understand it, the federal funding that we have does take us forward to a point that is satisfactory to get this work done. So I've not been under any impression of any cuts or funding drawbacks. I expect that if there was an understanding from the federal government -- or from the Indigenous governments, then it should indeed be there and be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Subject, obviously, to finding an opportunity to meet with these producers, what I could say is we can have a review in front of the financial management board this summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity to tour the facility here and meet with the producers, and I've heard from them that they certainly would, sounds like, prefer to see a discount on the retail end price as opposed to on the markup price. Mr. Speaker, we've certainly had that conversation many times. No doubt it would -- I can't say whether it would make a difference for them. You know, at this point I'd need to know what their numbers are. I can commit to reviewing the policy again. We've done that in the past. We've done that in response to this industry, prepared...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a great many struggles across this Northwest Territories right now, whether it's the public service that's struggling, whether it's NGOs delivering services that are struggling, whether it's residents who are struggling, residents in the Sahtu right now are struggling. So it is difficult to have a line item or an announceable in a budget that addresses every single one of the struggles that we are having in the territory right now coming off of four years of struggle. There's a lot of struggle. No, there is not a line item that says, this NGO...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, going to bat to ensure that multi-year funding agreements are available is certainly something that I've already fought for and that is now quite widely available, and we'll certainly be dulling that down, that message, as I know my deputy minister already has with his colleagues at my request, that multi-year funding agreements are available. They've been available for the government for a long time. They come with the caveat that we only approve budgets here once a year. That applies to every department and everything we do, including the contribution...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some good news to report in a broad sense. The project for the Taltson watershed area and the potential expansion of the Taltson is proceeding under an MOU. And it's an MOU that involves the Akaitcho First Nations as well as Metis governments of the region and of the Taltson watershed. And we've had more than one steering committee already in the time of this government. One, in fact, in person, where the group travelled to see what underwater tables would look like along with members of the steering committee as well as members of their council. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly happy to do that. As I've said, I understand they've looked at having a retail end point. Our perspective has been to put at the markup, which is really the end that we control. So to ensure that we all move forward on a policy that makes sense to everyone, if we're going to do this review, I'd be happy to meet with them and make sure that we're all speaking the same language. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a policy in place from the financial management board that supports having our local producers receive a discount on the markup. So the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission places a markup on all cannabis products that come for sale in the North. For our cannabis producers here locally, any cannabis producers here locally, they get a 10 percentage point discount, which equates in real numbers to being almost a 30 percent discount on that markup. Thank you.