Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is certainly good news, and it's something that I've been advocating for, mostly by email of course, outside of session, and so it is really nice to -- it is nice to hear that. I have some constituents that will be very pleased to hear about that so appreciate that information from the Minister and encourage the department to keep working with the department of health on coordination and certainly hope that those extra staff help to alleviate the burden a bit.

To turn back to the line of questioning that the Member for Great Slave brought up, that Cameron Hills...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's it for questions for this section at this time. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, that's news to me, Mr. Chair, that the heritage fund annual report is tabled every year. I was under the impression that hasn't been happening and that they've been effectively relying on the public accounts for reporting. So can you just clarify for me -- I mean if an annual report, which follows the kind of rules and the final planning and accountability framework for annual reporting, you know, an auditor's report, management discussion and analysis, and -- yeah, analysis providing an overview of the previous year operations, how the year will influence decisions...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I get the point, and I understand what the Minister is saying here, but I guess, you know, there's lot of initiatives that we spent a lot of money on year after year. This is one that could help us eventually figure out what programs we need to change or potentially even let go of. I think -- you know, I think this is kind of a -- one of those scenarios where we might need to spend a little bit of money to save some more. And, yeah, it's something that I'd like to -- I'd like to kind of run up the flagpole as an important initiative and I think something that could be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, the Minister in her response to my first question kind of alluded to the fact that she's waiting for some direction from the Aurora College board. Has she received any indication that this is going to be the year that we go out and start championing this project? I appreciate her saying that she's willing to go with them to Ottawa, that she's willing to go out, and I definitely think we need that kind of Team NWT approach since we like to talk about teams like Team Canada, but, Mr. Speaker, has she received any indication that that's happening and is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I reiterated my concerns about what we're missing out on by not moving forward quickly enough with the polytechnic transition and, as such, I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Speaker, why is our Minister not out championing the polytechnic transition and seeking funding to implement the facility's master plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly I'm looking forward to checking that dashboard out. If the Minister wants to shoot me a message on Teams or email, I'd love to have a link to that. And, yeah, I have a lot of curiosity around this item, but I'm out of time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we often hear the saying in sports, you miss 100 percent of the shots that you don't take. Well, Mr. Speaker, I want to suggest that the same thing is true in terms of attracting funding for government projects, funding for projects such as the polytechnic university. And I want to speak a little bit today about what we're missing out on by not bringing the polytechnic to fruition as quickly as we need to.

Mr. Speaker, in November, Inuit Nunangat University initiative received $50 million donation from the Mastercard Foundation, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to ask the same question about the Norman Wells. What in Norman Wells is costing us $8 million?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I guess the next question for me -- I mean, I'll focus on the Cameron Hills one. Can the department explain for me kind of what exactly they're talking about there? Like, how did the department end up with a $21.2 million environmental liability in Cameron Hills, and can they maybe explain to us a little bit, you know, how do we end up with a liability and is this something that the government's now responsible for and actively working to clean up? What is being captured under this $21.2 million, the activity. Thank you.