Julian Morse

Okay, thank you. I appreciate that answer, and I guess I would just ask back, based on that answer, I mean, what are we doing to support the communities in streamlining whatever reporting process we need to. Just because I think the bottom line here, I think we can all agree, we want this money to get spent, this is money that's coming in from the feds, it's in the communities. We absolutely want those projects getting done. So it's really just a reporting issue. I have a feeling there's a bit more to it than that. But can the Minister just discuss how the department is providing support to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member from Monfwi asking that we went back because we were moving so quick, I missed my questions. But the first question, in this capital plan how much is MACA budgeted to receive in ICIP funding, so the investing in Canada infrastructure program, just to start.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I appreciate that response. However, I think that there's probably some areas where GNWT does have full control over. Even if areas don't have full control, setting them as a priority and saying that we want to get this one done quickly helps us communicate with our various partners as to why we're moving on something quickly. So I would just push back to the Minister. I think it may be helpful to establish a priority list, and it will help us move these things from things that we're working on to things that we have done. So can I just ask the Minister to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT issued a press release today highlighting release of the 2025 Northwest Territories environmental audit, celebrating notable progress over the past five years since the 2020 audit was released. Certainly, I think there have been some positive improvements, and I join the department in celebrating those, however, I also want to note that while identifying some areas of success, the audit team found consistent themes with the previous 2020 audit, including:

Insufficient capacity and inadequate resources to participate in the co-management system;

Insuf...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just noting the shortfall in fire suppression activities. I guess the question I would ask, and I have some comments about it, is just the idea that this was a shortfall, and this wasn't predictable. I think that we are beyond the point where additional resources towards wildfire management are any kind of a surprise or outside of what's normal. It's been a couple of seasons, and I think that this is ongoing, and we just simply need to be budgeting for these activities considering that we're going to be seeing increased wildfire activity for the foreseeable...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm certainly very happy to hear that and very supportive of the Minister and department's efforts on that front. We certainly need it here.

Bjust noting that I'm starting to run out of time, I wanted to move to a different issue, and I do hope some of my colleagues take up the flag on some of the questions I'm leaving on the table with regards to housing money. But I wanted to speak about an issue that's been concerning me. We did ask about this in lead-up to budget. But I'm concerned about the department's capacity to bring all this to fruition. So I'm curious are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister kind of got to my next question which was to be the question of the success of the program. So, considering it's been successful, it sounds like, can the Minister describe the adjustments that are being made to make it more accessible? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that answer. So we're doing $5 million a year. So $10 million a year for effective maintenance. So I guess I would just ask again, and maybe some better clarification could be given, about the $50 million a year deficit that I was under the impression we were in. Can the Minister or her staff just help me better understand that and whether we are getting at that problem. Because -- and I'll just put it quite plainly. My understanding of the issue is that if we aren't addressing the $50 million a year problem of O and M, we're losing units. And so building...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's timeline on the website. Does the Minister have any idea when the physical presence might be possible? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's certainly good news. I think that's it for me for questions on this one. Thanks.