Lesa Semmler

Thank you. And one last request. I would ask that the same penalties be put in place if they don't follow obligations. Would the Minister be considering that as well or bring that to her board when they put it under consideration? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's great news. And I'd also like to ask the Minister if within the discussion that they bring up with the board, you know, making sure that when they do it that the same things are put in place, the review, the followup, is put in place so that way they can ensure that any contracts that are given to corporations that they're following through with the commitments that they make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my last supplementary, will the Minister commit if obligations aren't met, that there are penalties going to be put in place so we can ensure that Northerners and northern companies benefit fully in the future? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also ensure that all Crown corporations that receive public dollars that we sit in this House do approve must comply to ensuring that they are following the same mechanisms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today was going to be on homelessness but I have decided at the last minute that I'm going to talk about one of our mandate priorities is, you know, in this House when the 19 Members came together, one of the biggest issues that we talked about was contracting and keeping the work in the North, you know. And, you know, we've had lots of talks about this, you know, we've talked about revamping our procurement, our Indigenous procurement policies. So when I look back and thank the Minister for her statement because you know what, I'd really...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 23, Bill 29, and Committee Report 2719(2), and I would like to report progress. And Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

What is the wish of committee? Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I fully understand that there's different needs. I've read the policies. I understand the community. I know that there's corporations companies that are in the region that probably could have got the job done months ago when it was first, but that is it why I'm asking for this review to be done because this are things in place within Power Corp within the Power Corp, within the Housing Corporation, that we have locals that can do these jobs and we need to ensure, as a government, that we are putting those things in place, whether they're Crown corporations. These are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question will be for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Kind of in the line of my questioning with the procurement as the Minister of ITI under the review said, you know, they don't really have a say over what the Power Corp Crown corporations do. Would the Minister be with her board, which is a lot of our deputy ministers that are working in the procurement, would she consider looking at the way that their procurement review is done to ensure that northern businesses benefit from contracts as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister also commit to ensure that there are processes? We can have all the procurement rules and establish how we are an NWT business, but if there's no reporting or no followup on things that are put on these companies, then if they're not meeting the obligations that we set in this new procurement review, then the review is, in my words, would be worthless. So will the Minister commit to making sure that there are ways to be following up on these mechanisms? Thank you.