Katrina Nokleby

Yes, that would be great if the Minister could provide that. Can the Minister provide us with an update on the tendering for the Prohibition Creek Access Road, a project which is currently infusing $15 million of federal infrastructure money into the Northwest Territories? Can the Minister outline how that project will lead to increased training and economic opportunity for Northwest Territories residents?

If I sound like a broken record, it's because I have often spoken about the need for all season roads. However, I do so again to urge my colleague, the Minister of Infrastructure, to go back to her federal tables and demand better for us; demand that we receive 100 percent funding to build our roads. They are literally the road to economic recovery for many northern businesses. Given the infrastructure deficit the federal government has left us in, the promised highway in the 1970s that never materialized, it is time we remind the Government of Canada that this was not our doing, and that it...

Thank you for that. Forgive me if I do not hold a lot of optimism in the GNWT's renewal and studying and the siloed approach, to then again bringing down our silos as we go through department by department. I really do not see that this is going to lead to a lot other than talking for the next two years, nothing changing, and we continue on in the exact same manner. More of a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just going to ask about the net fiscal benefit transfer to the Aboriginal parties. I'm probably duplicating maybe some of what my colleague was asking around the Heritage Fund, but my understanding is based on percentages of royalties that are earned from the mineral resources sector. Understandably, this is why 2019-2020 is quite a bit lower, but then, again, like everywhere else, we come back to pre-COVID estimations again. I think it's really optimistic to think that we are going to be getting the same type of royalties that we were getting pre-COVID going...

Thank you. I do appreciate that the Minister is cautious about wanting to not take things away that later on are not going to be able to be added back or easily added back. However, I do know that there have to be some very obvious things that are not going to be coming back for the next year, let alone two to three or four years after that, so I kind of wish or I do wish that the government had taken both of the approaches, really. My comment on that is that -- you are waving at me; I have lost my train of thought -- that there should have been. Yes, so my question would be: Would the...

I'm still curious to know what those potentially could perhaps be, but I will move on. I just wanted to come back to some comments made by my colleagues around coming close to the debt limit. I, too, am concerned to see that we are doing a lot of borrowing now and spending a lot of money in what I feel like should start to become more of an austerity type time, not taking on new debt.

However, that being said, when the Minister commented around what she thinks will reduce that or not make us hit that limit, it was about comments around Health and Social Services or the health authorities and...

Thanks for, again, listing all the resources you did yesterday. However, that didn't answer my question as to: Are there safe places in the Northwest Territories for victims to go to that are not in their abuser's home? However, I will follow up with the Minister on that one personally. My next question is: Are people in remote communities being asked to initiate the counselling documentation process from their communities when there is a known lack of resources to do so? How is the department facilitating the use of their services in small communities where the access to technology may be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please explain or describe the COVID protocols and procedures that have been implemented to protect small communities from counsellors who may be travelling in to the Northwest Territories from the South? Are they being vaccinated before they enter the communities and, if not, will she make them a COVID priority group? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that the Minister actually listened to my statement today, so more of a comment that people, as stated, do not want to go to people in their communities and talk to them about their mental health supports so, if we are not facilitating the Health Canada counsellors to come through and help them, which is more anonymous, then I don't really understand how we can stop these people from falling through the cracks. Again, I'll just make more of a comment. I completely disagree with the Minister's characterization of her supports. Thank you.

I respectfully disagree with the Minister on her characterization of the supports the GNWT is providing for mental health. I am glad to hear the helpline is 24/7. There is a website somewhere that I came across the other day that said that it only operated from 7:00 to 11:00, so I'm really glad to hear that. My next question has to do with small communities. Are safe places being developed in small communities where victims can feel safe? Have they been vetted with a COVID lens? What is the department doing to protect vulnerable people in small communities where isolation may be causing more...