Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The business advisory council is one of the three advisory bodies that our government is looking to put in place to guide our actions going forward. We have received initial input from the Members, so thank you for that, and we have incorporated their feedback into our terms of reference as well as our composition.

I appreciate it has now been just over two months since I and Minister Wawzonek first announced the proposed establishment of the council. It was partly due to our subsequent decision to establish the other two councils and then create an overarching theme...

Yes, the website is updated, and things are finalized. We do encourage people to continue to check the website regularly as things do change, and if the situation were to change. We are looking at our fuel supply model. That has definitely been something that has been raised with us. We did have a discussion yesterday about that. I believe the Member had to leave. We recognize that we need to look at our model and ensure that it does meet the efficient supply and resupply of the communities. As well, too, to make sure we have some reliability and redundancy within the models. We are definitely...

No, there were no errors made during the changes to the Fort Smith runway. What I will acknowledge, though, is that it does sound like the engagement was not done properly, or to the liking of the Member and her community, therefore I do commit that the Department of Infrastructure will do better. We recognize that residents and community leaders in Fort Smith are concerned with the recent changes to the runway and the community, so we commit to having a conversation to explain why the runway narrowing happened. The improvements to the runway will position the department to effectively and...

Construction on the project began in May of 2019. Subsequent to that, Northwestern Air Lease, the local air carrier, and the town and local bands raised concerns to the Minister of Infrastructure and in the media. Additional information was provided to these groups to confirm that the concerns they raised were taken into consideration during the planning of the project, and to reaffirm that the level of service at the Fort Smith airport has remained the same. The project proceeded because it addressed the current and future operational needs of the airport.

With the way the structure of the council is working, it is to have the representatives be fed up through the organizations that we have contacted, so the idea being that those organizations will do the work themselves, and then their representative will bring it forward. Through that manner, members of those organizations will input on things within the council. I would imagine, as anything else, I have always expressed that my department is open to any sorts of feedback or comments or conversations, so I would still commit that again. If there are people who have concerns about the council...

We have contacted the organizations that we are using to sort of staff or populate the councils, so the idea is to organize within either this week or by the end of next week a membership meeting with them.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my understanding there is no criteria. I am just wondering if it's perhaps an education piece, that we maybe need to be letting people know that they could kind of come together with a proposal that would have more of a significant build or such. I am almost wondering if this is perhaps a function of small businesses just accessing the pot on their own and nobody really thinking to get together to create a large proposal for accessing the funding. My understanding, there is no criteria or limits to what could be accessed; it's just a request, and then the funding...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to hand this over to Dr. Dragon. Thank you.

[Microphone turned off] ...I apologize, but it's just that last bit of the question. I definitely would commit to having this conversation with the federal government about having the Tlicho involvement from the start. Once we have that funding, that conversation is going to begin with the Tlicho government. I made a promise to those chiefs, and I made a promise at roundup in front of those chiefs of what I was going to be doing with my department to ensure that Northerners worked and that we built meaningful Indigenous businesses out of that. I still stand behind that commitment, and I commit...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I definitely commit to having a look at this and taking the Member's points under notice and having that conversation with him. It sounds like he has lots of great ideas, so I would suggest that, if he wants to put them together and send them to me, that would be great. We will be having, as I said, that fulsome procurement review across departments. I understand that that will probably take longer than the Member would like, but that is the nature of what we have to do. We have noted the policy comment, and we will definitely incorporate that into our review. Thank you...