Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we talk about the value of tourism in the Northwest Territories, we often speak in terms of the dollars spent and the number of visitors tallied. In 2018-2019, the tourism industry showed record numbers in both of these categories, emphasizing once again that the approach to, and investments in, our Tourism 2020 Strategy are working. In fact, over the last five years, we have increased the number of visitors to our territory by 42 percent and boosted spending by 43 percent.

As we look to grow and diversify our territory's economy, these figures are important to our...

I will have to get back to the Member with a written response to that question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not know when that will be complete.

Yes, I can provide the costs of what that would be. Again, I would have to get that information off of the department. I don't think it is as easy as just shutting down for Monday and opening up on Saturday, because there are, like I said, other ramifications to deal with having people in the building on a weekend when the rest of the building is not occupied. That includes, at this moment, the response team within the building, which does involve using staff that is in the building already who would, then, not be there on a weekend. Again, I will commit to the Member. We can give him a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On this, the last day of session before International Women's Day, I speak to honour all the women in my life who have fought for equality and have inspired me. It's no secret to those around me that advancing the situation of women and girls is near to my heart and, in fact, it was one of the main drivers for me to enter the realm of politics. In my career as an engineer, and throughout my life, I have often found myself with no voice and no support. I have been the recipient of unwanted touching on the work site, from unsolicited shoulder rubs to the touching of my...

There is no problem, other than departments are very busy. I do commit to finishing this review before the end of the Assembly.

No, I won't make that direction at this time, because, while the Regular Member does not maybe have to worry about the cost, I do. Therefore, I will look at the costs; if it does make sense, I will do what I can for this to be a win for the Member with his constituents. However, I do need to factor in the costs of the budgets of my department.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the entire cost of adding one extra day, versus moving days around, I don't have that number in front of me. However, it would be the staffing for at least one employee there for the hours. Then, there would be security needed, if that was on a weekend; so that's $22 per hour for security. There would also be issues with the HVAC systems. Buildings are turned off, generally, over weekends and in the evenings, so that would also be an additional cost to building maintenance that we would have to deal with. I am not sure if we would have to look at things like...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we do have funds available through existing programs, which can be accessed for this kind of equipment. They would include the SEED program, or Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development policy, and the Commercial Fisheries Industry Support Program. I can also confirm we have provided funding for GPS equipment in the past, and we’re going to continue to make this part of our discussion as we go through the process of revitalization.

As mentioned, the cap in the regulations relates to the no-fault portion that an operator would be required to pay. Those regulation provisions will be part of the review that the department is undertaking. Without having had their input on that review, I do not want to make that commitment at this time to the Member.