Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Can the Minister tell me if she's aware of, and what they are, the activities that her department is doing to celebrate Engineering Month this month given that all of the NWT or the GNWT's engineers typically reside in the Department of Infrastructure? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, March is National Engineering Month in Canada, and it is our largest celebration of engineering excellence. An annual national campaign, National Engineering Month celebrates engineers, our work, and the important role we play in society.

Spearheaded by Engineers Canada, National Engineering Month this year is guided by the theme "There's a place for you in engineering" which celebrates the diversity of thought, opportunities, and people that make up the engineering profession. In some provinces, you will find geoscientists joining in as part of National...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I also hope that we will be seeing bumps in these line items.

I think another piece that I became live to as an engineer and to my statement, when I was consulting, is really the lack of the intermediate age group in many professions. So in Canada with the Baby Boomers starting to retire, we have, you know, younger people coming in, but we're really missing that intermediate senior level of professional which we can see by all of the, you know, vacancies that we're looking for in the various industries.

So I guess with that in mind, how does the department help with...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, you know, I understand that the federal government has its own sort of relationships with different organizations but as the Minister's aware, and I've recently become aware, you know, with the way that the federal government awards its funding at times there's often a lag in that funding, or if they decide to delay the announcement, and with so many of our NGOs operating on very shoestring budgets and, you know, sort of I want to where residents are living paycheque to paycheque but NGOs are living project funding to project funding, and it's not sustainable; we...

Well, Mr. Speaker, I'd be happy to tell the Minister about what the popsicle bridge building contest is. So for years now the engineers have been sending out to all out of the communities, all the school groups, if they would like to participate a set and series of popsicle sticks and through that they have to construct a bridge. They are provided with the means to transport the bridges back to Yellowknife if they themselves cannot come to the event. I think Canadian North is usually a sponsor of that shipping. And then they bring them here and we use a machine and we crush them, and we see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate that, but I'm disappointed the Minister can't tell the public right now what they are.

Another issue within engineering is that there are only about 13 percent of engineers in Canada who are women, and this is a very stagnant number. When we look at the Department of Infrastructure, it does counter a lot of the other GNWT departments in that it is not a department that has a lot women and particularly not a lot of women that are in technical roles.

Can the Minister speak to how the department is working to increase the diversity of the workforce...

Wrong end of the room. I would like to welcome Natalie Pressman with the CBC that has joined us. It's always nice to have media here. And I can imagine it gets to be quite a long day at times listening to us here. So I appreciate she comes. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know been a very very long week for all of us. That is great. I am not really reassured, though, by waiting to hear what the federal government says and what they're going to do in a national program. To me, again, people speaking to me that, you know or telling me, and even my mom's own, you know, history and experience as a teacher teaching grades 1 and 2, that when kids are showing up to school hungry they don't learn. And given that we're having such an issue in a lot of our sort of social programming areas and wellness areas, you know, in the North, I think this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm well aware; I've heard this department cite many times that it's the feds, it's the feds, it's the feds. Well, then I look at this again as another failure from our Cabinet and our leadership to properly advocate on behalf of the people of our territory. I think all of us in the discussion around child care are well aware that we are not Vancouver, we are not Toronto, we're not even Edmonton. So all I can say is I'm tired of hearing as this as the rationale. We have things in our upcoming bill that aren't even around the funding so I find this to be just a bit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Daycare Act.

Bill 68 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2022 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

On March 1st, 2023, the standing committee held a public hearing and clausebyclause review of the bill with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Six motions to amend the bill were carried by committee and concurred with by the Minister. The committee thanks the Minister and department for their...