Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think that my question was answered there about what projects those are. Like, maybe I guess the better way to ask is which communities are those projects in and how much is that? Thank you.

Thank you. So from listening to that I hear that we don't have like, or I didn't hear an amount; how much money was that? Thank you.

Great, that's amazing, and I will hope to hear that news when it gets received by the department and shared with the rest of us. I think that's great.

I guess I have a question on around escalating costs around our road contracts. Considering that the supply chain is within Northwest Territories itself, can the Minister of the department speak about how why we're seeing such huge increases in our budgeting for these projects given that, really, it's gravel and dirt that's already here in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious to know for the Frank Channel Bridge if we can get an update on where we're at for that oh, sorry, just curious to know given that the life expectancy of the bridge is up in 2024, we don't have the luxury of waiting if this project gets delayed any further, so if I could get an update that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm really glad to hear that the Minister's feeling optimistic about the diamond mines. You know, I guess I'm at a point of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. So it is good to hear that there is a potential but we do know that with the ones that will sunset, it is going to create a bit of an economic hole for us.

Given that the Minister brought this up, I think it's a good opportunity to speak to the Indigenous capacity building. It's my understanding in the past that that money was used for us to take people from Indigenous governments and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI, or as my colleague likes to call her, the Minister of mining. Can the Minister which I think is a good thing, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Minister speak to how the GNWT is facilitating the purchase of the excess hydro power from the Taltson hydro dam for mines or other development projects in the South Slave Region? It seems like a real untapped potential there. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret how important the mineral resource sector is to the Northwest Territories' economy. This reliance is so great that we have spent a lot of time in this Assembly talking about it and we made it one of our priorities. However, the unfortunate reality of a postpandemic world is that these efforts have done little to advance any other sector. None can come remotely close to touching the direct and indirect benefits of our resource sector.

As of 2020, mining, oil, and gas directly represented 25 percent of our GDP. Even as the mining sector...

Thank you, Madam Chair. More of a comment. I just wanted to say that I think it's great that we're moving towards unisex washrooms versus trying to have gendered bathrooms. It makes more sense. It's more diverse, and it allows for us to have flexibility. So us women aren't always waiting on the bathroom and men can wait with us too. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Any information that can be provided I would appreciate it. I want to just talk about the Great Bear River Bridge planning. I remember bidding on this project in 2018, and I'm sitting here now, four years later, and it's not progressing very much. I know that there has been work done but I'm hearing from the communities that the engagement has not been very great and that they're concerned that there's going to be a loss of this money and work outside of the territory. Can the Minister or the department speak a little bit more about what this entails under the planning. Thank...

Thank you. I will follow up to get the amount of that work, I guess, since nobody seems to have that number right now.

My next question then is around oh jeez, where did it go I'm losing my mind here. The community access road improvements. Thank you.

So under the community access plan, that is my understanding that money is directly into the communities themselves to work on their own projects, which is always a great thing in my opinion. Can the Minister or the department speak more to what projects this entails and whether or not they're going to put more money into that program? Thank you...