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. Which would be great news for all my former colleagues there that would love to get that work. But now that I am aware that it would be involving the purchase of the lot next door, I have to caution or just a bit of a comment is that there are two contaminated sites right in that location. Both the Esso old Esso location and the old YK Motors, there is no way that the YK Motors site would not be contaminated due to the fact of the presence of the old gas station, which I know that I'm just speaking to the what the department already knows but thought it might be worthwhile...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, could I just get a clarification that the GNWT does not own the land that the current visitors centre is on or sorry, not the visitors centre but the current location of the and I'm going to call it the wrong shelter, which the temporary shelter that was on the site of the old visitors centre; we don't own that land? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister kind of answered one of my questions there so I am just going to go out a little bit further here. Given that, you know, we are really, and I get that this crosses two departments so I am just going to ask the Minister to bear with me, given that we are in the phase now of talking about the airport expansion at the Yellowknife Airport and given that, you know, cold weather testing is an area that we do want to be expanding, not only for the airships but for others, does the Minister see an option to have a cold weather sort of testing area in the new...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI and, again, I want to thank her for having that meeting. I know it was a tough one to schedule. So, around the conversation of airships with proper support and prototype testing for airships could begin here in the Northwest Territories in as little to two to five years. So, can the Minister give us her thoughts around the viability of the airships in the North given our meeting. Thank you

DEPUTY SPEAKER:

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, no, I just wanted to know what the retrofit was. And I just want to say I think that's super cool, and I hope that we'll see more solar sort of arrays in our parks. Thanks.

CHAIRPERSON (Mr. Bonnetrouge): Mahsi. Ms. WeyallonArmstrong.

Madam Speaker, if I look especially tired today, it's because I was up early this morning to present virtually at the 2022 Aviation Innovation Conference being held in Toronto. The University of Manitoba invited me to speak on the various transportation issues and challenges faced by the Northwest Territories, and the potential use of airships here.

In February, I spoke to this Assembly about the possibility of using airships in the North to help with community resupply and in the resource extraction sector. Airships, or dirigibles, have also been discussed in this House during the 16th, 17th...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just can't resist what's going on with MLA Semmler's outhouses that always keep getting shot up, up in Inuvik, have those been replaced this year? Thank you.