Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Friday marks the end of two years under a public health emergency in the NWT. As I reflect on this time, I'm struck by how much life and our territory has changed. COVID shifted focus away from the failing economy towards our fragile health care system and the mental health challenges of our residents. It has been a time of great change and now we must use what we have learned to create meaningful change for our territory and kickstart our economy once again.

As global stability worsens, interest increases among developed nations to source ethically mined...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't be able to express myself as eloquently as my colleague did and I appreciate her words, and I think they very much capture the spirit of the work and how we progressed.

I think for myself, when I moved to this side of the House and I joined the social development committee, it was one that I felt was outside of my wheelhouse and has definitely been my steepest learning curve on this side of the House.

As a person without children myself, it was a whole new area to me, and I also wanted to express my thanks to those that shared with me and shared their experiences...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The PSE Act creates the structure for Post-Secondary education in the NWT and rules Post-Secondary education institutions to support the growth of the territorial Post-Secondary education system. This legislation will become operative once regulations are in place. Post-Secondary education includes universities, colleges and trade and vocational schools.

Aurora College welcomed Bill 39 as the critical piece in transitioning to a polytechnic university. The College is pleased that the changes proposed in Bill 39 do not impact the relationships as they develop according to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's my day to be on oral questions, I guess.

With the Minister's comments around sorry, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure continuing along this line.

With the comments about there being a mutual conversation that needs to be had, that worries me, Mr. Speaker, because we don't have a lot of capacity in some of our areas to do this type of work, and I'm worried that the department is not going to be able to negotiate with this contractor in good faith in order to get this work done.

Can the Minister speak to what the contingency plan is should they not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak a little bit to the fact that this project hasn't been underway for that long and given that it really only got started in the last year, how did we get to $40 million in cost overruns without this being flagged prior to now? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make an attempt to ask the questions that I think my colleague from Inuvik Twin Lakes may be wanting to ask.

On Monday, the Minister of Infrastructure spoke about delays to the Inuvik airport expansion. It's my understanding that that those delays are partly due to a cost overrun of $40 million.

Can the Minister speak to whether or not the GNWT will be on the hook to pay the cost overruns, or will the DND pay for that given that it is a hundred percent dollars for this project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And yes, the original 2023 sort of target was definitely prepandemic times, and of course, I'm assuming everything has been delayed as a result.

I wanted to just move on and ask the Minister around another project that could potentially be very critical for not only Canada's strategy but also for economic development in the Northwest Territories. Given that the Tlicho AllSeason Road is now opened, this does open up an area of resource development around the NICO Mine.

Could the Minister speak to whether or not there has been progress on that project and the development...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

In my statement, I discussed the fact that China has generally been having a monopoly around some of the critical minerals that we're looking at to go forward in the green economy. Can the Minister speak about whether or not, given the current global situation and China's involvement perhaps with the war in Ukraine, if we're seeing an uptake around interests in our resource sector from perhaps companies that maybe were using China before and maybe now are looking for a more ethical source...

In favour.

Thank you. Now I'm super confused because it is my understanding that if this technical piece of the work, the trench, isn't completed within time, that there will be a delay.

So I'm not sure where this conflicting information is coming from. But can the Minister speak to whether or not if that trench is not dug this year, can it be dug next year with no delays? Thank you.