Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do appreciate that the GNWT is covering this for the school boards. We, as Yellowknife MLAs, did hear a lot about this being a big concern for them. And I do recognize that $175,000 is not very much money in the grand scheme of things, but more asking the questions for my own knowledge. So I'm glad to hear that the due diligence was performed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, my questions were similar to the MLA Johnson's. But I guess, then, my question would be why is this being represented as a negative number if it's a cost that we're now incurring? Were we providing funding to them before that we're now not providing, and it's being moved into future years. I guess if the Minister could just explain a bit why it comes in as a negative number. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the Minister answering off the cuff there on not quite a financial question.

And it is my understanding that most of that data, and all the data collected in the North, does play into a wider database that can be accessed and used by the government, so always a big fan of spending money on any sort of scientific study.

My question has to do with industry partnerships around the Slave Geologic Province road. While very important we get Indigenous engagement and involvement and even ownership in that road and its operations, has the Minister been...

I just corrected myself and said "kept with the community." Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Dissenting opinion of Katrina Nokleby, MLA for Great Slave.

The GNWT has committed to undertaking a review of its approach to the NWT’s mining fiscal regime. As a first step, the GNWT commissioned a study by international firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to provide an analysis of tax and royalty benchmark mining in the Northwest Territories. Some Members of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment (SCEDE) had concerns regarding the scope of work of this research and proceeded to hire an independent economic consultant to provide an opinion on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, The NWT has always been a resourcebased economy. Even before the onset of colonial settlement, the Yellowknives Dene made tools from copper mined on the banks of the very lake that my district is named for. Later today, we will hear SCEDE's report, and my opinion, on the GNWT's approach to the Mining Regime Fiscal Review. In my dissenting opinion, I lay out what I see as the reasons why this has not been a good use of committee resources. One area upon which I touch is exploration.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to expand upon this point further as I feel that at...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to say that I'm very supportive of this bill. The first time I ever thought about what the meaning of the word "aboriginal" could mean was at a Pathfinder meeting, which is a division of Girl Guides, when one of the Girl Guides or the Pathfinders turned to me and asked why the holiday was called Aboriginal Day when AB means not and therefore it meant not aboriginal. So in her mind, already at that age, she knew that the that the wording was wrong and she couldn't understand it. So I'm happy to sit here today and see during my term that this...

Thank you for that, Madam Chair. I guess then I just wonder does insure or the legalities of insuring as a third party around an asset that we don't own, does that not then raise other issues that we should be concerned about, or does that cost more; what are the implications of that? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This will just be probably a little bit of a comment. I'm glad to hear, that the Indigenous organizations are being and consulted and at the Minister's forefront. I guess I just wanted to point that out or bring up that line of discussion because this is the southern portion of the diamond the diamond mines ice road and therefore once or the sooner we can get this portion of the road constructed, the potential for the diamond mines to have more longevity and more money to put towards exploration. So just a comment on why I also strongly still support construction of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I notice that the additional funds here are for the installation of the pedestrian walkway adjacent to the incoming road to the Assembly. Given that the ingress and egress roads of the Assembly have some geotechnical issues, I'm wondering if the Assembly has thought of perhaps expanding this and doing an entire route way fixup in the coming year. Thank you, Madam Chair.