Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that we defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment at this time. Merci, Madam la Presidente.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I'm going to ask a question here about contributions to NGOs and partly because finance and administration is found in this particular activity. So I know that the Minister, wearing a different hat, talked in the budget address about increasing NGO contributions by 2.2 percent I think across the board. Are there any NGOs that ITI funds that did not receive this 2.2 percent increase? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so I guess in the last fiscal year there was a review done for OROGO in terms of looking at their needs and so on given that oil and gas activities are way way down. In fact, I don't think there's anything happening other than some oil abandonments, maybe M18 perhaps if it ever gets going. But has ITI actually ever done kind of a needs assessment, a review of its oil and gas resourcing, and, you know, the staff levels and so on in that part of its department you know, activities, to look at whether there might be some efficiencies there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I wish to table the following document: It's a letter dated January 13th, 2023 from the Minister of Lands; the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources; the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, to myself dated February 16th, 2023. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, we've had this debate many times if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, squawks like a duck, it probably is a duck, so.

I'd like to move on to so there's this thing called Indigenous mineral development support program. And I note that the territorial agrifood association put on a recent or I guess it's still coming up. February 20232024, Grow NWT; it's a conference on agriculture. Where would Indigenous governments or, you know, NGOs in general, go to ITI to get money to attend a conference like that? Could they apply to this, you know, Indigenous mineral...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'd be interested in seeing the project charter at some point, but. And the Minister spoke of the difficulty in staffing these positions. So can the Minister tell us whether there's a recruitment and retention strategy for the territorial midwifery program or what special considerations are required as part of an overall health worker strategy to maintain midwifery? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I attended the geoscience forum. There was a public presentation given by, I think it's a consultant that's been hired by ITI to do some modeling. Is that money reflected in here somewhere and where is that work at? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I was so excited yesterday about Cabin Radio they turned me into a meme that I didn't get to my questions about midwifery for the Minister of health yesterday. So my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

My first question is, as we enter the final phase of implementation of a territorial midwifery program, what major actions remain to be done? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Okay, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, look, and I compliment the department. They seem to be very successful in getting money out of the financial management board for resource management legislation. I just wish that ENR and Lands was as successful because they don't seem to get any extra money for their work. So that's just a comment, Mr. Chair. As much as I would like them to get money to do things, particularly in terms of public participation, that doesn't seem to happen. But are we actually going to get mining regulations before the end of this Assembly? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. So I had a chance to look at the discussion paper that was released around learning from the response to COVID, and there didn't seem to be anything in there about continuing care or longterm care standards or how the pandemic response relates to seniors in particular in longterm care.

So can the Minister tell us whether there was any public engagement as part of that review of our COVID response that dealt with longterm care standards and whether any public concerns were raised as part of that review? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.