Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get a bit of a clarification on what exactly the knowledge agenda is? I believe I have asked this before. There's $233,000 here, but does this have any relation to the work being done to implement a knowledge economy? Thank you.

I struggle with how that is the case. In a previous analysis, it showed that it's actually cheaper for us to own our buildings than it is, often, to lease them. This was part of the analysis that justified building the new government building and justified the GNWT building large office buildings in the past was that we could do it cheaper to own than lease. How does the Minister rectify saying that we are paying $18 million to southern landlords with the fact that we have previously concluded that its cheaper to own our own buildings as opposed to leasing them?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at page 82. Can I just get clarification on what the three positions that were added to the environmental stewardship and climate change unit are?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Infrastructure about who exactly the GNWT pays its rent to. My first question is: how much a year do we pay in leasing to southern landlords?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just clarify? I understand that the waste reduction was only $200,000 and it has sunsetted, but does that now mean, can I get clarification, that this Environmental Protection Unit here is responsible for all of the implementation under the waste reduction strategy? I forget what it is. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just trying to figure out who is doing the waste reduction work now if it's not that unit. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I recognize it's a pandemic year, and we rushed to find some money. It's good we spent an extra million on SEED. However, I note even in the last actuals SEED was oversubscribed. It's one of those programs that is consistently oversubscribed, which is a good thing. I also expect that the need for economic recovery is not going to disappear in the next fiscal year. Is the department expecting that we will find more SEED money, and if so, can we just simply make this budget a little more accurate and increase it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Best answer I could have had. I would like to plant in the Minister's ears, perhaps, I know this isn't a lot, $500, but it is a bit of a barrier to entry to starting a business. I know the tourism act was created to, perhaps, promote tourism, but it has quite a process that may disincentivize some of the smaller people who want to dip their toes into the waters. I don't view a tourism operator licence as the type of licence that has to generate revenue. It seems completely counterintuitive that we charge all of our tourism operators, especially the small seasonal ones, $500 every...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad the department is working on it. Our beverage recycling program is one of the best in the country. We have extremely high rates of return, and it's a model for success. Does the Minister have an idea of when someone will actually be able to return some recycling in downtown Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Historically, we spend about 10 percent of the tourism product diversification program on southern operators, recognizing that 90 percent goes to northern operators. That's great, but I don't really understand why we give public money to businesses not based in the Northwest Territories to run tourism operations here. Is the Minister willing to amend the tourism product diversification program to make it only northern businesses? Thank you.

Perhaps there is some misunderstanding by me on exactly how we give out the licences. I understand they were renewed and that previous licence holders got them in 2020. In 2022, we will once again decide whether to renew them, but I'm asking when they went out for a proposal process. I know the department has done this in the past, and there have been some issues. What I'm asking is: was the 2021 the result of a competitive process to run the depots, which can actually be quite profitable?