Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an area that has been covered many times here with respect to whether or not, in fact, there's been a conclusion around competitiveness or non-competitiveness. And, Mr. Speaker, certainly one has to consider the fact that if there are no mines or less mines then there's no worry about there being any benefits because there won't be any benefits. There will be less benefits or no benefits. So, yes, the fact that there's going to be some disagreement on this one, I think, between the Member and I. That said, again, the feedback and response that we've...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now there's actually two contracts, and individually I believe they both come under the limits for what is permissible for sole sourcing; however, they are going to one individual or one entity. So I'm certainly live to the reasons for that and very live to the reasons why a department would want to use a sole source. One of them is where the party or entity that you're contracting to is really is the only or essentially the only entity or person who can do certain work. In this case, models are, as I understand it, maybe not quite proprietary but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I may or may not be the Minister by the time that is occurring. I don't have the dates of the contracts in front of me. But I think perhaps we should also just mention that there's the existing act and regulations are also under review, as Members may recall, and there may be reason to consider that as well before and I say that, Mr. Speaker, because before there's going to be additions of liquor stores or changes in where liquor is purchased, there are currently there are other considerations, including consultation with relevant communities. So just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm surprised it's unclear, Mr. Speaker. ITI is the government lead on the Mineral Resources Act and has been now for well many, many years, long before my time. And it's, I think, quite well known we're quite proud of the fact that this is being codeveloped with the ICGS, or Intergovernmental Council. There's a working group there, as I know I've spoken to many times before. And while ITI is the lead, certainly this has, of course, gone back to the partners and the codevelopment partners at ICGS. They've helped to develop the policy options that are being modeled and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, at this point, Mr. Speaker, having received feedback and being aware of interest in the area over the last six years, the department is at the point of being able to do the modeling and to be able to then take that, develop a policy, and develop it in concert, of course, with the Intergovernmental Council and the technical working group with whom we've been developing the Mineral Resources Act regulations from the start. It's part of a codevelopment process. They will make some decisions as a group. That will be what determines what the drafting instructions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these were specifically intended to gather information from prospector licensing holders because, of course, they're asking questions along the lines of "do you agree with adopting the PDAC exploration assessment digital data form EADDF for work assessment reports for data submission and digital format including PDF reports or other acceptable files, metadata, spatial map locations, geophysics submissions, including raw field data." Mr. Speaker, the average member of the public does not want to be answering that question. It would not be appropriate. It was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to the translators, I am sorry; I will try to slow down.

Mr. Speaker, I take issue with the continued characterization of an engagement process as "secret." This has been since 2017 that we have been going out and talking about the Mineral Resource Act and its regulations, before I even came in here. And part of the concern was raised in 2019, when are you going to start to do something and stop keep going and doing consultation processes? We hear that all the time. And, yet, ITI is out doing both public meetings, engagements, forums, sessions, surveys, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad the Member got my name right. It was the Minister of mines earlier and that of course doesn't exist. There is the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Investment, sometimes known as Minister for the economy for which I'm responsible for the mineral resources sector and all of the work to get the Mineral Resources Act implemented, the mineral resources regulations ready to go. And in the process of doing that, one part of that is the royalties and for that purpose, Mr. Speaker, there was a fivemonth long process, as the Member's made the point of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, happy I mean, the ideas, I couldn't agree more with. Happy to have the ideas. Exactly who the champion might be and then connecting the champions to the funding is, I suppose, the more challenging side. That said, I would note that there is now funding for interpretive programming within parks, which is new. That is an asset I have heard here. And there's now $50,000 per year proposed to support interpretive programming which hopefully would I mean, I'd love to see that be fully expended this year. It certainly would give that valueadd about the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, look, I can convey just briefly a conversation I had actually with the executive director at that same conference which is which some of the products that they are putting out and looking at the entire food value chain from growing to production. You know, I actually asked, why are we not having more foodie tours? I had much the same reaction to be quite honest, given the wealth and the variety of things available in the North, a lot of them very unique and gourmet forging. So I completely agree. NWT Tourism was represented at the agrigrow conference that...