Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 51, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures) 2022-2023 be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a topic of conversation that I suspect will continue between myself and the Member for a long time. We simply aren't going to fly eye to eye on this one.

The current paper that is out for discussion purposes, Mr. Speaker, went to the SCEDI, to one of the committees of MLAs. It also went through the Indigenous governments or the Intergovernmental Council, IGC, the body the important body to work with composed of Indigenous governments. And when we initially got responses back on the paper, we took it back. We delayed it. Took that paper...

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did have the opportunity to speak yesterday in Committee of the Whole and made a number of comments at that point about consensus government and about the process by which the budget is built. I don't want to repeat all of that, Mr. Speaker, but I do have a few additional comments I want to make today.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very frequently asked what am I going to do about the debt ceiling, what am I going to do about rising costs of debt, what are we going to do about the rising costs of fuel, what are we going to do about the rising costs of living, what will...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House that Bill 51: The Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 20222023 be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't to the best of my knowledge, we don't do exit interviews with residents as to reasons for their departure. I can say that the mining sector, who are also quite keen to keep their residents or keep their employees here in the North, they do do some work in this space. So what I will do, Mr. Speaker, is just check back with the statistics bureau, see if there are what data we do have around departures.

I know that questions earlier this week looked at our immigration and were looking at the growth of population. And it really has been sort of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And without knowing exactly what measures are being referred to, I am assuming that this is in reference to the fact that Alberta is offering some money to folks to offset the fuel, as is the Yukon. And again, I have said this earlier in the House, Alberta stands to benefit from the rising fuel costs so it is not really the kind of comparison that is fair to be made here in terms of, you know, considering that we have to ensure that we are able to provide programs and services across departments to every community, to every resident in the Northwest Territories. And the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to thank the Member. “Extractivism” is a word that I have not come across before.

But with respect to maximizing profit, Mr. Speaker, that is the whole point of designing a royalty regime and really the entire mineral resources regulatory regime that is made in the North and for the North. That's why we are really proud of the work being done at the IGC, with the legislative protocol that's there, so that when we have completed this process we can say that what we have in the North is made in the North, for the North, that we are, you know, walking...

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.