Caroline Wawzonek

In favour.

Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to just confirm that I'm being heard? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So I am quite conscious of the fact that there's been a reduction in the GDP over the last couple of years. We've obviously been through the pandemic and certainly in the last two years, that has been the predominant reason for that. Nevertheless, I think everyone's heard me say that we were in challenging times long before the pandemic and that we had to start looking at our economic situation. So I'm happy to have this question. Mr. Speaker, there's a couple of things.

Firstly, there's the...

I'm not on mute on my end, Mr. Speaker, but I do apologize. It does seem that I have a number of things in front of me and people are buzzing me actively to tell me that I've done this incorrectly.

So Mr. Speaker, I do have another first reading of bills here. It is the Bill 50, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022 that would also be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 49, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022 to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, that was a yes. Again, I'm confident that the folks that are applying are going to be going through the regulatory process so we will amend the 20232024 applications to be clear about that. And let me throw another yes out there.

We will again, for 20232024, happy to make it very clear that you can't have outstanding debts to the government if you're applying. That, again, that's already the case. The forms may not be express in that regard, and there's no harm in making that very clear, that anyone that's going to be getting funding from the government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been an evaluation of the program done in June of 2020. I know some of that information and some of the matrices that go with it have been shared with committees. No, it has not all gone out to the public but that's not necessarily unusual. Not every evaluation or program review that is done by the GNWT necessarily goes public. In fact, it would be unusual for it to be otherwise. So that said, I'm certainly happy to take this away and take a look at, perhaps as the Department of Finance who would be more of the lead in terms of their evaluations...

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I heard the Member's statement earlier, I already had a thought of pointing out the fact that there's the ability to work a compressed schedule already. There's the work the ability to work a flex schedule already. There's the ability to look at, you know, having deferred leave. There's actually a very flexible set of opportunities in many regards for the employees in the public service. So, you know, whether it's a question of there being some specific employees who may have requested access to some of those programs and being denied, those specific...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 49, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's sort of two parts there. In terms, Mr. Speaker, of knowing the processing side, that's much more complicated. It involves large tracts of land potentially. But, Mr. Speaker, with respect to the regulatory processes we have here in the territories, we already have the client services/client relations folks within ITI who are system navigators and well known to help proponents get through our system. There's a Mackenzie Valley operational dialogue that's happening right now with the regulatory bodies as well as with government to ensure that we are...