Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, this year we had set aside not set aside but had created a supplementary reserve of $35 million. We are down to 10.754 after this.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we don't have substantiation of amounts in time for the spring session. I don't know that it was ever anticipated that we would have had the kind of substantiation necessary to make it into the spring session. You might recall that last year with the floods, a special warrant was done and had it brought in for fall. So, you know, I certainly don't want residents to think that simply because of the timing of session that funding won't be available. The Disaster Assistance Policy was updated such that the cap is now at $240,000, and that doesn't change based...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's Action 1.1 of the framework where it speaks to the importance of the job descriptions and, specifically, that all departments and agencies are now expected to conduct a detailed review of all job descriptions specifically with keeping in mind systemic barriers that may exist. And the point is to precisely do that, to remove those systemic barriers.

Every department and agency is responsible for their job descriptions. They certainly can seek strategic advice from human resources. But that is the individual requirements for each department, knowing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so there was no extra money remaining in this particular line item. There is a surplus amount in the Regional Air Transportation Initiative, or RATI agreement, which is managed under Infrastructure and which I think we'll come to shortly.

These funds are specifically were negotiated with the Department of Transportation Canada really out of COVID relief. And, yes, as I say, there was nothing that wasn't spent in what we had available.

Madam Chair, I think there was another question in there, and I apologize, I forgot what it was.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, Plain Language Summary for Bill 53, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not a standing or standalone program that offers support for lost wages or lost revenue. And as many will recall, early on in the COVID19 pandemic, both not only our government, the federal government had to be creating and crafting those types of programs sort of in the moment and in order to respond. So I can't say necessarily what type of additional programming or programs might become available, might need to be crafted. But I can certainly, again, indicate that we are in touch with the businesses in the community. We'll continue to do so. If...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first off, I do want to acknowledge the troubling times that are being faced by many businesses in Hay River. I think it's been mentioned a few times that several of us had the opportunity to attend to see what's going on for ourselves, and it's plainly obvious that there's quite significant impact to the community and to the business community there.

We are of course all working together as one government. That's why multiple Ministers did attend to bring to bear each of our perspectives. And ITI will continue working with MACA. MACA is the first point of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 53, an Act to Amend the Liquor Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Liquor Act to continue the Liquor Commission as the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission;

Include the regulation of cannabis in the Commission’s list of duties;

Reinforce the separation of enforcement and adjudication responsibilities under the act by removing the supervision of enforcement actions from the Executive Secretary’s duties;

Remove provisions disqualifying persons from licensing eligibility on the basis of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this I think actually draws on the Department of Finance.

So when there's emergencies of this nature, emergencies of any nature, you know, there's certainly money that gets set aside in our supplementary reserve for requests and issues that come up over the course of a fiscal year. Individual departments, once they have their appropriation on April 1st, may have flexibility. You know, this is depending on what's going on in the department. Projects might get deferred. Different work might get deferred in order to have some flexibility in a budget and to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I should say thank you to the MLAs from the region who invited us there and invited me to attend and helped arrange some of the meetings that we had. It definitely it helps myself, it helps the department to have that hands on and have eyes on. You know, I my own I'm certainly not an expert so I'm hesitant to conclude that it is inevitable which businesses will or will not be experiencing impacts beyond what's available in the Disaster Assistance Policy. I mean, I can certainly say that there is, you know, some of the businesses were essentially...