Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't necessarily have an update. I didn't anticipate this being part of the mandate discussion. You know, obviously two years ago when we did the priorities document and the mandate associated with it, we certainly didn't anticipate COVID, let alone the inflation that and that might result in part from that as well as some of the other crises we've continued to see over the last two years.

So I mean, just by way of general comment, as I think I've said a couple times in the House recently, the Department of Finance is paying quite close attention. I'm well...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so there is there's a few different things happening with respect to the makerspaces. The makerspace project here in Yellowknife did experience some delays, although I think they are on track or catching up as of now and do have funding to see themselves opening up a fairly significant operation.

There are other initiatives that are underway. There is the arts, craft, technology manufacturing centre in Inuvik that was opened in 2019, and they are partnering with a number of regional organizations in the Beaufort Delta to bring the makerspace concept and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I when we discovered that this that the change in the federal exemption hadn't been applied, it wasn't again, it was not it was something that we were not aware of, that their changes were not a public change. It was a change not communicated to to the Department of Finance. So as soon as we became aware of it, the employ the affected employees were contacted. I certainly, Mr. Speaker, I don't mind, and I think it's appropriate to say that I would not want to see hardship caused to any employee, any member of the public service, including those seven...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, there of course is the GNWT's vaccination policy but then there are also some employees who, because of the existence of federal policies either in the places where they need to attend, such as an RCMP detachment, or because of the concern around travel, they would have been doubly impacted because of their job descriptions on on those policies. And the federal government had put in place an exemption initially to January 31st, and it was our exemption that or our understanding that that at that point, people who were subject to needing to travel...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of discussion back and forth firstly around the design of the labour market supplement in which case some of the requests that were made by the union were, indeed, incorporated into that policy to better reflect some of their suggestions. Then when it came time to apply the policy on the first occasion where the Department of Health and Social Services had brought forward their suggestion, it you know, again, there was further discussions. There were requests to expand in a way that did not, in our view, meet the conditions of the policy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the union was engaged, I believe, back in the fall I believe in September, in fact, with respect to this labour market supplement in terms of its design, and then there was a process of going through to determine which positions to which this the supplement policy would properly apply.

But, Mr. Speaker, the health recruitment unit that now exists, and was developed both by Department of Finance and Health and Social Services, that's something that's been in the works obviously in response to the fact that there's been challenges in our healthcare and this...

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has a mandate to advance the knowledge economy in the Northwest Territories. In doing this, we have engaged with residents, and they have told us that the knowledge economy needs to be grounded in innovation. Guided by input from residents, we are working to expand both our understanding of innovation and the scope of action in this area. We will focus on an innovation action plan to facilitate growth, create opportunity, and diversify our economy. It is a new way of thinking, empowered and driven by new technologies merging with traditional practices.

While our vision of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Madam Premier. Mr. Speaker, we're always looking for opportunities. We are happy to work with any proponent, whether that's as a pathfinder of our own processes and our own regulatory processes, whether it's as a pathfinder of understanding what the federal processes might be. Mr. Speaker, obviously, for I shouldn't say obviously, but for any larger scale programs they are typically on the mineral resources side, they would involve often IBAs, SEAs, social economic agreements, impact benefit agreements, and so certainly to the extent that they're able to...

In favour

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the government renewal initiative was never intended to be an expressed budget cutting initiative or government jobs cutting initiative. It has always been an effort to say, you know, that we look at it having an over $2 billion budget and yet continue to see needs, continue to see challenges in various you know, in various programs or services, and so what we wanted to do was to take a step back and say, look, what are we doing with $2 billion that can better align with needs, priorities, values. Are there programs that we know are successful that could...