Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the business advisory council certainly, once they got going, were meeting very regularly; I think at one point weekly with representatives of the Department of ITI. But before the BAC, or the Business Advisory Council even existed, this group was put together as a working group to start to talk about economic recovery at the tail end of the closure there was still Ekati I think was still closed at the time. It was clear that there was going to be a tremendous economic recovery. There was great fear and uncertainly and so this group came together and said...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's come to our attention there might have been a number written incorrectly on the materials that are tabled. So in order to avoid any confusion and ensure that we are accurate, I'd like to make a motion that Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, be amended by changing the line under "Industry, Tourism and Investment, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized", that this be changed to $450,000. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Mr. Koe was the lead on this so I'll have him perhaps just describe the process that was used, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that is partly the work of the disaster systems committee once its set up, or sorry  that they are coming up with lists of eligibility of what types of damage and what property losses are going to be eligible for compensation and at what level. So that is indeed exactly part of the work that they would be undertaking. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I managed to write down two of the items that were listed. With respect to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board workshop, there was a workshop that was held; I believe it was hosted by the land and water boards and it was attended by, if I recall correctly, a hundred or a 150 different representatives from governments, from industry, so, you know, I am not particularly surprised that they'd be talking about that since both parties would have been in attendance at that.

With respect to the Fraser Institute, that's an annual report that's put out. Some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So again, Madam Chair, in this case, you know, again I can certainly provide a breakdown of the totality of the accommodation sector in the Northwest Territories because, again  because there have been various relief programs operating, and we had good cooperation from our federal partners who are administering a lot of those, we have the information around what the sector looks like. And what I can say is that they've looked really, again, at the rooms available and the reduction in the capacity that's been filled over the last year, and this subsidy is meant to help...

I have not been given any indication that this is going to be that the project scope or the budget needed to change. So for the time being, the project budget is the same.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I  let me just give that one sort of a strong maybe in the sense that I think there's probably a number of the departments that have a presence in the affected communities who may well still be in a position to hire summer students. Obviously, I don't have that in front of me here. But, certainly, as the Minister for Finance with HR under it, we are still very much wanting to recruit summer students, so. And as we've said, we don't want to take that money out of this five million. So let me commit certainly to follow up with all of my colleagues to see if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there have been meetings with the city already, between the city and ITI, and I understand that those discussions have been positive. I understand there is public consultation now, I suspect with the Department of Lands so I'll certainly confer with my colleague and get that information out to be sure we can share it publicly. And then lastly, Mr. Speaker, it would be again with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who would have the final sort of critical role to be playing in terms of the repair work at the Con Mine dock. But indeed have been engaged with us...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yes, so, you know, while we were in the past relying predominantly on federal programs, the benefit of that is that we were able to gather quite a bit of data around the number of operators who were accessing the funds  the relief funds in the last year. There are operators in the Northwest Territories, about 70 percent that have been so far receiving relief funding. Operators located outside, about 30 percent or 17 operators. But that said, Madam Chair, I do want to highlight that although the operators sort of base their  or owner might be located...