Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have a good relationship with the mayor of Yellowknife and, again, I don't want to create false hope that I have great faith that there's an easy pot for us to latch onto in the federal system right now. They, of course, are going through their own political changes, it would seem, in the next few months. But, again, certainly will commit that, at least from the Department of Infrastructure, to the extent that we are aware and do work with federal funding opportunities, again, we'll work with my colleagues here, and between myself and the Minister of MACA...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not an independent pot of money that sits in the Department of Infrastructure. We do manage infrastructure demands that come from individual departments. So, for example, if MACA were to advance an initiative of some sort, then certainly that could come and we could support the design and the build of it, etcetera, but we don't have an independent set of money, like a federal department might, for individual projects of that nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the MLA for Kam Lake I think touched on majority of what I wanted to ensure was clear which, namely, is that this is, again, voting to take $5 million out a budget for a department takes 5 plus million dollars out of the budget for the department. Period. There is no guarantee as to whether or not Aurora College will or will not come back with a plan that any of us find palatable. There is no guarantee that ECE will be able to find other staff since they will not have the $5 million allocated to this initiative -- that they will have other staff to support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe at least one, if not two or three, such requests have already come in, and we certainly will do our best to make sure we're coordinating with all colleagues here for folks -- to the best of our ability that there's not a delay or that there's an ability to be a bit flexible where feasible. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 11-20(1), Report on the Review of the 2023-2024 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Equal Pay Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the information that -- for this point that I've been receiving and keeping updated on is really on ensuring that the resources available to the community are there in terms of the power generation and, in particular, seeing the benefits of removing diesel. As far as a more detailed analysis of what that output or balance might be one to the other, Mr. Speaker, I'll have to go back and ask for that. But, again, at this point the good news story in my view, Mr. Speaker, is that the battery system that was connected to Inuvik wind is, in fact, providing the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly there's a number of different biomass initiatives underway across the territory. Again, as how they may affect the tradeoffs between costs of diesel for heating fuel or all as well for cost of fuel or diesel in communities that rely on it, that specific analysis, again, happy to come back to the House and provide that with -- with respect, Mr. Speaker, more generally, I can say that there are power purchase agreements being signed in Inuvik with Nihtat Energy, for example, and can, again, confirm exactly the nature of the arrangements that we may...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's sometimes forgotten that the Inuvik Wind Project also included with it a battery system that allows for greater integration of renewables. And to that end, while there are still some -- there were still some deficiencies over the course of the fall, it is expected that ultimately the solar array will be delivering up to1000 kilowatt hours to the grid. Again, just working out some of those kinks, but that is still expected to ultimately be the source of power that's integrated into that system. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Annual Report to the Legislative Assembly under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do track, again, folks who are coming in through the Indigenous Career Gateway Program. The degree to which we might be tracking their succession thereafter that, I'll have to double check, Mr. Speaker. I can say that only as recently as June of 2023, until then we did not have a formal succession plan within the human resources, not even a formal strategic plan for human resources. So I appreciate the question. That's exactly getting to one of the things we are trying to now do, and we do now have, as I say, a succession planning document focused on ensuring that we...