Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is work that was done by the three territories jointly, along with the federal government, and funding was provided accordingly. The statement of work, requirement of work was drafted jointly by the three territories. I think that was a working group in fact, and then with funding. So as the project went underway, and was already conceptualized, most certainly they did go and ask industry who should be participating. The purpose of the study was to determine how to increase investment in exploration and the mineral resource sector in the three...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, this is now definitely probably outside the realm of anything I have the expertise to speak to. I mean, again though, in terms of procurement in the Northwest Territories and achieving the goal of maximizing benefits to residents and to businesses, maximizing keeping dollars circulating in the North, that is a mandate for the whole-of-government. It's a mandate that applies to every one of the Ministers, not just to me, and I am quite confident that the working group that we have set up to do procurement review for the GNWT can, and I'm sure has, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the more specific we get the less I'm probably able to make commitments here on the floor. The negotiated contracts policy right now, which is actually a policy of EIA, not Finance, not ITI, not Infrastructure, not procurement shared services, is one that is meant to provide a tool or a mechanism by which we could go directly to an Indigenous government. But, of course, as soon as there's more than one business that comes and requests a contract under a negotiated contract policy, the assumption is it goes to public tender. The result of that being is that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the multiple times we've now spoken about these meetings, I'm not sure I agree with the characterization of them as being particularly secret in any fashion. And indeed even after the last round of exchanges that the Member and I had on this, the Chamber of Mines themselves put a number of the meeting minutes onto their own website to demonstrate that they too are more than happy to make known the fact that they are working to advance the interests of the industry with the GNWT.

As for the ongoing work there, Mr. Speaker, I certainly took note of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we very fortunately in this government have the LNR departments all working well together. That is Lands, Natural Resources, and Environment all working together. In this particular instance, ENR happens to be the lead in terms of trying to work through a process or governance where we might, if there were to be opportunities to work with large organizations, is to bring funding alternatives on conservation initiatives, then we want to ensure, again, as a collective and as the GNWT and as Northerners, that we'd be doing that within a structure that is for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do have some closing remarks I'd like to make. I wanted to begin, Madam Chair, by thanking the Members for their consideration of the capital estimates and for the productive discussions we had in advance of seeing these estimates I hope move forward later today.

Capital estimates certainly are an important part of the budget for our territory’s economy, and I do appreciate Members’ challenging questions and their testing of this budget.

Madam Chair, I also very much appreciated the wholeofterritory approach that was clearly applied to the capital...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that number here. I will go back to the department and see what information we can pull, what data we can pull. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the perception that the regulatory framework of the Northwest Territories is complex is also not new, but the regulatory framework we have here is one that's developed through co-management. It's one that once a company gets through it, the process is clear and certain and they know that they will have gone through a process that involves involvement with Indigenous governments, and it's one that really meets very high ESG standard environmental, social, and government standards.

So we're alive to the concerns that are being raised and may want to try...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I don't like to get into a battle of somebody's notes that they might have taken that weren't a transcript. But just to give some context here about what that says is that the first steps are glossy highlevel goals, and it does says that these will be short and high level, emphasizing, again, that that's the rationale, that this isn't something we were engaging in strategic planning or framework or an action plan. It really is meant to be a discussion.

Mr. Speaker, the critical minerals workshop, in a lot of ways, was something that started because a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not a Minister responsible for one of the Crown corporations so I certainly want to be cautious in that regard. Now, that said, we are certainly operating on a wholeofgovernment approach, and I am able to work closely with my colleague, the Minister who is responsible, and I think perhaps here the messaging lies largely around the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. So they are not right now subject to the same procurement policies just as they are not subject to the same human resources policies. And as to whether or not they might then want to...