Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to provide a fiscal update, and in doing so, I want also to speak about one of the most valuable economic resources that exists across the whole of the Northwest Territories: resiliency.

The world remains in the grip of a pandemic the likes of which few people alive in the world today have any reference point to. Canada is currently experiencing a second wave. In the Northwest Territories, we are fortunate that, since the start of the pandemic, we have been able to limit the cases of COVID-19 that have entered our borders, but that comes with a cost; travel...

I have actually asked that exact question about what can be done to speed the work up. What I can say is that, right now, as well as producing the discussion paper, we are also producing the work plan of how this will roll out cross-departmentally, with all of the different departments that are involved. One of the steps that I have asked that we take is to, in that work plan, make the process one where we will be in control of the timeline and able to pull those levers to ensure that the timeline at the very least stays on track, but ideally can move forward quickly. I do have some areas...

I have a stronger timeline with respect to the more general procurement review that is scheduled to take place. Right now, work is happening to finalize a discussion paper around procurement; not just procurement generally, but procurement, negotiated contracts, northern manufacturing policies, BIP, all of that is going to be subject to this discussion paper, which will be coming out this month or next month with a view to engaging in public consultation and engagement across the board with those participating in the business area, with Indigenous governments, with the public.

My expectation is...

Again, this is an opportunity to demonstrate the whole-of-government approach. The polluter-pays principle is certainly a foundation of the modern environmental assessment and regulatory regime that we have here in the Northwest Territories, and that is something that ITI, in terms of our involvement within our resource sector, is aware of and something in which the department of Finance is also involved, in terms of constantly monitoring those who are providing securities. Of course, it is the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Lands who work closely to determine an accurate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following six documents: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 153-19(2): Government of the Northwest Territories Public Service Succession Planning;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 313-19(2): Providing GNWT Staff Who Leave the Territory with Two Weeks Special Leave;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 197-19(2): Business Incentive Program;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 224-19(2): Dehk'e Frank Channel Bridge;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 268-19(2): Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy Funding Delays;" and...

To the extent of keeping Regular MLAs informed, to date, the last couple of occasions where more information became available to the Department of Finance or the Department of ITI, in fact, I think the very last time that we received information in the morning, we turned around and got that out to MLAs that same day, within hours. We are going to continue to try to work on that kind of time scale so that, when we get information about what might be occurring from one of the parties that is relevant to these proceedings, we will turn that around as quickly as we can. As I said, in this case, it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the difficult parts of this entire proceeding, is that we see and we feel very keenly the fact that it is residents of the Northwest Territories who are going to be affected, and it is difficult when there are few levers that the government can pull to necessarily protect every single time every single employee who is being affected by what is happening with Dominion.

Again, we want to ensure that we are providing an atmosphere that allows that mine to reopen while protecting our environmental securities, but insofar as being able to do a lot in terms of...

I certainly wish I could give a detailed explanation of what is going on, but again, there is a large degree of what is going on is between private entities. I realize that, on the one hand, one news release is saying perhaps that one side of the deal walked away, but it may well be that another party might be saying the opposite, that it was, in fact, another member of that negotiation that were the ones that walked away or wouldn't agree. I think there needs to be some caution exercised before one of us here necessarily assumes what is happening. From our perspective, some of the parties are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the critical roles that the GNWT plays, is that we are responsible as part of the bidding process that we would ensure that any prospective bidder, any prospective buyer, can undertake the requirements of the environmental licence and that includes undertaking or accepting the securities in a reasonable form. Thank you.

Perhaps I am not sure if "irony" is quite the right word, but the pace of private industry certainly does often move quite a bit faster than government. It's a bit interesting that, as a representative of government, I am being asked to try to keep up with what's happening in private industry. That really is the nature of this. There is ongoing communication between these private parties and an ongoing process of bids. In one case, one bid was withdrawn. We are certainly hopeful that another bid may well come forward so that, again, ultimately, this mine can reopen.

As far as communication, Mr...