Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs can speak to the distribution of it. I suggest it go to her, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There have been quite a number of funding pots with respect to the Canada-Northwest Territories Safe Restart, which is the dollar funding that is coming towards the COVID secretariat. Funding under this agreement was to be used for testing; contact tracing; data management; healthcare system capacity; vulnerable populations; municipalities, on that one, I will note with respect to the municipalities, Mr. Chair, this is one area where we were required to put in a 50-50 contribution to match the amount that was allotted from the federal government, so that is one area where...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not have any information. I don't have those numbers in front of me, but I would ask that you check if the deputy minister might have those numbers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was not an easy negotiation. If I may, I happen to be aware of some of the history on this was and back in February of 2019 was the first round of an attempt. The Department of Justice sought, I believe, nine positions under this program, but they managed to get five, which was, I believe, one of the first increases under the First Nations Policing Program that we've seen in quite some time. I think that's probably all I can say at the moment, Mr. Chair. I have no doubt that the Department of Justice would vastly prefer to see their funding come under this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any comments or response. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, one of our government's guiding principles is to ensure that the expenditure of public funds maximizes economic benefits to Northerners and supports northern business. This is consistent with our long-standing commitment to support Northwest Territories businesses and grow a strong, diversified economy.

We put that commitment into practice through the Business Incentive and Manufactured Products Policies, which help ensure that government purchases are made from, or through, Northwest Territories-owned businesses wherever possible, and to leverage this investment back into our...

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member from Hay River North, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the second time. The bill reduces the small business tax rate from 4 percent to 2 percent effective January 1, 2020. It also makes retroactive amendments to harmonize the Northwest Territories tax regime with the federal system. Those amendments do two things: ensure that split income received by a senior is factored into the determination of their Territorial Age Credit; and allow more pension credit for veterans. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

There is actually a Buy North campaign already that the department of ITI has been sponsoring. It's free for all businesses to participate in the program. It's being advertised around the Northwest Territories, though, given the question, it seems that perhaps the knowledge about the program needs to be looked at again. As for what might be done to increase or enhance the participation in the program for businesses and what we can do, I will certainly go and see if there are some best practices from my colleagues in other parts of the country, that we can employ here in advance of the...

I am certainly not one to shy away from the fact that we need to react quickly to what's happening with COVID-19 and react quickly to what's happening in the business community. However, at the same time, I am also determined that we have to maintain our due diligence before making a policy change that is to a program that has been long-standing, so I am not going to take a position here on the floor today that we will significantly alter that program going forward.

The Member has certainly given me an interesting way of approaching business relief. There are a lot of programs that are out...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is an item where there are a number of different things happening that are specific to women in the North and the response under COVID. There certainly has been funding that has been under specific pots of the relief funding that we received from the federal government that is required to go toward supporting vulnerable populations. That would be particularly people fleeing relationships of violence, certainly, the majority of which do tend to be women. There has also been funding that has been directed toward supporting women who would be more vulnerable, for...