Caroline Wawzonek

The court proceedings are public proceedings and so, to the extent that our counsel is present and speaking at those proceedings, that certainly is a public forum and a public arena where that message is being transmitted. Beyond that, I don't think I have turned away a single media inquiry to ask further questions about this. I have spoken to the media on many occasions about that and will continue to make myself available to do that, and I am more than happy to continue to answer the Member's questions here. It is certainly my expectation that that message is going out, and it is being made...

It was always an expectation that, over time, the surety bonds that were being held for this particular mining industry would convert over to irrevocable letters of credit. Right now, to be very simple about it, it's not a concern right now. From the perspective of the government, the surety bonds that we have can be called upon by the government if we need to, so from our perspective, they provide adequate security and assurance that, if the bonds needed to be called, if the securities needed to be called, they would be there. What they did provide was some flexibility to the company when it...

It's not the GNWT that gets consulted on the sale of this company between private entities. There is an ongoing negotiation that is taking place between Dominion Diamonds and prospective bidders. It's not one into which the government should be putting its hand. Ultimately, in this case, being a CCAA proceeding, the court would be overseeing that process and would be overseeing that sale. What the role of the GNWT is, is to again ensure that our environmental process is respected, that securities are held in an appropriate manner, and at that point that is our role, that is the role that we...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spent over a decade as a criminal defence attorney, which is a male-dominated profession, especially in the Northwest Territories. With small exception, I have had no direct experience of gender discrimination in that role. However, in my professional responsibilities defending charges of sexual violence and intimate partner violence, I have occasionally had questions from other women about my work. There was an implication at times that, perhaps, I was not supporting women because I was discharging my duties as defence counsel.

Usually, when engaging and...