Caroline Wawzonek

The SEED Program contains a market disruption provision in order to refrain from providing businesses with funding for investments when their competitors have funded similar improvements on their own. As with any government program, the objective is fairness. However, in light of COVID, we may want to review this approach in order to support businesses that need to pivot. The challenge will be funding business improvements or COVID pivots when their competitor across the street funded such improvements on their own. That said, again, I'll note our flexible approach, given the current...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been requests around liquor for the last two months to impose complete bans, complete restrictions, to open it up, to make it available for sale from taxi cabs. I have had no end of requests and varying requests across the board. I simply can't accommodate every request because they are at opposites, one with another. I acknowledge that not every Indigenous leader's request to impose a complete ban has been followed. Obviously, that's not what we've done. Some of the Indigenous leaders who we spoke to were saying, "Please, just keep it as a simple restriction...

At the risk of repeating it a bit, there is a liaison officer position at every institution. It is a major part of their role to provide exactly that: the liaison between the community and elders in particular, and to have elder visits coordinated and available for anyone at the facility. That includes not only, for instance, here in Yellowknife, elders who might be part of the local Indigenous community but also Inuit elders. We certainly have a number of individuals coming from across the territory from different Indigenous cultures. There is a conscious effort made to be inclusive as much...

I want to start by acknowledging that that is going to be ongoing work and that it has to be ongoing work, and there are still quite a number of the calls to action that, quite frankly, are still outstanding. Number one that comes to mind with me is the over-representation of Indigenous people in the correctional system. That continues to be a challenge, and it's one that I've certainly spoken about many times, both in my past life as well as in this House.

There is progress happening, though, Mr. Speaker. For instance, in terms of that particular call to action, number 30, of eliminating over...

If what is sought is simply a "yes," then I'm happy to simply give a "yes," Mr. Speaker. I gather that perhaps slightly more may be in order, which is to say that there are a lot of ways of communicating, and I want to ensure that I commit to certainly informing Members before there are changes, where I can. On this particular instance, we certainly did have some correspondence on this particular issue, on liquor regulation amendments. I had a lot of conflicting comments about liquor regulation amendments, some people seeking complete prohibition, others saying, "Please don't do that." This...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The situation of alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse certainly isn't new, as a result of the pandemic. It has, sadly, roots that extend long before the pandemic, and sadly will likely continue after, but the pandemic has certainly given us an opportunity to have quite a number of conversations about alcohol abuse and its causes and the troubles that abuse then causes, as well.

Unfortunately, the Emergency Measures Act doesn't give any special powers over any other piece of legislation. I shouldn't say, "unfortunately." It simply is the fact. It doesn't give special...

It certainly is nice outside, so I can imagine a lot of people would enjoy a four-day work week right about now, or anything less than the work week many of us have. Some of that work has actually been done in the past; it has been looked into, and I certainly would commit to looking into it myself and seeing what's available. It may well be that some sort of flexibility can be found, but all I can say for now is that I've also been alive to the news reports that are coming around right now in the pandemic and looking for some more flexible options. At the very least, I'll certainly commit to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interest of brevity, Mr. Speaker, I will simply say the work is already under way, and we will certainly continue. Thank you.

I apologize. I should have been briefer in my original answer. I happened to have a chronology of the efforts we made because it's not the first concern that's been raised to me about what I've done to engage and the time we spent speaking to not only Indigenous governments but also our community governments and others. We did write out, seeking input. We also had two further conversations about this, and it was actually as a result of those conversations and of the input that we received that, in fact, we did not allow taxis to be involved in the sale and distribution of alcohol and that, if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Liquor regulations are a regulation entirely within the department of finance and typically wouldn't necessarily be the subject of significant -- certainly not consultation as a legal concept but engagement, more generally. What we did do in this case, Mr. Speaker, is that certainly, at the same time that this was happening, there was a liquor-related motion by the Dene Nation that was made and a fairly lengthy response provided to them on April 7th. I was involved in an Indigenous governments' call that has been happening weekly now with the governments during the...