Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 1, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is a good-news story that there is excess capacity at the youth facility following changes under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. There indeed is extra capacity there. Hopefully, it stays that way. It can't be repurposed for adults, though. The Youth Criminal Justice Act has limitations on who can be present and limitations that prevent youth from intermingling with adults, individuals who might be on remand or in any form of custody. That makes it challenging to potentially have a youth person at the facility with any sort of adult. If there is a consistent way or consistent availability of...

RCMP's detachment cells are simply not designed for any sort of a stay past a very short day, two days at most, nor is it the role of the RCMP to act as a custodian for someone who is on remand. They are not corrections officers. That is not their primary function. Cells in the RCMP detachment don't often come with the kinds of frankly still fairly limited amenities that one would see within a corrections facility. They have the ability to turn down the lights, but the lights are on. There are no windows.

My understanding is that, when faced with a situation like this, the RCMP do their best to...

Again, the short answer is yes. I'm more than prepared to make that commitment. So, in addition to the fact that there is an effort to have some general media engagement this coming Friday about how a budget process unfolds, in addition to that, we're already working on having a bit more of a social media strategy to introduce people to the different parts of a budget and to the different processes. There has been some information already going out on social media to that regard. We are also actively, right now, working with stakeholder organizations across the Northwest Territories, in order...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, the important questions to understand, and I guess the one thing I would point to is that this did go to tender. As far as being the appropriate machinery for purpose, and as being a competitive price for purpose, I would simply point to the tendering process and place faith in that for the purposes of this current appropriation. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present the Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2019-2020.

The Supplementary Estimates document proposes an increase of $1.3 million comprised of the following items:

$418,000 for an enclosed cab snow blower for the Fort Smith airport that is fully funded by the Government of Canada's Airports Capital Assistance Program;

$400,000 to initiate work under the Surface Structures Adaptation for Climate Resilience project agreement at the Mike Zubko airport in Inuvik. This project is 75 percent funded by the Government of Canada's Disaster...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a lot to unpack in the Member's comment. I am not in a position, in the context of a supplementary appropriation that is involving the scoping of the Northwest Territories project, to commit to what may or may not be happening on the Nunavut side, other than to assure, again, that this is envisioned as being a partnership with Nunavut. It is indeed something that is of an Arctic nature and putting Canada as a country into being more of an actual Arctic country in terms of actually exploring and connecting all of our Arctic regions. I am confident that there...

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Member's candid remarks. I can only assure the House, broadly speaking, that this is a project that is of tremendous significance to the Northwest Territories. It is, as I understand it, supported over in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. It is being done under a business case and with a cost benefit analysis. It is multi-departmental. It will involve ENR, and it will involve Lands, so I am sure that there will be plenty of opportunity, whether through this project or through the other work of the other departments, to review the impacts on the caribou as it goes...

Madam Chair, as I've said, I am confident there has been a cost benefit analysis and a business case provided. What I will do first is to identify what was shared with the last committee, ensure that the current composition of the committees have that information available to them, and certainly, if what was shared before was unsatisfactory, then we'll have to go back and confirm so that the committee can be assured of the analysis of the cost benefits, of the very positive cost benefits, of the Slave Geologic Province to the Northwest Territories.

Madam Chair, as I've just said and I'll say it again, as soon as I can confirm whether or not the cost estimates are confidential, then, if they're not, I will be more than happy to bring them to the House.