Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done a number of things since the time of June. We have already responded back. This same enquiry was made by some of the chiefs from the Member's communities, as well as from the Yellowknife mayor. We have responded back to them to let them know the work that we have undertaken. We have some initial costing that would demonstrate the costs of either partial or full coverage between the Whati junction to Yellowknife, so we have that initial costing done. That was done in conjunction with Northwestel and the Department of Finance, and we have communicated that...

The market disruption clause certainly has been the subject of some discussion. What I will certainly commit to is saying that, in the course of the review that we are doing internally of the SEED program, a careful examination of the market disruption clause needs to happen. Certainly, what I have heard from some of the larger centres is that there is a greater desire to get rid of it. Yet, from the smaller centres, there is some desire to hang onto it. It may be that we need to find a "not one size fits all" solution to that clause.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to note that the staff who will be administering the SEED program are both orderly and smart in the way that they will be administering that program, and we appreciate the work they do every day. Right now, the budget for SEED is $3.8 million, and it has been that way for a great many years. Fortunately, as part of the COVID response, we were able to increase this budget up to $4 million through internal reallocations, and as of right now, we are actually projecting that that will hit $4.3 million in terms of the total applications being sought. Every effort...

It's my understanding that that is the intention. I don't have the numbers in front of me. I will make sure and get that confirmation and share it with the Member.

I did want to acknowledge that the Member had expressed the fact and outlined the fact that the program has been adapted to COVID-19 and that that adaptation happened quickly on the part of ITI. I would note that, for the purposes of COVID-19 right now, the SEED program has shifted rather substantially and that, for this year, they have waived the market disruption clause and indeed re-shifted the focus of a lot of the SEED funding so that small and medium-sized businesses can apply under a fairly different set of policies, given the fact that the markets themselves are quite disrupted. Thank...

Increasing the funding on a permanent basis is something that has to go through a business-planning process and an analysis to determine if, in fact, that is the best way to spend public dollars. Certainly, there is a suite of programs right now that support entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized businesses, including not only the SEED program but programs spread across ITI, as well as BIP. I will say that part of what I want to ensure we do is make sure that we are adequately funding those programs in a way that they become complementary and that they fill gaps one from the next, but that...

I can definitely commit that, if there is such an application that was denied on the basis of market disruption after such time as that announcement was made, that we will be looking at it again and ensure that it does meet the intentions as they have been stated and retooled to meet to COVID-19.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I'd have an easy answer there, and then I heard "2021," and I'm not able to make that commitment on the floor right now. As I've said, for the moment, when the SEED Policy had been retooled to accommodate and to respond to COVID-19, the market disruption clause has been waived for the current fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that we are going to be looking at that, given where we're at and if the pandemic continues to be ongoing and, in fact, continues to be fairly disruptive in the southern regions. I will certainly commit to looking at that...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following two documents: "Northern Employees Benefit Services (NEBS) Pension Plan Annual Report for the Year Ended December 31, 2019 and including updated information to June 2020" and "NWT Carbon Tax Report 2019-2020." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Returning again is deputy minister of Finance, Sandy Kalgutkar.