Caroline Wawzonek

You know what, Madam Chair, since you've turned it back to me, I was remiss to not thank yourself and the chair of the AOC more directly. It actually has made the process let's go ahead and say fun. Thank you, Madam Chair.

No, thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Priorities for Critical Minerals in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, right now what we do have is there are staffing appeal regulations that come in under the Public Service Act. There are staffing appeals that are reviewed by staffing officers who are independent from the public service, independent from the Department of Finance. So there is a process in place. That said, I know there's often concerns raised, and it was raised during the review process, about whether or not this is sufficient or adequate to make sure that people are, in fact, benefitting from the processes we have in place. So that was part of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been a suite of things that have happened in the Department of Finance for the human resources over the last four years, and certainly the Affirmative Action Policy and the work we've done to review it is part of that. Seeing it to its end would certainly be nice towards the end of this Assembly but, Mr. Speaker, the Member's already noted, we only just were able to table the report in terms of what we heard and what we've been recommended to do and, as such, it really would not be appropriate at this point to be making a change at the dying days...

This is a onetime thing, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, this is not an increase to the borrowing limit. I'm happy to clarify that. So the borrowing limit that's imposed by the federal government is separate and apart, and I certainly do not have the authority to increase that, which is imposed by the federal government. And within our fiscal responsibility policy, we created our own internal limit to give ourselves room that if we come up upon our own internally imposed limit, which is the cushion below the federal limit, that would then trigger within our own processes a requirement to consider what we would then do lest we in fact...

I do, Madam Chair. Thank you. Madam Chair, this is an unusual supplementary estimates request following a very unusual, and I hope unique, summer for the Northwest Territories.

Low water levels have made the annual barging resupply much more costly. Low water levels have also meant that we've been burning more diesel to provide electricity throughout the Northwest Territories, which is much more costly to the GNWT. And, meanwhile, early in the season, flooding also required emergency response.

Madam Chair, these emergency costs alone would not have required this supplementary request or...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, Madam Chair, I know that the Members did receive the preliminary business case back in May of 2022. So I realize that that is a number. I don't know if that's a good enough number. But if the MLA wants to look back at his materials, he'd certainly find a number in there, add a little inflation, and maybe he'll vote for the capital budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm obviously in support of the capital estimates for 20242025. I am. I'd like to give you some details as to why and to the process by which we've arrived here today. These estimates, Madam Chair, propose a total investment, as you know, of more than $361 million for infrastructure in the Northwest Territories and to continue the work that's already being completed on a number of key infrastructure projects across the territory. This includes some large-scale infrastructure needs like the replacement of the Frank Channel bridge, the extension of the Inuvik...