Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm certainly happy to do that. So this project obviously represents a pretty significant potential in infrastructure investment. At this stage, the project is focused on planning as far as Lockhart All-Season Road. That would take from the end -- what is now the end of the Ingraham Trail, commonly known thereof as Ingraham Trail or Highway No. 4, all the way up to Lockhart Lake, and the funding that is here right now would get as far as having a regulatory application in 2025-2026 in order to begin an environmental assessment.

This certainly has been around, as I said...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that Bill 14, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project is a retrofit of the existing location. The Member -- yes, quite correctly, there was originally back -- way back, 2016, looking at replacing the camp, and there was funding back at that time to do so. There was some challenges in that the first site that they landed upon was determined to actually not be suitable for this kind of camp based on the geotechnical and the investigation of the area and, unfortunately, no new sites could be identified in the area that were both compatible with the technical needs, compatible with what was required for...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 14, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput that Bill 13 -- supplementary -- oh okay, now I'm like all flustered.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2024-2025, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project certainly was -- did get to -- or was delayed over the last short while. I can say that at this point there's been some positive developments that at this point we are working with the Tlicho-Kiewit partnership, and it is expected that there's going to be a start-up project -- start-up discussions have already begun. This -- for this year, this concurrent year, there's a production of aggregate underway and the next stages would have an estimated completion date -- I believe the construction itself will start in 2026, so in the next fiscal, with a...

Mr. Speaker, this has the ring of a Minister's statement. There's so much that really needs to be said in this space. The territory has a population that is not reflected in the public service right now and arguably never has been, so we need to get to a place where that changes. I can only imagine that that impedes people's morale. That would make certainly sense to me if you don't feel -- see yourself reflected around you or in the services that you are receiving as a resident. So I want to reflect that first as just understanding the gravity and importance of this.

It also -- if we can get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can say there's certainly some -- as I mentioned, some renewed interest from Nunavut now organized to have a bit of their own project company that's out to develop and become a proponent to potentially on the Grays Bay Port, and they have reached out to the GNWT to see where we're at on Slave Geologic Province. They're turning their mind to it. I'd actually point the Member also south of our border, and Alberta is also showed a lot of interest. I think they are seeing perhaps less fossil fuel dependent future for themselves as well and are looking at where...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is one of the areas where there's a funding pot that is in existence, and it remains there at all times even when perhaps projects are not yet defined. So it's an effort to ensure that we're distributing those funds equitably across different regions but at the same time trying to identify projects that are able to move ahead in any one particular year. So the projects that we have now been identified and scoped and are more ready to go, there's others that we're certainly, you know, again hoping to get that money out the door and just wanting to keep some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were some delays in getting this program back up and running to the caliber or quality that we were hoping for. I am pleased to say that we partnered with Aurora College and that there is now the leadership development program. It started just this month. Again, pleased to also say it is fully subscribed for level one which is currently running. Level two starts in January of 2025, and that will continue until August 2025. I don't know where that is at in terms of if it's interest level but, again, very happy to see that the first round is fully subscribed. Thank...