Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, something that I started doing last government, and then very much looking forward to getting back into when we're not in post-election budget cycle, is to do budget dialogues. The budget dialogues was an opportunity to sit down with NGOs, for example, and it was actually out of that that was first the notion of getting to a place where we could have forced growth submissions for NGOs came from, and then it was then supported and driven by MLAs. So it is was an example, firstly, of success from the budget dialogues and frankly success from the consensus...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I may be responsible for financial management board management, the Premier's office is responsible for the relationship with NGOs. And right now, in EIA's business plans for the next four years, there's a significant amount of work planned out to happen in this space to ensure that there's the advisory group that is formed to provide exactly the kind of feedback that the Member is asking and that the recommendations from the report of, I believe 2023, can be looked at towards implementation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the existing or the specific amounts under the MOU in front of me. I'll have to just double check. There's been no reductions to the Taltson work, and there is federal funding involved. And, as I understand it, the federal funding that we have does take us forward to a point that is satisfactory to get this work done. So I've not been under any impression of any cuts or funding drawbacks. I expect that if there was an understanding from the federal government -- or from the Indigenous governments, then it should indeed be there and be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Subject, obviously, to finding an opportunity to meet with these producers, what I could say is we can have a review in front of the financial management board this summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity to tour the facility here and meet with the producers, and I've heard from them that they certainly would, sounds like, prefer to see a discount on the retail end price as opposed to on the markup price. Mr. Speaker, we've certainly had that conversation many times. No doubt it would -- I can't say whether it would make a difference for them. You know, at this point I'd need to know what their numbers are. I can commit to reviewing the policy again. We've done that in the past. We've done that in response to this industry, prepared...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a great many struggles across this Northwest Territories right now, whether it's the public service that's struggling, whether it's NGOs delivering services that are struggling, whether it's residents who are struggling, residents in the Sahtu right now are struggling. So it is difficult to have a line item or an announceable in a budget that addresses every single one of the struggles that we are having in the territory right now coming off of four years of struggle. There's a lot of struggle. No, there is not a line item that says, this NGO...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, going to bat to ensure that multi-year funding agreements are available is certainly something that I've already fought for and that is now quite widely available, and we'll certainly be dulling that down, that message, as I know my deputy minister already has with his colleagues at my request, that multi-year funding agreements are available. They've been available for the government for a long time. They come with the caveat that we only approve budgets here once a year. That applies to every department and everything we do, including the contribution...

Madam Chair, just to note, I think I realize now. When there's these large funding pots, when they are already committed to capital projects, they'll show up in the capital budget. Sometimes you'll see them coming in under the operations budget but not when they're already tied to the capital projects. And but still happy to draw that distinction here. It's a people don't necessarily wouldn't outside this Assembly wouldn't understand the division, so I appreciate the opportunity to clarify that. Thank you.

I'll get ADM Courtoreille to answer that, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe my colleague from ECE spoke a little bit about this just recently in the House. It would certainly come likely to that department to consider this. And there's a lot of change that has happened quite recently to the income assistance policies that make that system more akin to what a guaranteed basic income would be, but not necessarily fully the types of pilots that are happening elsewhere. And there's an awful lot already that's underway, and hopefully those changes make a big difference for those people who are experiencing them and they can go...