Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as this is a very lively discussion around these infrastructure projects, can the Minister indicate if these, Taltson, Slave Geological Province Road, Mackenzie Valley Highway, if they're revenue generating projects. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you my constituents are frustrated. I can tell you this family is very frustrated. I hope the Minister will bring something practical about how to improve the system. But one thing I'll say, the rates are far too low to cover the costs of today. When is the Minister going to adjust those rates to reflect the reality of today's costs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's doing this work but if they've -- and they've moved medical travel into the department so the Minister can really weigh on these things and it's not arm's length distance in the authorities. But what's the point of doing that if there's no exemptions that can be made? So can the Minister clarify what the exemption policy is for medical escorts, not for the people who are medivaced but for medical escorts. Thank you.

Thank you. So -- well, that's -- anyway, that sound very positive. I think the one thing that we've become aware of is that the NWT -- or we need more national coordination on this. We need more things like task team 2 that can do operations in the Northwest Territories persistently and not just when we have an emergency and whenever, you know, federal public safety initiatives around emergency forces and things like that or disaster relief forces. So I think having a facility like this sounds like a good way to anchor the NWT in that process because we have a -- you know, a high quality...

Okay. We were asked to -- who initially treated these constituents in Alberta to provide updated paperwork which would supposedly ensure a reimbursement would be forthcoming. Unfortunately, the reimbursements health and social services offered amount to far below what the families spent cumulatively on hotels, flights, and meals there.

I was informed later that offering these families any reimbursement at all was an error. The Minister explained that she would only honour these meager reimbursements for one family only because they could not take back -- the department could not take back the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister point out, like, some kind of -- some of those high level investments that meet the recommendations of the after action report. Like, the most significant pieces in this list that could help meet those -- the new -- or the need that's left unfilled that's called for in the report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think that's a much more useful -- useful metric because then we can -- we can factor it into those larger emissions pictures as we look for -- you know, actively seek for replacement technologies. I think it's very difficult when you're dealing with certain types of equipment, as the Minister said. So I just wanted to get a sense of what we actually look at and what's possible and what's useful fundamentally when we're trying to deliver on the climate change strategy and meet our net-zero goals, our 2050 net-zero goals. And that's probably a broader conversation...

Would that information -- sorry, thank you, Mr. Chair. Would that information be useful to our climate change planning to -- and implementation of our strategy and our goals to reduce emissions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Minister spoke of, you know, a significant number of jobs, probably hundreds, thousands potentially, with all three of these projects, millions of dollars in opportunity, perhaps billions if it leads to an explosion of exploration activities and development in a mineral rich area that would be opened up through Slave Geological Province, for example. We know the Mackenzie Valley Highway is in -- or is a critical need for the territory with the effects of climate change harming marine resupply up the Mackenzie Valley -- or the Mackenzie River. And, of course...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the Dempster Highway, of course the O and M costs for that are shared between the Yukon -- the Government of the Yukon and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Is it possible that the Slave Geological Province, which would link to Grays Bay cross interprovincial borders or interterritorial borders, could a similar agreement -- I mean, this is a hypothetical but I hope the Minister will indulge me, but given we've had success, we know what that relationship looks like, if a similar relationship were struck with Nunavut on the Slave Geological -- O and M for the...