Caitlin Cleveland

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 64-19(2), Report on Bill 84: An Act to Amend the Business Development and Investment Corporation Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yes, ITI is a partner in that, and the lead on that is ECC from the GNWT's perspective. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the visitor information centre that I was just talking about did have three seasonal positions. It had the supervisor of the Dempster Delta Visitor Centre as well as two travel counsellor positions as well. And those positions will be sunsetting due to the facility no longer being available to us.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member's love for this program; I share it. I think it's definitely ITI's cornerstone -- well, one of their major cornerstone offerings to residents of the Northwest Territories. So the major changes there that we're seeing from one year to the next is the previous year had $1 million in CanNor funding for operational support to businesses affected by the wildfire evacuation, and so that was dollars given to the GNWT that directly went to businesses from there for wildfire relief for businesses that were evacuated. And then in...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, one of the things that is pretty clear about ITI is it's a smaller department with a ton of creative people who like to do as much as they can with limited funds within the department, because it does do a lot and a tremendous of their funding does go out for grants and contributions. One of the things that they are undergoing right now is doing the Mineral Resources Act implementation, and part of that work is going to be to have to redo the job descriptions that are required in order to fully implement that Act and some of the changes that will come...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, luckily on this -- well, on both sides of the House, we have great working relationships, and that doesn't stop between myself and the Minister of ECC. We're able to come together, and we're working hard to better understand what the other -- what one another is looking for, where each of our departments is at, and what industry is looking for. So we are meeting on a regular basis to work through some of that. What I will also say, Mr. Speaker, is this is work that's not only being done within, you know, the confines of meeting rooms within the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, one of the things that I have learned very quickly about ITI is ITI is very much a connector department, and so it plays a very strong role with connecting other departments within the GNWT, connecting, you know, grassroots, organic funding like the SEED program, to other funding mechanisms through CanNor and such, by connecting smaller grassroots programming -- or funding programs, like manufacturing funding, SEED funding, you know, even if it's an agriculture microcluster, for example, you've got the SCAP funding. But when it comes to housing...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to give the deputy minister the opportunity to speak in detail about that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in regards to the question specifically about community transfer initiatives that the Member did ask about, I just wanted to first respond to that question. So that question there is an underspend of the vacant economic development officer positions, and so -- and those positions that have traditionally been vacant are in Fort Liard, the Sahtu, and in Tuktoyaktuk. And so however the community transfer initiatives funding does provide about 13 and a half positions through Indigenous governments, especially in our small communities, and those are...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Further to the Member's question, no, that was not a change that occurred in these main estimates. And I'd like to pass it back to the deputy minister.