Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, dealing with land leases obviously, I know the Member is well aware, is primarily the responsibility of now ECC. The Department of Finance certainly works with other departments but we really are, essentially, just the financial agent in that respect. So I can't pause the accounts of going out on my own, we would be relying on government policy to do that, and I know that work is happening right now over at ECC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was hoping to do some brief closing remarks, largely for the sake of ensuring that the purposes here are clear to the members of the public, so if I may, with that, Madam Chair, we are indeed seeking some supplementary funding for infrastructure expenditures in the amount of $124.5 million. This will bring total proposed expenditures for 20232024 to $462.146 million. As I outlined in Committee of the Whole yesterday, the additional numbers are mainly comprising capital carryovers.

Madam Chair, the GNWT does intentionally budget an amount above what we are...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 92, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, No. 3; Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st to December 31st, 2022); and, Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, again, Mr. Speaker, in terms of the public reporting, performance measures really are a part of well, there's a number of places where it would come in. They're a part of the work that Finance does in preparing the main estimates that's in the budget papers that are presented as part of those main estimates. It is often part of reporting that takes place when we're doing budget dialogues to help orient participants to what's going on in our fiscal picture. We certainly also are reporting on the provisions when we report in the public accounts. And, really, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was certainly an interesting opportunity between the committee and the Department of Finance. We wouldn't necessarily, on the regular practice, certainly in the past, have sent a what is a financial management policy, an internal policy with internal application, for comment and review, but we did do so in this case, and I I don't know that I would say that everything was rejected. I've looked again back at some of the detailed responses provided, both from committee to department and from the department back. Just because, you know, the exact wording...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just days ago the Member from the affected region came and said why don't we ask for banking information right upfront on the page; it'll save an extra step when someone is deemed eligible. We have already made that change, Mr. Speaker. The new forms are now already on the website so things can change quickly. This issue of the need of having a contact point was raised today, and I can already assure the Member if he hasn't directly received a response from me, it's probably only because I've been in the House. So he will have that information before he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every individual who's had any sort of income disruption should be applying. So that applies to anyone who is selfemployed, who may be in what is known as the gig economy or temporary employment or, again, any sort of disruptions. So an artisan, for instance, who may be selling typically selling art or crafts, anyone who may fall into those categories, I would encourage them to apply. You know, it's difficult this was a program developed in less than two weeks. It's difficult to anticipate exactly every category of person to whom it would apply and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, what is required in order to pause an account from going to collections, or to cease acting on a file that's gone to collections, really requires some sort of parameters or criteria where a department that had an outstanding account, some other debts for instance, whether a lease or otherwise, if they were to come to the Department of Finance and say, you know, that they had reached some sort of agreement with the person who owes the debt, then that then can be that those that can be moved forward to be out of collections, to be forgiven, to be paused, to have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was also going to acknowledge Angela and Clay Balsillie who were here to hear the obituary for Rosa Kisoun. They're residents of Yellowknife South.

Mr. Speaker, and while we're on the topic of many old friends, it sounds like I have three new friends I also wanted to recognize. I have guests here today from PNWER. That is the Pacific Northwest Economic Region. And with me today in the House, we have president of the organization Chuck Winder who is also the president of the Idaho State Senate; vicepresident of PNWER, Rick Glumac who is the British Columbia...

That's fine, Madam Chair.