Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there have been some incremental changes, some interim changes already in place. One in particular I want to highlight the Vendor Performance Management Program. There's a few phases to this.

Essentially when we are going to be changing procurement, if we're not monitoring how vendors are doing and how those contracts are unfolding, it's going to be very difficult to ensure that we're either incentivizing or dealing with any lack or failure to deal with what was being said in the contracts. So we've ruled this out first phase last June for construction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so, Mr. Speaker, ultimately it would be, again, Housing NWT that would be leading the development of a formal support letter. Certainly, we would work together as a government when it comes to time to developing budgets and to looking at the availability of initiatives funding. So that work will certainly continue through business planning process. But I've been assured by my colleague that, of course, the Housing NWT is quite eager to continue to work with Salt River First Nation as they develop a proposal, and then that proposal can go through the process of being...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've had the opportunity to say on many occasions, the GNWT's approach, whether it be in policy development, funding decisions, it's meant to be inclusive. We look at the whole of the Northwest Territories, the needs of all communities. Funding is not distributed or not not distributed on the basis of one group and where they may or may not be, and that is equally the same for the members of the Salt River First Nation. They have the same access and must have the same access, of course, to services as every other member of the Northwest Territories, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, very happy to welcome Mr. William Jacobs here in the gallery, resident of Yellowknife South, and also acting as a page this week. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree. I'm happy to say that vendor performance management has been something that the auditor, or the Office of the Comptroller General has been working on since early days of this Assembly and, indeed, it's one of the areas where there's already been some progress. Construction contracts over $250,000 are already being monitored to ensure their compliance. But as this procurement review goes forward, I anticipate that that system and that process for monitoring will only improve. Obviously once we know exactly what we are going to be monitoring at the final...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was really the purpose of the procurement review in the first place, is to ensure that we are maximizing benefits to northern businesses. Some of the challenges of the procurement review include how we define northern business, how we identify northern business, how we identify or define an Indigenous business, and that's why the procurement review has gone through the process it has with a lot of careful consultation across the entirety of the Northwest Territories, including with modern treaty holders and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point the answer is no, that that has not been added or included specifically as an area where there might be some expansion of the leave packages. Obviously the leave packages are part of the bargaining process in the collective agreement. Right now, if there's specific health benefits or health treatments, those are done with approvals by a qualified medical practitioner. So in line with the questions that were asked earlier of the Department of Health, there won't be any sort of additional you know, we won't be seeking additional approvals if...

Mr. Speaker, this too has been the subject of the review itself and is subject of discussion amongst those participating in the various reviews, both during the review formally and since in terms of discussions with businesses and Indigenous governments. There's opportunities both for the potential for penalties. There's also potentially the opportunity for incentives. And I'm not going to commit one way or the other at this point. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of where the review's going to go other than to say that there does need to be a way by where once an analysis has been done...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are Crown corporations who are not subject to the same procurement rules as the GNWT. For example, the NTPC does follow their own procurement rules. That said, they are guided and fairly closely align with what the GNWT does. So certainly I expect that they will benefit as well from the work that we are doing and can certainly follow my colleagues who are also responsible for the various corporations to see that we are working towards being as consistent with one with the other as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a fairly generous leave package that has a number of different ways by which employees are able to take leave, both paid leave/unpaid leave, and the focus and the intent is that individuals have an opportunity to look at what their particular needs and circumstances are and can then apply to their supervisor for applicable leave. There's not a specific section within that particular for fertility benefits or fertility treatments. But, again, you know, the idea here that I'm trying to get at with that is that although we don't have that specifically...