Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, it's a question that I could probably spend 20 minutes on my own speaking to. So what I'm going to suggest I do, Mr. Speaker, is focus specifically on the space of doing more around the things that we have that are so good in the Northwest Territories. And where I'm going with that is on ESG, or environmental, social, and governance factors. It's a growing area for investors all across the world, Mr. Speaker, but it's something that in the Northwest Territories is how we do business. We have strong regulatory system. It's comanagement in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, obviously the vision of this Assembly is laid out in the priorities of the Assembly, and certainly the vision in response to the COVID19 pandemic is laid out in Emerge Stronger, and Mr. Speaker, certainly that vision continues to evolve in response to the pandemic.

As for the Department of ITI as a single department, their role is to provide supports to all sectors of the economy so looking both from, you know, the smallest retail and the smallest hospitality or singletour operators all the way through to large investments, and we're going to continue to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't agree that there is any sort of bailout program and so in that sense I suppose I could simply say there is no direction to go towards any sort of bailout and end my answer at that.

I, however, Mr. Speaker, will continue on to reassure everyone that the polluter pays principle continues to be the live principle that applies in the Northwest Territories. That hasn't changed. And as for, again, looking for opportunities to build the remediation economy, that discussion paper's already underway, led by ENR.

And in the meantime, Mr. Speaker, although we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, as far as going back and looking at the settlement provisions, that's probably more of a question for the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Justice's department and the extent to which that would impede the ability to settle, whether it might, frankly you know, whether it would impede the ability to settle or whether it would breach expectations that are typically brought to us. I mean, I can certainly speak further about this not in the House but it would be drawing on my own experience as a lawyer where that's not the role I'm in anymore, Mr. Speaker...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, so when there's a legal liability, that's where there's an amount that is more determined where it's, you know, at a point where there's some relative certainty around the final amount, that does get reported. That is reported in the financial statements. And when there's a final statement, in fact, that if there's a liability that's owing or an amount that's being paid for under a settlement, then that is included under the specific department that is involved with that particular litigation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so, again, at present, that's not a distinction that is being made, but we're at a good moment in time with the new art strategy having come out and a lot of work happening right now to determine the future of ways in which we're going to promote arts in the Northwest Territories. So I can certainly speak with my colleague of course at E, C and E about this, about whether there is some differentiation that might happen and want to of course talk to the artists themselves about what that might look and what benefit they would see from that. We do certainly have the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to give some information about the difference between the two. If there's a public profile on the NWT arts website, then they can use that as a way to help promote themselves. They can link to their own public pages. If they have a private profile, then, Mr. Speaker, they wouldn't have as much information available on the site. They'd certainly still be a registered artist so that they can use the branding. But obviously, that's not quite the same in terms of the promotion that they might get, but they may certainly it's up to them to be able to decide. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, again, ENR is the lead in terms of managing contaminated sites and the contaminated sites inventory. The Department of ITI certainly is responsible for liaising as well with the department on the federal level. With respect to the industry sector, Mr. Speaker, I can assure you that we did undertake a fairly extensive program in order to determine the various types of sites and sumps all across the Northwest Territories. Simple fact is they have current owners and including all those sumps and as such, they didn't fit into that federal program. For a future ask...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of ENR is the lead for the remediation economy. They are the ones that are responsible for preparing a draft discussion paper. The fact that that paper is being prepared right now should be well known at this point by committee Members. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Department of ENR and ITI actually meet regularly. There's a number of initiatives where the two departments are working quite closely together in addition to which there is an assistant deputy minister that also is working in this area of remediation. And so I'm certainly able to...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Critical Minerals Workshop Information Package. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.