Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I certainly can provide that data. I don't have the number in front of me right now on the fly, but I can certainly commit to get that to the Member. And I'll have it before tomorrow if she wants to follow up on it. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 69, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, at the appropriate time today, I will table Changing the Relationship, the final action plan in response to the Calls for Justice on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples. At its core, this action plan is about relationships Our relationships with institutions, governments, people, and history.

The national inquiry examined the causes contributing to the ongoing violence and systematic vulnerabilities that continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous women, girls and two spirit persons. They found that the thousands of truths shared reinforce...

Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 70, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, there I mean, the short answer is yes. But I'd like to just turn it over to deputy minister on that front. There were conversations had not only with Department of Finance but the Department of Infrastructure as well, and the deputy minister might be better placed to just give a bit of assurance in that regard. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as I was just saying there's not a lot directly that the government can necessarily do. But what I would certainly be willing to look at is perhaps having the two departments come together and see if there's room through which the government can help advocate or room through which the government might be able to provide more information to small businesses, to the small business community, about what they might do to help influence their own rates. There may be information that is, you know, more readily available to some than to others, for example...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I and I appreciate the comment again. We certainly don't want to see a flood impact that's the size of $100 million as we did this year. Certainly I mentioned the year before, while devastating in the Deh Cho region and the Nahendeh region, the costs of that flood in 2021 were nowhere near what this one was. So there's by no means any certainty that we're going to be year over year seeing $100 million for what appear to be climate change impacts. That said, I take the point it is that, you know, there may need to be some looking at where this what kind of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I wouldn't necessarily characterize it entirely as that. Again, there's there is a new approach that we are using for the coming fiscal year, and that approach is meant to look you know, to bring a bit of that planning more strictly in at the front end. But there's going to still be occasions where projects don't advance for a variety of valid and reasonable reasons. But, you know so, again, I wouldn't necessarily characterize it all as that. But this review does give an opportunity to, at this point, again, bring it forward now rather than waiting until...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I can say that I have not heard it raised, the idea of requesting specifically a GST rebate on heating fuel. So as I said earlier, I'm happy to take that forward. And more generally, I will acknowledge I've certainly been tasked by my colleagues to take the message to Ottawa given the impacts of climate change in the Northwest Territories that the increased costs and what that's going to do to individual residents and businesses is, as I say, a message that I've been tasked to carry forward and I certainly will do so. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly can. So we start off the year just to remind the House, we start off the year with the $35 million supplementary reserve, and we right now are in a deficit of just over $42 million. The main reason for that is as a result of the costs of the flood for 2022, and that is yes, that is a significant reason for that overage. Thank you, Mr. Chair.