Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a responsibility to ensure benefits from the extraction of Northwest Territories natural resources are provided to residents of the Northwest Territories. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has three initiatives that are advancing the priority set by the 19th Legislative Assembly to advance the benefit retention approach to economic development in the NWT. I would like to offer Members an update of this work.

This month, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment launched a pilot program that will fund capacity...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, Madam Chair, my understanding at this point is that we are in year one of a threeyear project and so the costs will begin to be incurred in the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, I mean, it's the same answer in as much as the Member is saying it's the same question which is that, you know, other than I think the Yukon, other jurisdictions don't publish the costs because of the concern that everyone will just simply bid to the known budget rather than trying to put some effort in to minimize costs. So yes, I mean, and just to distinguish it's, you know, actual costs as they are incurred certainly are made available and those updates are made available. But it's the budget that is the issue because it's the budget that we don't...

Yes, I do, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Northwest Territories Carbon Tax Report 20212022. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So back in February, as the Member's mentioned, there was a request for an expression of interest issued. The point there being let's try to get a sense of what the costs would be. We knew they would likely to be high. But certainly it's good to have an update with some concrete numbers. There was only one respondent to the expression of interest, Northwestel. And then a letter was written to support them when they went out as part of the process they undertook, they went out under the Universal Broadband Fund to see what kind of funding opportunities there might be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, earlier today I began to sort of go over some of the information that is available through the Government of Canada. They had put out maps that show cellular coverage across highways across all of Canada, back in 2018. So there may have been some improvements but certainly not dramatic ones, that there's over 1,200 kilometres of highways that have no cellular coverage; 115,000 kilometres of roads in Canada that have no cellular coverage which, you know, that's not a good news story by any way and by any means, but just to say that it's not a problem that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is over 12,000 kilometres of highways in Canada that don't have cell service, most of the highways in the Northwest Territories that don't have cell service, and while I recognize that this is the most travelled portion of highway, it is certainly not by any stretch a unique challenge faced in Canada or this territory or other territories or provinces. The costs of putting in cell towers and maintaining them is prohibitive at this time. We are certainly hopeful that with the increase of satellite services that that might assist with through...

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a conversation earlier with the Member, and I did receive this letter. So I have details of the specific incident that's given rise to these questions but the questions are ones that should be posed in the context of the work we're doing on the procurement review. Certainly no Minister who is responsible for any project wants to have to hear that, in fact, bids are not being received as we expect them, that the processes and policies we have in place are not being followed. Even vendor performance management, we don't want to have to use vendor...