Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am very happy to say that we certainly are planning to have a new strategy, and with respect to success or not, I can say that, when the strategy first began back in 2017, there were very few commercial producers. We are now numbering roughly eight to 10 with some significant growth in the area. We are gathering the information now, and I would expect that more formal engagements will happen beginning possibly as early as the end of this year and, if not, early in 2022 so that it is ready indeed to roll out in due course next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Last year, there was a coupon program that encouraged people to stay longer in the parks, and we are looking right now at doing that again. It did seem to be very successful. It was highly subscribed, so while I am not in a position to stand and make any official announcements right now, we certainly are actively looking at doing that again, precisely to encourage people to get out and utilize the facilities of the fantastic parks that we do have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the things that COVID did not change is the weather, and as such, we are still sticking with the usual dates for opening. This accommodates the fact that those who have the contracts to do the campgrounds and to operate the parks need some time, once they are able to get in there, once the thaw has begun, to actually get in there and make facilities functional and usable. We are right now anticipating the same usual opening date, which would be May 15th for most parks and/or the May 24th long weekend for the other parks.

Again, Mr. Speaker, the policy right now allows individuals who have gone through the procurement process or who have considered applying on a procurement process to look there and to see whether they would be eligible to make their complaint. It would go through the client department that they are working with and then involve Procurement Shared Services and, if necessary, yes, of course, to the Comptroller General's Office. It's not a formal report per se that gets completed. At this point, in fact, my understanding is that the three that were dealt with were dealt with in a manner that did...

I can say that, over the course of approximately six years, there were only 19 complaints, and in fact, this fiscal year thus far, there has only been one. I certainly will look to compile that information and provide it for the use and review of the panel. As for what they may do with it, obviously, that is certainly up to them. Again, we'll see where it goes, but certainly, we can compile that and provide it for their use.

Those two departments, while under one Minister, have different areas, and they may not necessarily flow into the agriculture-commercial sector, for which ITI is responsible. Notwithstanding, Mr. Speaker, I was happy to discover very recently through my colleague that take a kid gardening is, in fact, a program that exists in schools across the Northwest Territories. Absolutely, I will commit to speaking to the Minister of ECE and the Minister of Justice to see what we can do to bring some synergy to this area and to agriculture more broadly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With respect to meat regulations, that work is right now actively taking place in my colleague's department, Health and Social Services, and that indeed is part of the mandate and, as such, is moving along and will be reported on in that regard. Beyond that, Mr. Speaker, there is also now, newly formed, the territorial agriculture agri-food association. That is an entity that is very active in this space and one that I would certainly commend producers to be involved with as an advocacy group to identify any other barriers that may exist. Last, Mr. Speaker, there is recently rolled out the red...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are quite a lot of initiatives underway. One of them that I think I have spoken to recently would be in terms of the Mining Incentive Program. That is a program that is within the government's mandate to increase funding to, and funding was increased and modified to adapt to COVID-19 so that it could be better accessed and more useful for those who are having to adapt their systems and their processes to continue to explore, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there is a wide variety of other initiatives underway. Not knowing quite...

At this point, that one, I am going to take back and say I will get back to the Member on it. I know there was some initial anticipation of what might get out there with respect to, for instance, the vital statistics and various health information. Again, subject to how the framework has unfolded and subject to the application of that framework to the technology that is now landed on as being useful, I would like to confirm if, in fact, we are still going to proceed with the vital statistics and health information first or not. That was always the intention.

Mr. Speaker, the open government portal has been delayed somewhat. I had been hoping we'd be further along at this point and have some more information moving forward onto the portal. I can say at this point that, at least now, we do have the technology ready to roll out that will be implemented. What they are working on next is a data management framework. I acknowledge, and I must say, that the number of steps required to ensure that data is managed properly insofar as both being a collective of all of the different items of data and high data usages across different departments but also in...