Caroline Wawzonek

At this point, relief on work requirements on the mineral resource claims or mineral claims is enacted up to March 31st of this year, 2021, so quite a large number, I think just under 200, in fact, have benefitted from that, from that relief. At this point, Mr. Speaker, there is not, as I understand it, necessarily a need for blanket relief. Many have been able to continue to do the work on the claim. What I will say is: we are going to look at it, and what we are looking at is whether and to what extent we can be doing some case-by-case relief for those who legitimately cannot get to their...

I think step one is going to be perhaps to bring back to the House what exactly at this stage is being tracked and to put that forward, to have that presented, so let me start with that commitment. I expect some of these, as I said, are largely publicly tracked. Let me make sure that everything is up to date and public, and we can look at what is being tracked in terms of northern employment; skill level; status, residential status, whether one is a resident of the territories or not; the training components; the number of suppliers; contract dollar value, so on and so forth, all of which is...

I think I have learned that, once one becomes a Minister, one kind of ceases to be an individual, and you pretty much stay a Minister all the time. As a result, Mr. Speaker, I think, if the Member is asking if I would personally sign, that is a conversation I am happy to have over a coffee, but I think what the question is: what's the position of the government? Mr. Speaker, the government is also a proponent on this project. We are a co-proponent on the project. What I have done, though, is looked carefully at what is on the petition. Again, with respect to developing the skills necessary...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, when we prepare for session, when you prepare through the year, this is something that I had flagged even before we came into session. It is something that the deputy minister of ITI, deputy minister of Infrastructure are already working on together. They know it is an issue. As I've said earlier, I was not here five years ago, and I certainly didn't have the awareness that this became an issue. It is an issue. It happens every year. It happened every year, every time the facilities freeze up. The Wayside Parks fall under ITI. The roadside pullouts fall under...

As it turns out, some work has been done in that regard. A permanent heated type of facility would be about $150,000 per unit, and we have right now about 10 pullouts from the border to Yellowknife. We are looking at $1.5 million, Mr. Speaker, which may not seem significant, but is not insignificant and would certainly have to go through the budget planning process. Whether there are other options, I will certainly inquire to see the extent of the inquiries that we have made and whether there is anything else that can be done. Not to make light of the whole situation, these people are working...

Mr. Speaker, I read quick, but I don't read that quick. As it is, Mr. Speaker, the Member had asked me this question, or I think I had overheard him asking this question to the Premier, and so I have gone of my devices to inquire with the departments. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member there is a plan. I don't have the details in front of me fast enough to read it, but there is a plan. We are going to work with Infrastructure in order to ensure that the toilets and outhouses are being cleaned regularly. I will provide the details of that plan to the Member in writing, Mr. Speaker.

[Microphone turned off] ...number one, again looking at to what extent there can be some case-by-case relief in terms of the work requirements, but really could not agree more that we have good success right now with the diamond mines and really exciting early-stage exploration projects coming on, early-stage projects coming online. We do need desperately to get the exploration sector going and have it active. There is money out there. It's starting to look around to where to be spent, and we would like to see it spent in the North. This is the place, in my view, to spend it for exploration...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All but one of the three diamond mines obviously remained in operation, and as of last month, the third one has come back online. The major contributors to our mineral resource industry have managed to operate through COVID-19, through strenuous efforts undertaken to be compliant, to protect their workers, which I really cannot understate. As far as the exploration side, Mr. Speaker, we have six advanced projects, all of which have been at least partially if not fully active. It's the smaller explorers and the smaller exploration companies who have, as I believe the...

Again, it is ENR that is the lead on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in terms of engaging and leading our role on this project but again working closely with ITI. Even before knowing that this might become a topic today, it turns out the Minister of ENR and I had actually been talking about the project and ensuring that he and I would have a chance to meet in the near future to check in on the role of the GNWT, what we are doing to ensure that Northerners are seeing themselves reflected in this project. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the procurement process here is one that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Remediation has been, is, and will be an important part of our economy in the Northwest Territories. It doesn't need to be said any differently than that. It doesn't need to be in any way fancier than that. That's just a fact, and we are already doing much work in that regard. I think already, earlier today, another Minister mentioned the importance of training and education in that respect, and there is no reason why, in fact, ENR would be anything other than supportive of that. This is one government, and we are all prepared to support this work and act with one voice...