Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is an excellent suggestion, and I can assure the Member that that conversation has already been held with the Chief Public Health Officer. It certainly is something that has come up, if not with the Business Advisory Council, then certainly in other circles where I am responsible for maintaining liaisons with. Essentially, it is to demonstrate or to show compliance with the Chief Public Health Officer, so businesses need to be able to demonstrate that they are complying with an order or an exemption, or whichever the situation for them might be, so that people, when...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have the details in terms of that agreement. I'll see if perhaps the deputy minister has it or else the Minister of Health and Social Services might.

That has been an evolving conversation, and one that has happened largely in the public sphere. It's not necessarily for me to speak for the private sector here on the floor, but the Business Advisory Council, I have had the opportunity to meet with them more than once already, as well as with the chambers, as well as with a number of individuals who are bringing attention to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment at all times, around how to navigate their needs during COVID as well as how the government is navigating the need to support people, which is a large part of the COVID...

Mr. Chair, I would direct that over to the Premier if I could, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I am happy to make that commitment. I would just say for the moment that we may have to do it confidentially. I don't have the contribution agreement in front of me. In the event that there is something in that agreement that would require it to be confidential, we'll do so. Otherwise, one way or the other, we'll make sure to share it.

I am glad that the dire situation that is facing hospitality is being spoken of here. I think that, as the Minister of Finance at one point, under that hat, I had spoken of the fact that we're seeing a recovery in so much of our employment sectors, but that is not true in the hospitality sector and the tourism industry. That is an area that is going to continue to be struggling for some time. Really, the response has to be to be able to fill those gaps, so the Business Advisory Council that was brought about by ITI to assist us in figuring out what the best ways are to support relief and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If there is not support for the supplementary, then the extreme end would be to have special warrant for funding to support the actual response to COVID-19, which isn't really something we want to have to do. I don't think that's where this is going, though, Mr. Chair. If there is a removal of some random amount of money, and I don't mean to be disparaging, but essentially a random amount of money that just gets pulled out, then there is less money to deliver on the things that it's meant to deliver on. I don't know where we could take that out of, Mr. Chair. Something...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two things being reflected under this section. The first is the funding to the airlines, a large proportion of which did come through Transport Canada. Then the second part is that there is a transfer of funding here to Health and Social Services that came in through Finance as part of the federal government supports. It's just the way that it has worked out that it looks like a negative, but it's because it includes both those two portions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and Municipal and Community Affairs have had a discussion. There shouldn't be any secrets around what amounts are going to which communities, that division has been agreed to between those parties, so this was a very engaged process, one where, again, the association of municipalities and the Municipal and Community Affairs have, indeed, figured out what an equitable distribution will be between all the different communities. Indeed, if this does go through, as we are certainly hopeful that it will, there should...

Members of the 19th Legislative Assembly committed to "increase resource exploration and development" in the territory. This priority reflects the importance of the mineral resource sector to our economy both today and into the foreseeable future. Our efforts to support the mineral resource sector are further reflected in our commitments to develop regulations for the new Mineral Resource Act; to develop and implement regional mineral development strategies; and review our Mining Incentive Program, socio-economic agreements, and our territory's fiscal regime around mining. Later today, I will...