Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: "Capital Estimates 2021-2022;" "NWT Liquor Licensing Board 66th Annual Report 2019-2020;" and "66th Annual Report 2019/20 Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't want to get captured with semantics. Being conscious of the fact that we have to be engaged with the federal government when we put forward any kind of procurement policy, and particularly an Indigenous procurement policy, the answer to that is yes. Whether it's going to be a specific federal strategy, I'm a little more hesitant to say, but I believe the Premier has already spoken at other occasions about the fact that we are all tasked with being responsible to go to our federal partners and counterparts to discuss all of these kinds of issues. What I will say is that I will perhaps...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I fully expected a question was going to come about this in the course of this session. Short answer, Mr. Speaker: yes, this is going to be part of the procurement review. Slightly longer answer, Mr. Speaker, is that I want to make sure that it's clear that we will be doing this in conjunction with the Indigenous governments who have those rights in their land claims agreement. Yes, it's coming, but it's going to be coming and it's going to be done the right way, which is in consultation with the Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am happy to say that, yes, we have made that link. I think the Premier was prepared to take the question, Mr. Speaker, but it's because there is an overarching direction that is going on with this. I've had the opportunity to speak very briefly with my colleague Minister Simpson from ECE, and I believe it's out in the public and well-known already that our resources and environmental management is one of the pillars of the polytechnic going forward. Certainly, the fact that there is that link that has been made between ITI, where we can provide those opportunities in the industry; ECE, where...

Perhaps I am not sure if "irony" is quite the right word, but the pace of private industry certainly does often move quite a bit faster than government. It's a bit interesting that, as a representative of government, I am being asked to try to keep up with what's happening in private industry. That really is the nature of this. There is ongoing communication between these private parties and an ongoing process of bids. In one case, one bid was withdrawn. We are certainly hopeful that another bid may well come forward so that, again, ultimately, this mine can reopen.

As far as communication, Mr...

The court proceedings are public proceedings and so, to the extent that our counsel is present and speaking at those proceedings, that certainly is a public forum and a public arena where that message is being transmitted. Beyond that, I don't think I have turned away a single media inquiry to ask further questions about this. I have spoken to the media on many occasions about that and will continue to make myself available to do that, and I am more than happy to continue to answer the Member's questions here. It is certainly my expectation that that message is going out, and it is being made...

It was always an expectation that, over time, the surety bonds that were being held for this particular mining industry would convert over to irrevocable letters of credit. Right now, to be very simple about it, it's not a concern right now. From the perspective of the government, the surety bonds that we have can be called upon by the government if we need to, so from our perspective, they provide adequate security and assurance that, if the bonds needed to be called, if the securities needed to be called, they would be there. What they did provide was some flexibility to the company when it...

It's not the GNWT that gets consulted on the sale of this company between private entities. There is an ongoing negotiation that is taking place between Dominion Diamonds and prospective bidders. It's not one into which the government should be putting its hand. Ultimately, in this case, being a CCAA proceeding, the court would be overseeing that process and would be overseeing that sale. What the role of the GNWT is, is to again ensure that our environmental process is respected, that securities are held in an appropriate manner, and at that point that is our role, that is the role that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following six documents: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 153-19(2): Government of the Northwest Territories Public Service Succession Planning;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 313-19(2): Providing GNWT Staff Who Leave the Territory with Two Weeks Special Leave;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 197-19(2): Business Incentive Program;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 224-19(2): Dehk'e Frank Channel Bridge;" "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 268-19(2): Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Policy Funding Delays;" and...

To the extent of keeping Regular MLAs informed, to date, the last couple of occasions where more information became available to the Department of Finance or the Department of ITI, in fact, I think the very last time that we received information in the morning, we turned around and got that out to MLAs that same day, within hours. We are going to continue to try to work on that kind of time scale so that, when we get information about what might be occurring from one of the parties that is relevant to these proceedings, we will turn that around as quickly as we can. As I said, in this case, it...