Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that there have been discussions in public and with myself and perhaps with other Members and perhaps with other Members or representatives from the Department of Finance with respect to concerns around Section 6 of the Charter which relates to the mobility rights of Canadians to be able to move between jurisdictions. It's obviously a hot topic right now as we are facing challenges with tariffs and a response to tariffs that includes removing mobility or encouraging mobility across jurisdictions.

With respect to legal opinions, Mr. Speaker, it should...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to return to Lutselk'e. It's always a good experience to be there, a very pleasant and beautiful community, especially if it's fishing season, but certainly happy to go back and further these conversations.

Similarly, Mr. Speaker, not that long ago myself and Minister Macdonald were able to meet with YKDFN, both chiefs, in the community of Dettah. Also happy to go back. I expressed at the time that more of those meetings would be good. It took a long time to find a time then. I don't want a lot of time to pass before we can do a follow-up on that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pre-feasibility studies are not free. They do involve expenditure of public funds. And now the pre-feasibility study I was being asked about earlier was for a road across Great Slave Lake to the tune of, again, even just preliminary estimates, being 7 to $8 million every year because the road, of course, melts every single year, and now there's pre-feasibility studies for several other additional projects.

Mr. Speaker, again, on the fly, that's several significant expenditures of public funds for projects that I really don't have a good estimate on other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a very fair question. We, in fact, do build -- that estimate I was given of sort of 7, $8 million, based on the cost of the Tlicho region winter roads; a significant difference being in the Tlicho region, the winter roads are over ice crossings whereas to Lutselk'e, we are looking at crossing Great Slave Lake, which is obviously a huge body of water, behaves extremely differently. There's significant winds, significant movement on a very deep lake. Pressure ridges develop. There's high risks of having open water at any given moment. Significant...

Mr. Speaker, to complete this week, recognizing some of the achievements from Yellowknife South constituents, I am including today Dr. Ryan Connon who received the Government of Canada Emergency Management Exemplary Service Award in February. Dr. Connon is part of a three-person team, including Dr. Anna Coles and Shawne Kokelj, who, since 2020, have made up the Department of Environment and Climate Change's hydrology team. They work diligently to provide situational updates on river breakup and open water flood risks to the GNWT and to affected communities and residents.

Mr. Speaker, their work...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it really certainly does fulfill both. Certainly the drive and putting that much money into it is an economic driver but it also supports local artists, and it's an incredible mentorship opportunity. I had the great joy of going recently out on to one of these film sets and was absolutely tickled to see that there was multiple staff members who are grown up in the territory who had come back to mentor other people within the industry who were working on the film set as well. And so it was really neat to have this cohort of Northerners kind of come...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, with respect to a concern on high cost of living and looking for solutions, one of those areas where there's high costs is the fact that there's a lot of fuel that has to get transported to the community and a lot of that is being transported because the community right now of Lutselk'e is running on a diesel generator to generate all of their power. And yet, Mr. Speaker, I do believe there have been some initial scoping studies done about micro hydro facilities. That would reduce the cost of living potentially, certainly bring a more reliable...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is, of course, some significant critical minerals deposits not far from Lutselk'e in terms of rare earth elements, and it certainly is, of course, work that's -- we're hoping will be getting underway on a Taltson expansion which would have a cable running under the water but would certainly involve potentially some, you know, work being done in or near Lutselk'e and potentially ending up having to move some equipment. That doesn't necessarily open up having consistent year over year winter road. It simply means that there may be some years where even...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's two items in there, and the first one was with respect to having relationships with Indigenous governments, Indigenous leadership. I had the opportunity recently to be -- to travel to Lutselk'e. I work with the chief of Lutselk'e on the Taltson project as a partner and I know, in fact, that the Premier met with the chief of Lutselk'e just today.

That said, Mr. Speaker, a separate question, then, becomes on whether or not initiating a feasibility study is or is not a reflection on the nature of that relationship. Mr. Speaker, I would distinguish the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity, together with the Member for Range Lake, to meet with the brewery. I've met with them on past occasions as well. They're significant contributors to this community in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, and this is -- again, I do want to re-emphasize, not only to the brewery but any businesses as we're talking about reducing trade barriers, ourselves, territories, Atlantic provinces, we all have businesses that are small that may be concerned about what it means to open up, but this is an opportunity and we want to seize that opportunity...