Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Infrastructure does have some buildings where we are the owner, other buildings where we are a lessee. And in some cases, we would support other departments. So I'm not sure if the Member's referring to which of those types of situations. We certainly do have a lot of situations where we have had recently retained security firms to perhaps support particular buildings that are within our purview. And as far as policies, I can certainly get back to the Member. If there's a specific policy, there would have been an procurement process that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my hope that it is a Building Act. Again, at this point, it's in our business plan. It's part of the work that would happen with the department, subject to where we land in terms of our budgets here. But if we are in a position, that is my intention, is that we'll move forward. We have a working group formed now and hoping to get started the process of developing what would go into a Building Act for the Northwest Territories, including what kind of accessibility legislation it would include. That would be what comes in the next fiscal year, or over...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back in April, the Legislative Assembly played host to youth from across the Northwest Territories for our annual Youth Parliament, something I look forward to every year as we get to hear voices from youth and to hear what they feel is important to the next generation.

The following words in my Member's statement today are those that were written and read in this Legislature by Kagen Ball who represented Yellowknife South as the Minister responsible for Infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about plans for the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, my apologies. I think I just wasn't fast enough getting my hand up. Mr. Chair, just a very brief comment. Certainly, I know I'll just say for my own departments, I did find the comments today very helpful and wanted to encourage, you know, a couple of examples, again, drawing only really from my own departments, but it was just to say when I have my other hat on and not as Member for Yellowknife South, but it is a sincere hope that the business plans can be used in the main estimates reviews that we're about to go through. Having fouryear business plans was something new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly one of the questions that is part of this review, is what kinds of different governance models we might have for MTS. Not that long ago, MTS was privately owned, and it went into receivership. And when it went into receivership, all of the communities that depend on the resupply were put at risk and at that point is when the government decided to step in. From that point forward, I'm not sure it has ever turned a profit. So if somebody out there wants to take it off our hands, that might be very good news. My concern becomes resupply, to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the review itself at this point, which is quite close to being completed, doesn't consider, to my knowledge, whether or not to split the operations up, but really, rather, to look at what the different types of models there might be for the operations as a whole. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: 20242025 Corporate Plan for the Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation and Northwest Territories Power Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process of the review did send out an invitation, I believe at the end of last year, to communities who rely on MTS so that they had the opportunity to participate. I don't have details in front of me confirming which communities did or did not. I know that some did, but I don't know that all responded to that inquiry to participate. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll try not to go on for 35 minutes again, Mr. Speaker, with respect to the budget. But on a high level, first of all, if the government has the fiscal capacity to invest in the Northwest Territories and in the people and the residents of the Northwest Territories over the long term in a sustainable way, then we can continue to provide all of the programs and services. We are running up ourselves right now against a situation where we don't have that fiscal capacity year over year and that one bad fire season can wipe us out with nothing left to show for it and nothing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I had an expectation, given the Member's statement, that this was going to come up today and so I've already been engaging with the department about what the latest is, which is why I've assured that we'll be participating on a national level. But I can also say that in these short time since the Member's statement, I have actually had residents reach out to me and point out that, in their view, having an Escooter might be more safe to be able to be on bike lanes and to be able to use Escooters on the bike lane roadway as compared to relying on large...