Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been a tough year -- or a tough season for a lot of the roads in the Northwest Territories, including this stretch of particular highway. There were some challenges this year with maintenance, Mr. Speaker. One of the contracts that had gone out -- it went out, and there was a request for a negotiated contract. That slowed down the procurement process. We were able to ask the existing contractor to continue to maintain the road but certainly not the same as having someone in place more permanently. So although the work was getting done, it wasn't...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all communities across the Northwest Territories need to continue to be invested in, and analysis gets done, whether it's department of health looking at long-term care facilities, whether it's education looking at educational needs, those processes continue. One of the things that does come to me from looking at the audit is the importance of having good planning, is the importance of having good records, and quite frankly, is the importance of having all of that consolidated in one place with experts in that area and that is something that we do now have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, it probably is a bit of both departments here. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take that number back. That's a very specific number, and I'm -- while I'm familiar with the audit, I am not necessarily up to speed with what that number would be.

So in terms of the projected costs, we do have a fairly detailed analysis that's obviously been done when we got the audit in. We are looking at where costs are going over the course of time. There's some concern that we have seen with respect to the audit in terms of understanding the difference between the portion that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to say that I have a resident of Yellowknife South here in the room with us today serving as a page, Mr. Ben Mager. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: The 70th Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission 2023-2024, and the 70th Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board Enforcement 2023-2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say at this point staff are not being given layoff notices, but we are trying to take a much more proactive approach here. As such, there was an informal initial meeting held in October 25th with some senior members from the Department of Justice, Department of Finance, human resources, in order to start to communicate to staff so that when the time, it does come, that the funding here is for one year, and so if the time is coming up, rather than waiting until formal notices are provided that staff actually have information in advance, they could have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have what's called an indefeasible right of use or the ability to use the line that goes from McGill Lake down into British Columbia. That's that last piece that connects our loop. It ensures that we are using -- we have the ability to use that infrastructure which would otherwise be entirely that of NorthwesTel just as -- as there's agreements with us and the government of the Yukon to use either side of this network or the loop, as I was describing earlier. Mr. Speaker, with respect to what happens after McGill Lake, that piece does belong to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't present at the meeting so I'm not going to try to quote anyone that was present. Mr. Speaker, whenever there is a situation where individuals or staff are facing a change in their status, we have what are called the staff retention policy guidelines. We have staff retention policy, and we always make every effort to ensure that any employee who is facing a change in their status of employment has that full benefit.

What happens is that under the staff retention policy, a staff member would get a 21-week notice period. That clock starts to run when...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe there are still conversations underway right now with the Department of Finance on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories and NorthwesTel. We were also involved just this past summer and into the fall in terms of producing -- or, rather, providing completion of a fibre line all the way up into Tuktoyaktuk, and stemming from those conversations we were -- again, this is part of the -- part of the bigger conversation that's happening with them about how we can maximize the services in the telecommunications space in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is a part owner on a P3 which is the Mackenzie Valley fibre line that goes up the Mackenzie Valley. And recently, we are now connected in to a project that goes through the Yukon which is creating a loop that goes down into British Columbia. So we are well underway to having a loop that connects all throughout the two territories. And of course then beyond that, there are services that go down into Alberta through our line or through British Columbia through the other line. So once that is all in place, Mr...