Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that probably falls more within the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. I can certainly, from at least the perspective of Finance only, say that right now the organization of the different regions, with superintendents and associated administrative responsibilities, certainly would involve a reorganization of various, you know, each department's organizational charts, each department's reporting hierarchies. So there are some administrative barriers to doing it. That doesn't mean that this can't be done. It's certainly been done before, but it's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, emergency leave is available to public servants during an evacuation. This is paid leave. It does not draw down from other leave banks. And if an employee is being asked to take some other form of leave, Mr. Speaker, they should be discussing that with their supervisor or raising it in appropriate ways. If necessary, it come through MLA, it can come to me, but they should be on emergency leave with pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I don't know what the lines are of communication that look to have been breached but, Mr. Speaker, the job of officials in ITI is to be in direct contact with fishers all around the lake. And I would expect them to continue to be in contact with fishers all around the lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Fish Revitalization Strategy from back in 2017 speaks to these exact challenges. Unfortunately, rather than seeing production go up from the time of 2017, production has only continued to go down. We are nowhere near hitting our quota on the lake, and it certainly is going to impact the fish plant. There's no secrets to that, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we need to work with the fishers. We want to ensure that they know that we're working actively to make sure that we are not going to remain under FFMC forever. There's different pathways to get there...

Yes, Mr. Speaker; absolutely, Mr. Speaker, access to quality, available, affordable, reliable, competitive, internet telecommunications, absolutely that increases economic reconciliation. Mr. Speaker, there's I could stop there but this is an opportunity I know there's times where our federal government counterparts are listening. I know they follow what we say. I hope the CRTC follows what we say here because that is an absolute truth. We're trying to do our part. We need to have private sector involved. We need the federal government to be involved. These are major investments, major...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, having more competition certainly is one way, traditionally and historically, that improves affordability in a marketplace. It does, of course, rely on there being the infrastructure to provide the options to the market and that is still an area where we are challenged here in the Northwest Territories. As far as the all that said, Mr. Speaker, this is exactly what we've been expressing at CRTC for some time, trying to balance between the fact that we need significant investments to support infrastructure in a marketplace that wouldn't necessarily have the...

Mr. Speaker, the digital economy is most certainly the way of the future right now in many respects; it's upon us. It provides tremendous opportunities, and I would like nothing better than to see some of the many small businesses, artisans, crafts multiple sectors could benefit from better access to the internet, tourism, tourism providers, so on and so forth. There are programs at BDIC with ADAPT to try to get businesses online. There hopefully now there's going to be the new subsidy that I mentioned earlier coming available for residents. So, again, I think and this is where the Member...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are indeed some guideline changes coming through the Department of EIA to support more clarity around the negotiated contracts policy but, really, the challenges here are, as I think the Member's pointing out, the negotiated contracts policy's right now being used in place of an Indigenous procurement policy to really look at how we are supporting and helping grow Indigenous businesses in the Northwest Territories. So the Indigenous procurement policy really is what is going to be the focal point here with guidelines, as I've mentioned nonetheless in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we're on a slightly different line right now than paying bills. But, Mr. Speaker, with respect to telecommunication services across highways, that, again, is one where all of Canada and all of rural and remote Canada struggles with this. I have certainly looked at many a map that shows the coverage for telecommunications. But we're not alone. And, in fact, northern parts of many provinces are in a more dire circumstances than what we are in terms of their demographics and populations that are affected. So as far as whether it would have prevented a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, as I had previously said the work is well underway and will be delivered in the life of this Assembly. There will be a change to the definition. We're going to be getting rid of the need for a Schedule 3 and getting back to focusing on what the objectives of the BIP really are, which is around investment in the Northwest Territories, encouraging investment, encouraging business growth here in the Northwest Territories, and supporting businesses that support that objective. That definition, as I've said, so it is on its way. It will be here in the life...