Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the government have kind of a wider plan for managing cost overruns in general on contracts? Like, is there -- because, you know, it's not just this project. Obviously, we're seeing a number of different ones and, you know, this is the second set of supplementary appropriations I've seen in my short time here. And, yeah, I'm just curious. I mean, it just seems to be, you know, projects tend to balloon, you know, the costs just go up and up and up. I'm just wondering if we have any kind of planning policy changes in place or being planned to kind of get at this...

Thank you. That's it for me on this one. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask about this Western Arctic Research Centre. I know that it was noted -- sorry? Oh, we're just on the first line; okay, I'm sorry. I thought we were going page by page. Apologies, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. And, yeah, I think this is one that I want to kind of maybe follow up with the department a bit more sort of outside of the budget deliberations. I just wanted to get some questions on the floor about it. But I am interested in learning more about what the department's doing, how it's capturing the benefits. This one's important to me. But I'll leave my questions on this budget item as that for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was going to do an acknowledgement for Dave Hurley today but being the selfless guy that he is, he asked that I instead highlight the important work Habitat for Humanity is doing in the NWT. So that is what I am speaking about today.

Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories is a non-profit organization working toward a North where everyone has a safe and decent place to live. Established in 2013, the NWT affiliate is one of the youngest in the country. Their mission is to build strength, stability, and self-reliance through affordable homeownership for...

Okay, thank you. That's interesting, it kind of counters my understanding. I was under the impression that with relation to employment opportunities, ITI was playing a role. I understand there's some kind of coordination committee related to it that ITI is partnering in. So I wanted to ask about that, how it's going, how the department sees itself in that role with relation to the fact that, you know, this department also has a division that's managing economic diversification and maximizing opportunities there. So I was hoping to ask questions about that. So maybe the department can clarify a...

Yeah, thank you. No, I'm not really speaking to the pathfinder program. And maybe I'll give a little bit more detail so the Minister can understand what I'm getting at. So there's been quite a bit of talk in the past little while about the opportunities that mine remediation has for employment in the territory and just ensuring that we are capturing the benefits from this activity, but namely, the Giant Mine remediation project was going to be -- you know, it's upwards of $4 million now that's going to be spent in the territory. And my question is if this is the department to be asking...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, Mr. Chair, in the Minister or department's opinion, looking forward to the 2025 audit and of course completion of the 2020 one -- the 2020 audit is what I mean, not 2021 -- does the department feel that they are adequately resourced to respond to those recommendations in a timely manner?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I note that the Northwest Territories environmental audit falls into this area. My first question is, is this the area where I would be asking questions about implementation of recommendations of the audit?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yeah, I appreciate the clarification. I was trying to move quickly here because we were flipping through the pages so fast. Information and Privacy Commissioner is what I'm looking at. I was looking at the wrong numbers. I do note that the budget has gone up since 2022-2023, but yeah, just wondering about the Information and Privacy Commissioner's office and whether they are getting the resources they need to respond to requests in a timely manner.