Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these questions are for the Minister of ITI.
Mr. Speaker, there will be gaps in the Disaster Assistance Policy. Therefore, will the Minister of ITI confirm how her department will work with MACA and other departments to close those gaps for businesses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first off, I do want to acknowledge the troubling times that are being faced by many businesses in Hay River. I think it's been mentioned a few times that several of us had the opportunity to attend to see what's going on for ourselves, and it's plainly obvious that there's quite significant impact to the community and to the business community there.
We are of course all working together as one government. That's why multiple Ministers did attend to bring to bear each of our perspectives. And ITI will continue working with MACA. MACA is the first point of call for the Disaster Assistance Policy, that that still the should be the people's first stop, or using their pathfinders if folks aren't familiar with how to make those accesses quickly. But beyond that, ITI's regional offices and our local staff here out of headquarters, given that some of our regional staff have been impacted, they are working directly with businesses. Similarly, staff at BDIC are in contact directly with the businesses to try to identify indeed what those gaps are likely to be. And once we have a better understanding, we'll be working hard and diligently to figure out what kinds of initiatives we could potentially bring forward to fill those gaps, or working with federal partners to see what opportunities they might have to help fill those gaps. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during her visit to Hay River and meeting with business owners, does the Minister expect there will be businesses in the fishing, agricultural, and tourism sectors requesting assistance above what DAP may provide? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I should say thank you to the MLAs from the region who invited us there and invited me to attend and helped arrange some of the meetings that we had. It definitely it helps myself, it helps the department to have that hands on and have eyes on. You know, I my own I'm certainly not an expert so I'm hesitant to conclude that it is inevitable which businesses will or will not be experiencing impacts beyond what's available in the Disaster Assistance Policy. I mean, I can certainly say that there is, you know, some of the businesses were essentially wiped out. So, you know, what conclusions there are from that, I would think are probably obvious. But that's the work that's happening right now, is to try to quantify them as best can be done to do that as quickly as can be done, and then to then go back to, for instance, Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Similarly, agriculture. There is national programs. We are already having those conversations, not waiting for the final numbers, but with that groundwork in place and then with the numbers coming in, it's my hope that we'll be in a position to react quickly once the final numbers are available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if her department will assist those in the fishing, agriculture, and tourism sectors with funding to offset loss of revenue and wages, something that I'm sure isn't included in the DAP process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not a standing or standalone program that offers support for lost wages or lost revenue. And as many will recall, early on in the COVID19 pandemic, both not only our government, the federal government had to be creating and crafting those types of programs sort of in the moment and in order to respond. So I can't say necessarily what type of additional programming or programs might become available, might need to be crafted. But I can certainly, again, indicate that we are in touch with the businesses in the community. We'll continue to do so. If there's community businesses that aren't being connected with or haven't had those connections, you know, I certainly would want them to reach out, whether through their MLA or through their regional ITI office, because hearing and understanding exactly the needs, what are those areas of need, and what is being covered by insurance, what is being covered by disaster assistance, and what gaps are there going to be get these businesses back up and running as quickly as possible. You know, the more we can help be flexible by understanding those specifics, the more we can then tailor any programs that might need to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now what's happening in Hay River is that the businesses that have been impacted are basically cleaning up, trying to repair, you know, damages. And the reality is that no one will break even. But what I'm hoping is that we can get them to close to break even as possible.
You know, the ones that are working, you know, they're making a paltry $20 an hour under the DAP process. So Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if her department has identified or set aside funds specifically to assist those businesses affected by the flooding in the South Slave?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this I think actually draws on the Department of Finance.
So when there's emergencies of this nature, emergencies of any nature, you know, there's certainly money that gets set aside in our supplementary reserve for requests and issues that come up over the course of a fiscal year. Individual departments, once they have their appropriation on April 1st, may have flexibility. You know, this is depending on what's going on in the department. Projects might get deferred. Different work might get deferred in order to have some flexibility in a budget and to provide some shortterm relief or shortterm programs or enhance certain programs.
Beyond that, though, Mr. Speaker, there of course is just the simple reality that the government right now, we were protecting a significant surplus. So we do have some flexibility within our own GNWT budget and are keenly looking at what's happening in the South Slave working with MACA, asking everyone to register with the Disaster Assistance Policy so we have a good handle on what the needs are going to be, and then, as a wholeofgovernment, can be looking at what types of gaps there are and going back to the federal government to see what they can help us with to ensure that we are responding in a way that is flexible and responsive and really truly meeting the needs of those communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
