Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. In developing the capital plan, what criteria are used by departments to review, rank, and prioritize projects? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to do justice to the process that is undertaken. There is a risk-based analysis that's done. It's done -- it comes up through -- from frontline department staff through to each individual department. There is a peer review process that then goes on where the ranking is reviewed, it goes to an ADM committee where it's again reviewed, and only at that point projects that make it through that process with sufficiently high ranking go on to the deputy ministers and then ultimately on to the financial management board to determine which project might proceed in any particular year or not. There is a fairly significant -- I don't have the matrix in front of me but one of the top considerations, of course, is health and safety of the population and then other items of ranking down below.
I can say, Mr. Speaker, that none of the projects that come forward are anything less than the top ranking of ensuring health and safety for the people and the residents of the Northwest Territories. There's always a lot more that are on that list than what we often have the ability to do. But, again, I'm more than happy to ensure that that information perhaps is -- if it would be of assistance, we can table it here so that it's more easily and readily available for members of the public who may want to understand that risk process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate that commitment from the Minister.
So Mr. Speaker, can the Minister describe the process that Cabinet goes through to assess the implications of the Assembly's priorities have for our capital budgeting and how we might need to shift resources to achieve them? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the priorities of the Assembly are priorities of the Ministers that stand here just as much as of MLAs. When matters come through our individual departments, that is I know certainly reflected in our mandate letter. I can speak for myself, Mr. Speaker, that it's reflected in the mandate letter that I have for my departments, and mandate letters very much govern what comes forth in departments as they're trying to ensure that they achieve what's in these mandate letters which are themselves a product that comes from other priorities and then, of course, decision items go whether to the Cabinet packages or FMB packages when it's approvals of financial items and thereto within the financial management board's review processes that those templates are available online for review for any member of the public. And it does include in there the kinds of different considerations, including alignment with the mandate and an analysis of political factors including, again, alignment with the mandate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister feel that that process is sufficiently effective at taking a strategic, high level approach to priority implementation in terms of determining what the best course of action is, you know, for a given -- I guess what I mean by the question is, you know, are we taking a strategic process or are we simply having each department kind of look at the priorities and what that department can do as opposed to kind of thinking holistically what's the best way to attack the problem regardless of what departments we have. So just thinking more strategically in general about what we could do, not just what we can do with the current structure that we've got. If that question makes sense to the Minister, Mr. Speaker, do they feel that process is sufficient, or does the Minister agree with me that we could be doing more to strategically plan out our priorities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can always do better, we can always do more. So certainly happy to continue the conversation around how to continue to engage our process to be more strategic. I actually did find, Mr. Speaker -- it's the very back page of our capital planning document that's in -- those of us sitting in this House have it here. It's the very back page has the capital planning process in detail. Members of the public will see it in the tabled document. You know, and, again, the infrastructure acquisition plan and the process of GNWT dollars being assigned really does come down to one of being around critical risk areas. When we get into strategic conversations that very much involves the federal government as being a potential source of funding for major projects which then, you know, could actually be where we advance some of those bigger wish list items that we may have. How that project -- or how that process develops might be questions for the Premier's office with respect to federal engagement. The big question, Mr. Speaker, and I can feel your glare that I want to wrap up here, but it's a big question, lots to be said. Always can do better. You know, and, again, I'll probably just leave it there and expect the conversation to continue. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister pointing out appendix B. Certainly that is the question -- the answer to the question I was looking for in question one. And I would just gently point out that -- or perhaps pointedly point out consideration of the priorities is not considered in that process.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to drafting a proposal for a new process for capital budget development which helps to better align it with the priorities of the Assembly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm more than happy to do that in part because although this is a summarized process, the priorities of the government are, as I said earlier, always part of every decision paper that comes before Cabinet or the financial management board, and they govern the work of every Minister through a mandate letter. So in ensuring that we're reflecting that both to the public as well as in our summary documents, it's critical. And if that's not coming through in terms of understanding where those opportunities are for the priorities to be reflected, then we absolutely should find a way to ensure that that's more clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
