Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of ITI. I have asked the Minister previously, and again I ask, if she has read the report from the ministerial advisory panel which examined alternate governance and ownership models for the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have a copy of the advisory panel documents, the report, and I will review. It is an exciting time, especially if this does evolve into being a harvester-led-and-owned entity. We are very excited for this project to move forward, and there is no anticipation that we would not; we're just trying to figure out how that's going to go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One important recommendation from the panel is the inclusion of fishers' participation in FFMC by drawing board members from fishers and fisher organizations. This government appointed a bureaucrat to the board. I ask the Minister if she will commit to reviewing this appointment and consider appointing a northern fisher to the board.

Thank you to the Member for the question. The department of fisheries and oceans is reviewing the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation and how harvesters will have more of an equity stake. The role of FFMC is critical to the Northwest Territories and how this transition to a federated cooperative will impact fishers across Great Slave Lake. It is quite possible that the FFMC becomes a cooperative entity and that the current board would dissolve. The new federated cooperative entity would be represented by fishers; however, in the meantime, until that happens, I do commit to the Member at looking at this appointment.

I appreciate that answer. The next one is: what is the Minister's department doing to financially assist the NWT fishers, beyond the current programs, who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

For the 2020 fiscal year, the department will provide additional freight payments for the remote locations to support the strategic goals outlined in the strategy for revitalizing the Great Slave Lake commercial fishery of 10 cents per pound for zones 2 and 3 and 20 cents per pound for zones 4 and 5, which, in turn, will increase cash liquidity to fishers for seasonal start-up activities. The regional office has been having conference calls with the fishers every two weeks. Discussions have been held to provide updates on the status of FFMC, the status of ITI programs, and new safety programs. We haven't received any concerns about the lack of funding support, but I ask staff to confirm on the next call on Thursday with the fishers that that's the case. If not, I commit to coming back to the Member and having a discussion with him about those concerns.

I also want to say that I've recently, myself, met with a local fisher, so I have also been taking some time to at least continue to hear and engage with that industry so that I know what's going on, so that when we are moving forward with the fish plant, I am more informed.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, for the $9 million question: what is the status of the proposed fishing plant for Hay River, and will the Minister commit to providing me with a briefing on this project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department is finalizing a processing footprint for the proposed new plant to bring it within budget. Proposed processing volumes have been reduced, and plant size reduced to approximately 10,000 square feet. As the Member will remember, the proposals received were well over the budget of money allocated. The region is working with Infrastructure on this project, and it is hoped that Infrastructure will be finalizing a tender delivery process this summer with an award this fall. I do commit to having a more fulsome discussion and briefing with the Member and anyone else that he would like to bring from his business community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the new collective agreement now has 24 months as the benchmark and no longer 48 months. Thank you.

Knowing, within my past experience, looking through the collective agreement, when somebody is here for up to 48 months, they get 100 percent removal. If they choose to stay on past that and sign on as an indeterminate, then there is a removal, and this is what staff look at: the years that you stay within the government, you get so much percentage of removal. When it used to be up to 48 months, if they decided they loved the place that they're living, they would comfortably move into an indeterminate. Can the Minister explain to me why this change was made?

I will say I listened quite intently, and I am well familiar that the Member has a lot of experience in terms of hiring in an area that is under a lot of stress, in terms of hiring healthcare workers. I'm not in a position right now to explain the details of how the collective agreement was negotiated on this particular point, but I certainly intend to inform myself on it. I will reach out to the Member and to a relevant committee if they're interested. The Member is probably still aware, and the House is likely still aware, that, earlier, I had made a commitment that the Department of Finance and human resources is going to be working and is working with Health and Social Services to improve recruitment and retention of healthcare workers. It certainly sounds like there is some interesting experience and very relevant experience that I would like to draw from the Member on.

As the Minister alluded to, one of our priorities of this government is to increase resident healthcare staff by 20 percent. I would like to know if there is some sort of plan that is in place in human resources to fix the system to make it more appealing to indeterminate employees rather than locums and terms, especially in our highly-needed healthcare profession.

I certainly can confirm that human resources has already begun working with Health and Social Services, that they are already underway in terms of developing their plan. I'll correct myself later if I'm wrong, but I believe there was an intention to move forward this summer. Again, now, with COVID-19, that may have changed somewhat, but the Department of Finance and human resources has been quite actively involved in the fact that we've had to staff up in the Health and Social Services Department. I will certainly commit to getting the details on those plans back to the Member and back to this House as quickly as possible.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier because I believe that the kind of response required by the GNWT to support small business will take a Cabinet collaboration. Mr. Speaker, can I have the Premier's commitment that she will instruct her Cabinet Ministers to bring forward innovative suggestions on how more funding and support can be made available to NWT businesses as a result of COVID-19? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely. We are already taking some movement in that way. It is one of the primary reasons that Minister Nokleby actually proposed the business advisory council. The important thing, though, Mr. Speaker, is that we have to make sure that our compensations for businesses complement the federal government's and not overlap, and that is a fine dance that we have been doing all the time. Constantly, in my first Ministers' conferences, I keep talking about flexibility. The federal government seems to say, "This is for this. This is for that." We have businesses keep falling through the cracks all the time, so I have been asking for flexibility within that. However, absolutely, we are already on that.

I completely agree with the Premier that we do have to demand flexibility from the federal government, but in that, I believe that we also need to make up for that here in the Northwest Territories because our businesses simply can't afford to wait until the federal government is able to kind of work with our entire country to then give our northern businesses what they need to survive. Does the Premier see us in the Northwest Territories being able to provide an influx of cash, as a government, to businesses within the Northwest Territories, ahead of waiting for the federal government?

The Government of the Northwest Territories has already provided some economic relief. The relief packages that we have put out there are available on our GNWT website. If not, let me know, and I will get back to you on that. We are trying to keep up as well as possible. The whole idea, though, is we need a coordinated approach. Like I said before, if we keep running to the federal government -- which happened at the beginning. First, it was tourism. I am trying to remember the order. First, it was tourism. Then it was Chamber of Mines, and it kept going. It's confusing for the federal government. That is why we are talking about having a plan that will actually come forward and say, "These are all of our needs, both social and economic." It's a better presentation to the federal government, and it makes us look more professional as the GNWT.