Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I guess I would ask is that those projects that -- are they being deferred, or are they not going to happen at all? Are we looking at putting that money back in, because I think there was a building there for Hay River that I'm concerned about and knowing the state of the existing one. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, you know, always coming with the caveat that circumstances can change at this point, certainly the letters that I've seen come across to date have spoken to deferrals of projects, delays of projects. And in some cases, those projects weren't necessarily at an advanced stage where they were proceeding. And there's other occasions -- that's right, there's some of the projects also had surpluses on them and so we were able to take the surplus from a project to put it towards this.

So, I mean, I don't want it to sound like we're cobbling the money together but in some ways we sort of are, but it's a good news story in that, you know, the amount that was needed, the extra amount that was needed to cover the unanticipated higher supply costs is right now able to be covered through, again, either the surpluses or through projects that were not at the same stage of readiness to advance. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, you know, knowing the original costs and the additional cost, I would like to know is in terms of when the plant is up and running, are costs for this project -- does it include the initial start-up and some management costs for employees and that. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is in the operations budget that -- for ITI initially and then ultimately, again, the vision here is that it's going to be taken over in due course. So the money that's being seen here is part of the capital plan is just that, it's to build it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess with the additional cost, was there any design changes in the building associated with that extra cost. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there were initial design changes, I think in fact still before my time in this role. There's not been further design changes in the interim. But might I just turn that over to deputy minister Strand to speak to briefly.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, you know, I guess just a more of a comment now is that, you know, I'm pleased to see that it is moving ahead and that, you know, I'm not too pleased to see that it's cost another $1.2 million.

I'm hoping at the end of the day that it will be a big benefit to the -- to the fishery on Great Slave Lake and a benefit to the fishers as well. You know, I think we got a lot of work to do to make that plant work, but I think we've just got to be positive and hope for the best and make sure that, you know, that we keep our eye on the ball on this one. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Are there any further questions, comments? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm just going to take this opportunity to ask the Minister if this includes at all the collection points around the lake and maybe if she could provide me with a quick update on where the one is in Great Slave. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this money doesn't include the collection stations. I can give a little bit of an update. There's been a fair bit happening on this. I'm only just starting to assimilate the information myself.

But the collection stations, certainly we are required to work with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, so the federal government is going to be critical in terms of the collection stations work that's going on.

There is money in the budget ultimately to support this work, but the first thing that we need is to identify a site.

So under Fisheries and Oceans, small craft harbours is the division that's responsible. They did come to Yellowknife, I think over the summer and into the fall, to look at a couple of sites that we had anticipated they would be interested in.

We don't, at this point, have our final or full report confirming whether either of the sites that they looked at would in fact meet requirements to create a collection station. And then even once they do, then there's still additional processes that would have to be undertaken, certainly environmental site assessments, in particular if some of the sites had prior uses, and at that point, of course, certainly further consultation with the public, with Indigenous governments in the regions.

But again, the work at least is now moving along. This is another one that certainly saw some delays during the earlier days of COVID when there was less travel by federal department officials. So we were very pleased that they did come up here and that this is now moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the Minister for the update. Perhaps once the MLA for Hay River's fish plant is built, he can give us some of the money back and we could get a park in Great Slave at that location.

Could the Minister maybe speak a little bit to how she's working with industry, and I guess this is a little bit off topic, but on the -- on that location. I did notice that this at the end of the fall there, there was a deployment by Terra-X, I'm not sure if that's their updated name, of their equipment out of their mine site using that location. It was the first time there had been a barge there, I guess, in a long time.

It seemed like a missed opportunity to perhaps not ask Terra-X to maybe start up one of their loaders while they were sitting there with four of them and perhaps work together to fix up the access down to the road -- or to the lake.

I anticipate they will be looking do more work in that region as they have purchased Con Mine. I think it's the same outfit, please forgive me if I'm wrong. So maybe the Minister could speak to whether or not there's an opportunity there in the next years' demobe to have some of that work done, because it does sound like it it's quite a ways out for the federal government to be doing anything with that site. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.