Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I believe this project is being implemented in parts and over the course of those times. So we do need to -- part of the reason it was transferred is so that the software can be developed in conjunction with the development of the regulations. So just as I've said that there's the different parts of the regulations to develop, the one that involves staking has to come first, and then the system to implement it can go online. So they're being developed, as I say, one at the same time as the other but we need to put the regulations out there before you turn the system on or else there's not -- it just doesn't make sense to do it the other way around. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. That's all I have for this activity. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions under corporate management? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I notice that this is the area that covers communications for the department. And I'm going to say I have some inside knowledge about how that may operate. And I'm just curious to know if there's been work done on updating the communications strategy, maybe a better utilization of social media by the department. I do note that it has definitely improved over the term of this Assembly but I would just like to know where that's going in light of our expedition that showed up here with not really knowing where to go, something they admit fault to, but I'm just wondering if we're looking at revamping our sort of business and public-facing communications tools. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I mean, I won't speak to what may or may not have happened earlier this week. I don't know that ITI would have necessarily been the lead on that one. I appreciate the point, though, that, I mean I think any government anywhere is probably always looking to do better in terms of communicating what it does. I don't know that we're any different.

Now that said, Madam Chair, ITI does tend to do a lot of the social media blog posts, etcetera, and that is a lot of the nature of being a frontline, you know, economic development department. One thing I had noted I think to -- in answer to a question earlier in question period this week was with respect to the Invest NWT website and acknowledgement that we do, indeed, need to modernize that a little bit. So while there's not a line item or a specific budget item associated with that, there is obviously budgeting here for the communications work that does get done across the department. And that is one area that we are, as I've said, alive to. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I can respectfully disagree with the Minister. I think that her department is exactly who an expedition wanting to transverse the Arctic with, you know, and do things around the cold weather testing and all of that is industry. It is business. And we often sort of, unfortunately maybe for her, deem her as the economy Minister. So I do think that this is where this lies or should lie anyway. I do appreciate that.

I guess my next question is here around, like, succession planning for the department and perhaps that might be more sort of for each sector within the department to sort of be looking at. But I'm just wondering -- I think this one is really important, and I'm wondering if the Minister has sort of a strategy about building up the capacity within this department and if, you know, we see things coming on more with oil and gas in the Beaufort Delta, will we be needing to have more staff and looking to ramp it up, because it -- a lot of that work is kind of specialized so we might need to be preparing more for -- more so for it. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, while I might oversee the broad policy directions of human resources, for the operational augment for the department, I'd suggest to go to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glad to hear the deputy minister speak about the Indigenous hiring targets. I think this is definitely one of the departments where we could be really pushing hard to increase representation.

And I guess just further to the succession planning, is there any sort of a, like, job shadowing type program going on right now with existing employees within the department? The reason I ask is I'm aware of a couple of the pathfinder type positions within ITI where there's a wealth of knowledge, and I would be concerned that they'll retire out and not -- and you know, and as always happens in the territories, we lose that wealth of knowledge. So I guess I'm looking along succession planning, job shadowing but also I guess retention of knowledge and how do we -- we keep sort of maybe something that's not an easily quantified thing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there's actually a lot of good news on this front. So, you know, and again this is where, as the one Minister on the one hand where I'm asking everyone, all Ministers and all departments to truly take this to heart, I certainly make no exceptions for ITI, so. But I'd like, if I could, the deputy minister should be the one to speak to that on behalf of our team about -- we have work happening in secondments, work happening in client services, client relations. We have work happening in mentorships, and I think we've also made pretty good use of the Indigenous recruitment and retention. So if she could speak a bit to that, please, Madam Chair. Thanks.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I really do appreciate that. I -- one thing I think about when I think of this department, it covers such a wide range of topics but then is one of the departments that feels kind of underfunded or understaffed, under capacity. And given that it has such a role in our economy going forward, I look to see that we're not increasing any positions in corporate management at this time. And I have so much faith in this department that I -- that concerns me. So I guess I want to maybe get the Minister or -- and/or the deputy minister's thoughts on whether they actually feel that their budget is sufficient and that they have enough capacity to execute basically the recovery of our territory? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sort of unsure I guess; I'm really at a loss for words. You know, the reality is that that's sort of what ITI does, is deliver on frontline programs across economic sectors. It's done obviously in conjunction with other departments. What I will say is that, you know, there's two things that we do have over at ITI going is that in my time, even in this department, the connections that are being made; for example, ITI and ENR now sit down regularly and discuss our shared areas of programming, for example, remediation economy. ITI and ECE sit down regularly and discuss labour market training and what that's doing in terms of what we're hearing on the private sector side. So there's quite a lot -- yeah, and -- and lands and natural resource departments collectively gather at an officials level. So a lot has started to happen in the last couple of years of really bringing that total government capacity to bear, which means we're not just looking at, you know, the ITI budget for economic recovery. We're looking at really back to the total government department -- total government budget and how things get done.

So, you know, yeah, I do think we have the capacity necessary. You know, does everybody want more money? I can assure you, everybody wants more money. The Department of Finance hears that, the Minister of Finance hears that all the time. But can we get it done? Madam Chair, we can, absolutely. I'm mindful of time so I'm going to stop right there and make sure there's room for one more.