Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister. It seems like it's a real hot potato over there. No one wants to answer the questions. But, of course, we ask questions; we don't actually sometimes get answers. But this government has not done enough to protect and serve caribou. We called out Alaska for allowing development in the camping grounds of the porcupine caribou herd, but we didn't do the same for a gold mine in the calving grounds of the Bathurst caribou herd on the Nunavut side. So can the Premier tell us why we failed to protect the Canadaing grounds of the Bathurst caribou herd, we fail to identify and protecting habitat on our side of the boundary, and continue to bull doze ahead with a road that will have irreversible impacts. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm going to actually read my notes here. So you'll get a longwinded answer here. Mr. Speaker, ENR has worked closely with Indigenous governments and other co-management partners to protect key habitats for the Bathurst herd. The collaborative development Bathurst caribou range plan supports habitat conservation areas of important caribou habitat, as well as using the mobile caribou conservation measures commonly known as MCCM in the core Bathurst area. ENR provides funding and support to Indigenous governments to identify important Bathurst caribou habitat, which will be used to help inform habitat protection. ENR participates in environmental assessments and land use planning process in the NWT and Nunavut to minimize the effect of development across the range of shared herds. ENR works with the mountain provincial diamonds to file the use of the mobile caribou conservation measures in the field and working with blue STAR gold in Nunavut to assess the effectiveness of MCCMs at their site. Mr. Speaker, ENR is also working with Rio Tinto exploration and Tlicho government to mitigate impact to the caribou from their aerial geophysical exploration projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Can the Minister tell us how the department is ensuring their RFPs are advised early enough in the new fiscal year to get work done during the upcoming short building season. How is industry being engaged in this conversation. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department are doing -- we're doing infrastructure in different ways to be able to help reduce some of the carryovers working with the contractors to ensure that we get our tenders and our information out so that we can have timely projects happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's always really frustrating to ask how things are being done to then just get an answer that they're being done. So I'm just going to leave it at that. But that's quite an odd answer. Can the Minister explain if projects are looked at as a whole both within her department and across the entire GNWT to see if there are savings to be had by planning these projects together. These could include maximizing their buying power by ordering bulk materials or sharing labour and transportation costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we are looking at different ways of doing this. For example, enhancing some of our project tracking tools, enhancing some of our project management with best practices. We are staggering out some of our projects in future years where possible, working with our Department of Finance as well to look at our procurement, find historical data. Mr. Speaker, I could go on. I will not other than to say, yes, we are doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that the myths's department is doing something. Can the Minister advise if her department is examining the cost benefit of prepurchasing and shipping materials in ahead of time for future projects. So not only looking to maximize benefits by sharing between projects, but also being foreplanning, or preplanning proactive to see whether or not materials could be brought in at a time that the winter roads are in place or the barging is happening so that they're ready to go once the grounds thaws and work can be done. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, throughout the fiscal process, we do our capital plans in the fall so that contracts can be in place in time for summer barging as well as our ice road seasons. Before we can lose a half a year on any projects is at a minimum. We cannot enter into negotiations, RPFs, contracts until our infrastructure acquisition plan is approved every fall. We face capacity issues as well, Mr. Speaker. A number of our contractors that are available to do the work as well, they have same issues on trying to source material and finding workers as well. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how often she consults with stakeholders who enter the RFP process? I want to make sure that we're actually giving our contractors time to meet the needs of the contract. If that contract doesn't come out until April, they have missed the window for winter roads and, you know, knowing how the barging goes, I doubt private industry wants to rely on that. So can the Minister explain how often is she actually meeting with industry stakeholders about RFPs. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it all depends. I mean, we meet with contractors if and where possible. We have staff that continue to have dialogue with -- we as leaders in this government have meetings with Indigenous leaders, and we talk about some of the projects that advancing into the regions. So we do have discussions. And, you know, if the contractors have issues, they contact the department, and if they need to, they will -- we will have those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly am also following the statistics that we get quite regularly on updates about population change. Mr. Speaker, I just want to note one interesting fact is we've actually seen an increase in international net migration into the territory. The birth rate, as I think the -- that was reported yesterday tends to remain fairly stable. So there are some interesting things to draw, and I do want to assure folks we certainly do keep an eye on that as well. As far as what we're doing to -- what we're doing to keep people aware of what's happening and why this is a good place to be, I can speak from the perspective of finance, Mr. Speaker. There's a lot of efforts being made in the Department of Finance to demonstrate why it's a good employer, which is certainly the biggest -- one of the biggest employers here in the Northwest Territories. And looking also, again, as an employer at whether we can be doing more to look at why people do leave the Northwest Territories. And a lot of that work does happen right now at the three mines. Thief tried to do exit interviews to look at. And, Mr. Speaker, in short, there's such a myriad of reasons, it becomes difficult to target just one, other than to tie it to look at what it is overall in the territories that does make this such a great place to be, and that is a lot of the work we do in this House to try to continue programs and services that are available to residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to investigating what can be done here a little bit farther. There are avenues and I think easy accessible avenues where more exit interviews can be done for GNWT employees. I think that there is more that can be done to give other residents who don't work for the government feedback on why they're leaving. And another interesting category that I find is people who are saying I've decided that I plan to leave within the next X number of years. One such example is someone who reach out to me and said we've decided we're leaving within the next five years; we're done. But we're giving ourselves a little bit of time. It would be interesting to know what is compelling these people to leave the territory. Is there something that would actually just change their mines and get them to stay, and if so, can we pull out those themes and address those things specifically. So is the Minister willing to look at territorial wide exit interviews. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as it is, there's actually a requirement or an expectation for the Department of Finance for GNWT employees to institute an exit interview process. That's part of the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. We are expected to undertake that work and to have that ready to go in 2023-2024. So in that sense, that much of a commitment I can certainly make. And, Mr. Speaker, I know when there was some of these news articles came out the other day, I had an opportunity to speak with the other department, ITI that I'm responsible for. And looking there too alt whether we could perhaps work with the business community at why there may be changes, why people might be selling businesses, or looking to leave. So I don't disagree. I'm not sure how far of a commitment I can give to the Member here on the floor other than to say that there is some discussion happening right now with the departments, different departments at what we can be doing to reaching out to various parties and stakeholders in the community and certainly would be happy to hear those stories directly as we are figuring out what other routes and avenues we can take directly to reach out and to find out what more we can do to keep residents here and attract new ones. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pretty sure right about now it's 5:17 in Toronto and someone is driving home, wishing that they weren't spending an hour and a half on the road and wishing they knew where to go and be there was opportunities for them to get wherever they needed to be in five minutes. And so I'm wondering if the Minister of finance is interested in putting together a targeted marketic plan to let fellow Canadians know what wonderful things the Northwest Territories has to offer and what opportunities they can come up here and take advantage of right away. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a fairly intensive marketing campaign between 2010 and 2014 called come make our mark. It did have some successes. It certainly had a high number of inquiries. It had a high number of positive responses from business communities who said they were aware of the campaign that they had people coordinate -- coming to them because of that campaign. But it was a very expensive campaign to run, Mr. Speaker. And I don't necessarily know just how many more folks on the ground we actually have as a result of it. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm certainly -- I'm not saying no, but I do think there's some more looking that needs to be done at what was done before, did it have the impacts we wanted it to before we necessarily commit to another marketing campaign. That said, Mr. Speaker, the days of social media certainly have evolved. So I do hope that there's some room here where we can give a better response, a more positive response to that question in the coming -- in the coming time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do remember that campaign. I remember it being based on different people in the territory who were from different regions across Canada, and their faces were plastered in their home town, and it was so and so moved to the Northwest Territories kind of thing. So can you -- is my memory of that campaign come make your mark in the territory just like your friend from our home community did. But I don't move somewhere or have an idea of moving somewhere. And I've been here a long time, I'll admit that. But it's because I love the North. And you don't generally decide to up root your entire family because Jim or Bob or so and so lives there. It's something else is attracting you there that talks to you and what that place has to offer for you. And so I think that there's room for us to really sell all of the Northwest Territories has to offer, especially with some of the changes that have happened in the territory and also some of the things that have been here for absolutely ever that we want to be able to share with the world. But my last question for the Minister, Mr. Speaker, is when people visit an NWT tourism booth -- and I believe that there was an NWT tourism event here in Yellowknife, but right before the pandemic that we all got to go to, and there was a three day experience; there was a beautiful massive I think 20-foot booth that people could go and really experience the northern lights. It was a very interactive experience, and it's exciting. And then you'd walk up to a human resources booth, and it's generally an eight by eight booth -- sorry, Mr. Speaker. It doesn't really sell it. It's got two people standing there, and if you want to ask questions, you can. So will the GNWT really take after tourism NWT and create some exciting booths that actually sell the territory when they go to these events. Thank you.