Thank you to the Member. Any further questions?

Seeing none, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investments expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $689,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Infrastructure expenditures, minerals and petroleum resources, not previously authorized, $714,000. Are there any questions? To the Member of Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that the MARS, or the mineral administration registry system, is also important to lots of people, so I would be remiss in not asking are we expecting this project to be complete, then, in the coming year, or how far along are we on this project? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member of Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, Mr. Chair, this will not be fully complete in the coming fiscal year. Where we're at at this point is that there -- the MIT system is expected to be fully replaced over the course of this fiscal year, and then MARS as a whole, best guess here that I can give, Mr. Chair, with fair limited -- with the sort of limited notes that I would have for the purposes of this supplementary appropriation is that will happen in the following fiscal year, so in roughly a year and a half from now, and then over the course of that fiscal year, so 2026-2027, some of the timing issues there is that we are trying to design and develop an IT system that can fully accommodate the final details of the Mineral Resource Act regulations, and, of course, the Mineral Resource Act regulations are not themselves fully complete, as that is a process that is going through the intergovernmental protocol with the IGCS. So trying to have that project move as quickly as possible, again, while trying to align it with the timing of a project that is also not done is proving to be a bit challenging, but, again, based on what I'm -- I understand to be the stage of the regs, and the -- and then is that MARS itself can then be good to move in by the following fiscal year, and I think that would mean that we would have final implementation of the tools so that people could basically go on and actually do all of the things, including map staking, which people are very excited about, would be by the next fiscal -- the following fiscal year thereafter. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the Minister of Finance. To the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.

Thank you to the Member of Yellowknife North. Any further questions?

Seeing none, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investments expenditures, minerals and petroleum resources, not previously authorized, $714,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Infrastructure expenditures, tourism and parks, not previously authorized, $2,465,000. Are there any questions? Seeing -- to the Member of Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly, why did so many of these projects have to carryover? It just striked me as a large number of projects as opposed to -- I mean, it's a fair amount of money, but just so many of them and so many across the territory, why so many? Does the department simply not have the capacity to complete the number of projects it's budgeting for, or what's going on? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, again, just so that we're clear as a get-go, a project can request a carryover only under specified circumstances, and that is specifically if either there is already substantial work underway or if a contractual obligation exists. So on -- you know, there's different reasons why different projects can see particular carryovers and, you know, they can range from anything from a contract being signed, you know, right at the line and such that they then end up, you know, requiring a carryover because they didn't quite meet the cutoff for having, you know, the timing begun or the funding expended or there can be -- certainly over the last few years, starting, as I said -- and I don't like to go back to COVID, but there are still projects we're seeing here that are facing carryovers because their original budgets were begun at the time of COVID. And then following from there, floods and wildfires that have affected different projects in different communities. So there certainly are some then, too, that have suffered from an opportunity of from perhaps a lack of -- a lack of as robust planning as we would like to see which is where, you know, I can certainly say that I've been quite pleased at the department and all departments have been quite, you know, ready, willing, and eager to see the changes in capital planning over the last sort of roughly two to three years. That does hopefully provide a greater degree of oversight to the plans before they come forward so that they are, in fact, ready.

With respect to the IT plans, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to give a plug for listening to the Minister statements again because I've also gone to our OCIO office that has been an area we are quite challenged to deliver tech projects, and they have done a fair bit of work to try to improve that system for how we planned. They're involved earlier with departments. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I think this -- it's a good question. It's just a difficult to answer as a collective question as opposed to having to maybe sit down and look at some of the bigger areas one by one by one because trying to improve the planning is going to mean sometimes looking at the individual problems. There will be one-offs on big projects. Like the Member specifically mentioned that there are times where we are stuck as a government, we have to provide a school or a health centre, but there's other times where, you know, there's things that we could try to increase in our own systems about even respond -- having responsibility contractors, having vendor performance management, having contract monitoring, all of those things. So, again, all -- I'll be mindful of the Member's time, Mr. Chair. It's a topic I'm actually quite happy to talk about because a lot of our projects do come in on time and on budget, but the ones that don't certainly make the headlines. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. To the Member.

Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investments expenditures, tourism and parks, not previously authorized, $2,465,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. I will call the Member, Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you to the Member of Inuvik Boot Lake. There's a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? Thank you. All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress. Sergeant-at-arms, could you escort the witnesses from the chamber there, please.

---SHORT RECESS

Members, thank you. I I'll go to the Member from the Sahtu. May I have the report of the Committee of the Whole.

Thank you. Is there a seconder? I'll go to the Member from Monfwi. The motion's in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.

---Carried

Third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, Orders of the day.