Debates of Feb. 24th, 2026

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, this is in regards to the staff of Diavik Diamond Mine that are employed by the mine. And so we've worked closely with Diavik to participate, for example in their career fairs, made sure that through our different available programs within especially ITI and ECE that mine workers are made aware of them and have our support of our staff to apply on them if they want to take advantage of them. Every time I do sit down with all of the diamond mines and speak with them, we talk about the importance of maintaining NWT residents as much as possible, and this is a commitment that they continuously make, is doing their best to maintain their northern workforce. But at the end of the day, I don't have control over who they keep on their mine site and what staff they require at the end of the day. It might be an issue of, for example if they have five heavy equipment operators they're supposed to and have committed to maintaining the NWT-resident heavy equipment operators and letting go of the southern ones, but if some of the workers are of, you know -- I don't know -- whatever position and there's only a southern worker in it and then not a northern one, then they would have to maintain that person in that position for the safe operation of the mine. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. You know, I've heard, and I am sure there must be some other Members too that heard from their constituents saying that, you know, the older workers, they've said it many times that they train -- they don't mind training their own Indigenous but not others because then they take over the jobs, you know, like, and then our young people lose out. So that's why some of them had an issue with it. So that's why I am asking, like, if it's 100 percent northern residents that were employed. And I know a lot of them had issue with that and I thought I'd just -- I'd mention that in here.

Another one too -- because here you have a number here, northern employment at the three diamond mines was 32.1 in 2024 and at the same time 16 percent was Indigenous worker. So does this 32 percent includes the Indigenous, or is that a number by itself? Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the northern employment at the three diamond mines of 32.1 percent, that's NWT residents, and then Indigenous employment of NWT Indigenous persons at the mine was 16 percent.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for that answer. And another one here is that same thing on the same page, northern companies in 2024, you know, was nearly at $800 million. Northern companies that -- this is regarding their procurement. And procurement with northern Indigenous company was at $456 million. This is northern Indigenous companies. How big are some of these Indigenous companies? And it would have been nice -- because I know for the impact benefit agreement with the Tlicho, they're -- you know, for the procurement, they're considered first in my region so -- and if they're -- you know, for whatever reason that, okay, due to capacity or whatever it is, but then they can, you know, go with it or not. So it only mentioned Indigenous companies but I just wanted to know about small business, you know, small northern Indigenous business that consists of one or two people. Do we have a number for this as well? You know, I mean, northern Indigenous companies it doesn't say. It just, you know -- it would have been nice if there was a large to small, if it was identified in this business plan. So that way we have an idea of, you know, who and where. And it should have been by region as well too, because I know that every region needs money. Every region needs -- they have families and a lot of them rely on -- if they're an entrepreneur, you know, they need the business. We know that. You know that too, so. I am just asking that if there's a breakdown or is there any other information about the northern Indigenous companies and northern Indigenous companies as mentioned here for 2024. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have that level of detail from the diamond mines. But this would be everything, for example, from a one-person business operation to something as big as Tlicho Investment Corporation and beyond, who has hundreds of employees. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

What I meant to say here is that from 2024 to date, I would like to get that information but, you know, if you can provide us with that information, that would be good so that we can share with our members.

Yeah, I know increased NWT Indigenous and NWT resident employment at the natural resource sector, is that only related to the diamond mine at this time, or is there any other exploration? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is other exploration happening in the territory. There's other drill projects happening in the territory, other advanced projects happening in the NWT as well, but the only mines who report to us for these types of statistics at this point, because they have their IBAs, are the diamond mines.

And as far as the Member's first question, in regards to providing information on procurement, I'd be happy to provide the Member with the information that we do receive from the diamond mines and definitely happy to share that. Thank you.

Okay. I will go back to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. I think we're out of time. But, yes, that's it for now.

Okay, thank you. Next on my list I got is the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I want to ask some business planning questions that aren't 100 percent clear exactly where they land in the budget. So the first one I wanted to ask -- or first series, I guess -- are just the risks and mitigations activities page.

Over the last two business planning cycles, ITI has noted that no changes were required to its risk profile or mitigations. Maybe I am misunderstanding what that page is for. But does ITI have internal triggers or external indicators that they use to decide when a risk or mitigation must be updated? Are those triggers documented and time bound? It just seems -- yeah, I will just leave that as my first question.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for this one here, I would like to be able to pass to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. I mean, I guess this is where we get into the difficult area of, you know, is ITI the department that's responsible for the economy or not. I recognize that we want to have a cross-departmental, government-wide approach to these economic risks that we're facing but, I mean, it's just strange to me that, like, ITI -- I mean, I will just get right to the nose of it. I mean, what evidence did ITI review in 2024-2026 to conclude that existing risk and mitigations remain fit for service -- fit for purpose, sorry, despite significant shifts in the NWT economy and operating context, for example the shifts that we've been seeing in the diamond industry, which forms the backbone of our economy. That seems to me like a massive economic risk. So that's not considered a risk that we would need to mitigate with our department that is responsible for economic development and diversification? Thank you.