Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize two pages from Inuvik Boot Lake, Cayley Rueben as well as Angelina Wainman. And I'd also like to recognize Mr. Matt Miller who used to be a teacher at the East Three in Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: 2022-2023 Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation Amended Capital Budget;
2022-2023 Northwest Territories Power Corporation Amended Capital Budget; and, 2023-2024 Corporate Plan Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation and
Northwest Territories Power Corporation. Quyananni, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Cora Lenore who is a band member with Liidlii Kue in Fort Simpson. Thank you for being here.

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 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 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. 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 very much, Mr. Speaker. A $40 million cost sharing agreement for the environmental review of the Lockhart All-Season Road and planning for the remainder of the Slave Geological Province Corridor to the Nunavut border was established under the 2019 Transport Canada's National Trade Corridors Fund.

Mr. Speaker, this agreement includes a current agreement end date of March 31st, 2025; however, the GNWT is currently working with Transport Canada to amend this agreement to end at March 31st, 2028, which will align with the end of the current National Trade Corridors Fund program. This funding is specific to the advancement of the Slave Geological Province Corridor Project and cannot be reallocated. Again, this is a priority of the Assembly that we all set at 19th Legislative Assembly, and I will continue to advance this project, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government's mandate includes commitments to increasing resource exploration and development as well as making infrastructure investments, including the Slave Geological Province Corridor. The advancement of this project is a priority by which the entire 19th Legislative Assembly, and I will commit to continue to advance this project. It's our government's intent to continue advancing the planning, the design, as well as the regulatory work for the first phase of the Slave Geological Province Corridor, the Lockhart All-Season Road while recent -- while the recently announced regional strategic environmental assessment is coordinated and conducted by Canada. The federal minister's decision clearly respects that existing projects can and will continue to advance through this robust environmental assessment and regulatory process while the RSEA is undertaken. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.