Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 30, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization) No. 1, 2025-2026, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have one of the younger residents of Yellowknife South in the House today, young Finnigan Gosselin has been spending the day job shadowing with his mom. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, yes. Mr. Speaker, I've already had at least some introductory calls with counterparts in Ottawa, and I can say -- I'm happy to say that I already raised the Mackenzie Valley Highway as being a nation building project, correcting a critical part of Canada that is right now unconnected from the rest of Canada, multiple communities, an entire segment of this country has no connections on roads, and if we can't get barges in because of climate change, no connections really whatsoever other than by air, we can't have that. That's not the Canada of the future. It's not the building...

Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak about the Government of the Northwest Territories' new integrated approach to energy and climate change, and how the Department of Infrastructure's work on energy will help build a stronger, more affordable, and more resilient future for the territory.

Energy powers our communities, heats our homes, fuels our transportation, and propels businesses and the economy. But today, the Northwest Territories faces some of the highest energy costs in Canada, aging energy infrastructure, and increasing impacts from climate change. Our approach to energy must evolve.

Last...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had to practice it several times, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. There's a lot of work that is happening. We are still, of course, actively involved with our MOU partners and, together with them, are reviewing an update to the business plan, to a final business plan, so we can have that ready to go with -- obviously the business plan is an advocacy document, but it also updates the final costing. We are working through the final remaining information requests that I believe at last count we were well over 400, and we are down to the last few...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say we're right now bringing what was sort of 60 percent design project up to a higher level of certainty and with that would come more of the analysis on whether or not there are any further opportunities. There is already, obviously, the distribution network within these communities which is, as I said, one that has rep -- that has Naka Power there, and I don't know whether they have any staff based in the communities or not, and I don't expect this would change that. When there are lines running, that certainly has the possibility that there may be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I mean, I wasn't personally privy to the conversations with SGI but did follow up to get some information as to what became of those conversations. It was a couple of years ago now. But I can say at the time that their indication is that they don't have any interest right now in coming into the Northwest Territories market, nor do any of their brokers have any interest at this point, from what they're informed of, to coming into the Northwest Territories market.

Mr. Speaker, although, you know, again, I -- I can't really speak for an entity from another jurisdiction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current superintendent of insurance has been in the role since December of 2022, and I am able to say that they have not -- they have informed me that they have not received any complaints from homeowners or businesses about being unable to access insurance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so I can say over time that there's been, as I said, different questions and initiatives but there has been a more recent outreach from the judiciary, and it was in response to that efforts were made to see what immediate steps could be taken. Again, to build an entirely new facility, which is something that's been asked, is well over the $200 million mark, and so there was an effort made here to say -- to try to respond, as I said, to recent outreach from the judiciary. This amount gets moving in terms of some immediate changes to the entryway which would help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is correct, it does. The insurance premium tax that gets paid to the GNWT does take into account any increases in total gross premiums for the calendar year. So the premium tax is three percent on general insurance, one percent on fire insurance, and that is, indeed, based on the previous calendar years' insurance premiums. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.