Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, not necessarily. The challenge that we have, some years ago, before I was in government, there were more regions -- or sorry, more specific services offered specific to the Tlicho region with some reporting, but it wasn't necessarily capturing services that would be, for example, funding that gets issued to district education authorities or funding for services that cover multiple communities or services across highway regions for instance. So it -- it's going to be very difficult to fully capture everything that is happening within a particular region...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so first, nothing would be finalized before going through committee process and having an opportunity for that feedback. It is targeted for this spring, for full release in the spring, which certainly does mean we need to be moving fairly quickly on getting it out to committee. I mean, it was, I think, slated for really right around now to be coming forward, but I -- as I say, I don't know that it's -- well, it has obviously not fully hit the committee yet. So, I mean, when I say any day, it kind of is any day at this point but, again, assuring committee that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can confirm that NTPC did install modular units at Jackfish to increase the capacity. There were installations completed back in 2018 and 2019, and there's also a new 4.4 -- I don't know the capacity of those two, but there is a 4.4-megawatt generator also at Jackfish plant. It does remain, Mr. Speaker, that the system is still reliant on these -- on this single generation facility and so, again, that doesn't necessarily answer all of the challenges we have within the lack of a wider grid or redundancy in the grid but that element was taken care of. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my apologies. I am excited about the Taltson project. And, look, let me just say first, Mr. Chair, it's not a silver bullet, and I don't want there to be a mistake that this is a silver bullet. There's a lot of other work on energy that needs to happen in this territory for different communities, and that needs to continue to happen. The federal government hasn't come out and said we will 100 percent fund your projects, but what they have done is, by establishing the major projects office, create potentially a vehicle that can support getting the project from where it...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is making practical investments to strengthen our energy systems and make energy more reliable, affordable, and sustainable for communities across the territory.

The energy initiatives report released on February 3rd shows how we are building a strong foundation for long-term change. We are improving how energy systems are planned, regulated, and delivered, while moving forward with projects that meet local needs and reflect northern realities.

Mr. Speaker, a key part of this work is supporting the public utilities board and advancing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that would be coming under the capital budget. Still happy to generally talk about the work that's happening with the Taltson project. We are still working with MOU partners who are the Members -- Indigenous government -- sorry, surrounding the Taltson watershed, both north and south of the lake. And right now we're in a pre-construction planning phase, so we are funding staff within that work to move that forward to be at an EA. So there will be an environmental assessment that needs to be done at the south side and north side as to where the landing site...

I can, Mr. Chair, in about eight seconds, so that I get everyone's names and titles ready.

Might be slightly longer than that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the good news is there is now going to be funding available. It just wasn't known at the time that the main estimates were being concluded and put -- they do go to the printers a little earlier than just in the days before session begins, and we hadn't yet had confirmation from the federal government that we'd get a renewal of this. We've been looking to get this program renewed. It's a significant amount of money, 17-some million dollars in a year. And when that was lost, it did curtail a lot of energy efficiency programming. The department tried to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly some of the details that are still being worked out. I don't want to misspeak in that this is still a private company and they have a number of contracts elsewhere, so I don't want to speak out of turn. But, again, the point here was one where we would pilot this in a way that if there are sufficient cost savings and that can help offset those costs, and if there's not then this may be a pilot that doesn't go much farther. Again, the company's very confident in their technology, and that gives us the confidence to be able to move forward and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is that -- I am not sure if that's specifically on the Dehk'e Frank Channel Bridge. Yeah, okay. So I mean, certainly Bridgeworks -- I don't have the bridge specifically in front of me right now, Mr. Chair. I will see what information we can find. But I can say there's been a number of significant increases in terms of -- the cost of steel has not really come down since the time of -- for instance, since really when COVID had resulted in some pretty significant increases, and there's also been ongoing supply chain issues, and this bridge did experience some not...