Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, this is one of our priorities of this government, that we all said that we needed and we wanted, and so that's why we are committed to working and moving this type of a project and supporting the Endacho Indigenous-led to being able to establish within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that the department currently funds out-of-territory trauma placements, will the Minister commit to funding in territory trauma treatment with equivalent service exits? And what is the concrete timeline for establishing a formal partnership with a northern Indigenous-led trauma healing lodge? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our whole point of supporting this is to being able to utilize the services within the Northwest Territories. So, however, we continue to work through these to support them be established, and then those conversations and how we, you know, ensure that residents who are needing this, that we're able to support them through that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have questions this morning for the Minister of the power Corporation, NTPC.
So we know we've experienced power outages, some lately, and these can be costly to households and businesses when it causes damage to equipment, appliances. So my first question to the Minister is are there any circumstances where NTPC or Naka Power would be liable to reimburse households or businesses for the cost of any damages to their equipment or appliances? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for NTPC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any payments on behalf of any utility, and in the case of Yellowknife it would be Naka most likely but they too would be subject to fairly standard terms and conditions, standard insofar as they're utilized across Canada. And in those circumstances, it would really be only, you know, if there was something rising to the point of negligence and not an outage that is unfortunately a run of course type of outage. But short of that, Mr. Speaker, there's not a provision under which the utilities pay customers back for surge damage that they may experience. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So is the Minister aware of how this practice would compare to standard practices from other utilities or governments in other parts of Canada in terms of funds or opportunities for people to be reimbursed for damages due to power outages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so, again, you know, I am cautious that I don't want to speak for Naka but certainly the NTPC and Naka's terms and conditions are, you know, I think fairly well known if not publicly posted on their websites, and they are, indeed, consistent with utilities across Canada. In speaking to the CEO of NTPC, I know there are quite a number of avenues where the utilities maintain contact with one another. And, lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would note that the public utilities board, for us, also provides oversight over all of those terms and conditions to maintain that consistency. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So does NTPC provide any fact sheets or information to residents to help them understand what -- or businesses, to help them understand what they can be doing to prevent damage to equipment or appliances such as various types of surge protection devices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate that question. The customer service branch does send out various bill -- the little stuffers that can go out now and again when folks receive their power bills. At least, speaking on behalf of NTPC. I would expect that Naka likely does that as well. But I also expect that both utilities put a fair bit of information out on their websites, on their social media pages, and I will happily ask them to do that again now, particularly in the winter months when we are experiencing -- or at risk of experiencing more outages. Folks can look to what to do in a power outage and they'd find information, I know, on NTPC's website. I think BC Hydro has some good information. And I know I've looked, I think, at Hydro Quebec as well in the past for some of this type of information and would encourage people to have a look and to heed the advice. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on February 9th, I gave a Member's statement on the Innovate Centre in Inuvik and the dire situation that it's in and requested that the Minister speak with the chair of Aurora College to look at continuing the funding.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of ECE. I guess my first question is, is she aware that they've now been given notice that the funding will be done at the end of March and the Innovate Centre is to shut down maybe, Mr. Speaker, forever. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly the Member has raised this in the House and in this building before, and it's certainly a huge loss to the community. I definitely always think that there are creative ways that we can look at futures of buildings and programs and see how they can evolve and that often requires a broad conversation with lots of people at the table so that we can make sure that we're being creative in future uses as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I wholeheartedly agree but similar to what happened with CLCs, it can happen so quick. What the centre is looking for, Mr. Speaker, is one-year funding, approximately $200,000, to continue and do that work that the Minister is talking about, to find new ways to kind of have the Innovate Centre amalgamate with the community. So what I am asking the Minister, can the Minister find a way to keep this centre open, to find that $200,000 to keep this centre open for another year to do the things that she's suggesting they do?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is not dollars within the education, culture and employment budget that have been dedicated to this purpose. There is, however, the SEED programming which does and has seen applications come through, for example, in order to hire and work with consultants on the evolution of businesses, and certainly a SEED application might be a space where some of those dollars can be discovered to really help plan for the next chapter and next phase of this program. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I agree, but as the Minister knows, SEED funding does not cover core funding and it would be good for the governance, absolutely to get that, but this is a volunteer board. Can the Minister commit to once again bring this up with the chair of Aurora College -- I had asked for that back on February 9th -- to implore him to find a way to -- and the board, to keep this centre open for another year so they can find a way to keep it open forever. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly commit to discussing this with the chair of Aurora College board of governors. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in December, Burgundy Diamond Mines received a large enterprise tariff loan in the amount of $115 million, as we saw in the news. Mr. Speaker, was Cabinet -- oh and sorry, my questions are for the Government House Leader on this item.
Was Cabinet asked for their views on the $115 million loan and what should be done with it? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's more properly addressed to the Minister of Finance so I would like her to answer that question. Thank you.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the LETL loans are arm's-length from the federal government but it is administered or overseen by the Department of Finance for the federal government, and so that's what brings it to me.
Mr. Speaker, we certainly were aware that there was a request being made for the loan. I know there was outreach from the company. There was outreach from Indigenous development corporations. I don't know if any of them were asked their specifics, what -- we were certainly asked for information about the state of the economy, the state of tariffs, the impacts of tariffs on the economy, impacts of tariffs on mineral resources, and we certainly were, in that sense, following up quite clearly. But our input was not as to what the details of what the loan would be used for. I am not -- I think that would have been between the LETL entity and the company directly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Minister effectively just answered this question, but, Mr. Speaker, the news article on this mentioned that there's creditors to pay, severance payments to workers, local contractors. Did GNWT contribute in any way to any provisions requiring our northern workers and contractors are taken care of as part of the conditions on this loan? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, Mr. Speaker, not necessarily in the context, again -- I mean, I didn't have any direct contact, nor do I recollect any of us having direct contact with that entity from the federal government. But certainly raising the fact and raising very clearly the fact that a sudden and unexpected closure would have pretty dramatic impacts on a number of employees here, would have a number -- would have impacts on our government, and would have impacts on development corporations who are quite deeply enmeshed in this industry right now, and certainly made that point quite clear, as I believe they were as well. And in that sense, the implication being, Mr. Speaker, that we are concerned, as we were when we offered relief in the spring. We're concerned about jobs in the North. We're concerned about contractors in the North. And we're concerned about procurement in the North. So I am confident that message was heard. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for those answers. Finally, Mr. Speaker, is funding for the independent environmental monitoring agency up to date, and was that considered in provisions in this loan as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is up to date, Mr. Speaker. Again, I don't know what specific details were discussed on the loan, but it is up to date and we are certainly monitoring ongoing. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from the Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just about two weeks ago, when my colleague for Range Lake and I were holding our discussion on public safety and concerns and hearing stories, one of the things that came up was the fact that the NSCC is full, and I think my colleague brought that up the other day. I am asking the Minister of Justice, what does the department do when the corrections centre is full; what is their plan to deal with that challenge? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not looked at the current numbers. The numbers within the facility fluctuate on a daily basis, and I am certainly given consistent information on that plan. Currently, we're are looking at some changes to the facility in Hay River to allow another grade of inmate to participate in the programming in that facility, and that will help us to address the capacity challenges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you can only keep filling the cup so much until it spills over. You can only keep putting inmates into cells that no longer fit. Mr. Speaker, what does the department do when you have reached 100 percent capacity? What is the trigger point to ask yourself we need expanded space? Schools have it, why doesn't the jail system have it? Or maybe the Minister can enlighten the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are provisions within the facility to allow some doubling up of inmates and to help to increase capacity. Currently, we are looking at -- full capacity is 207 inmates, and we currently have 139 male inmates and two female inmates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to say the numbers are wrong. What I am going to bring it back to is what triggers an expansion in the jail system -- and that's ultimately the question -- to ensure that we are meeting the inmates' human rights version of the necessity there and as such there must be a trigger point to consider that capital response. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are -- within our system, we currently take inmates from other jurisdictions. So there are some federal inmates. There are some inmates from Nunavut. So if the capacity requirement for inmates from the Northwest Territories was to rise, we would have to go back and look at the agreements we have with the other jurisdictions and focus on the requirements of the territory first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have a question for the Minister of Finance. So within the past few months, many GNWT employees have received a letter from the public service pension centre about an opportunity to participate in an early retirement incentive program that was proposed in last year's federal budget. In the case of federal employees, the program is meant to help manage workforce reductions by encouraging federal workers to retire early voluntarily. So my first question is does this mean that the GNWT is also now encouraging its public servants to retire early in order to allow for workforce reductions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
