Clause 2, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you.
Clause 3, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 4, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 5, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 6, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. To the bill as a whole, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Does the committee agree that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, is now ready for third reading, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Does the committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister. And thank you to the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the chamber.
We have agreed to consider Tabled Document 385-20(1), 2026-2027 Capital Estimates, Department of Infrastructure.
Before we move on to that, I just want to just make a friendly reminder before we start our review of the capital estimates for today. I would like to remind all Members to follow along, stay on correct sections and stay on topic. This will help us ensure we are using our time wisely and effectively. Mahsi.
Committee, we have two Ministers responsible for this department. We will do things a little differently. With the committee agreement, we will start with the Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains and will then move to the Minister of Infrastructure. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Does the Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains wish to bring witnesses into the chamber?
Yes, please, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you.
Would the Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chambers.
Oh, my witnesses. Oh dear. Just -- you know, Mr. Chair, let me just get my notes out because I have a problem with names when I sit in this chair.
Gaeleen MacPherson associate deputy minister, Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains. And on my right, Kim Wickens, assistant deputy minister, energy and strategic infrastructure.
Thank you. The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Is the committee agreed to proceed to detail contained in the table of documents; is the committee agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, the Department of Infrastructure begins on page 54. We will defer the department totals and review the estimates by activity summary. Please turn to page 59, Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains with information items on page 60. Are there any questions? I'll go to the Member from Range Lake. Sorry, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So many lakes and we miss Ms. Wickens immensely.
When it comes to, and I should note I'm only asking -- anyway, sorry, my apologies, Mr. Chair.
Are there, if the Minister can tell me if there are any concerns when it comes to the Whati transmission planning and design line item, and if there's any concerns about the persistent low water levels throughout the Snare hydro system and implications that might have for this project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, at this point this is still at a planning stage. I would say no, there is not concerns in the sense that we know that the Snare system does tend to have a cyclical low water event. Nonetheless, Mr. Chair, it is still anticipated that even considering that this isn't anticipated to bring about GHG emissions reductions up to or in the range of 25 percent over the course for the community of Whati, if this is successful, but also I'd note, Mr. Chair, there's also part of a longer term effort here where Lac La Martre has for a long time had a hydro project that's been looked at and this could also factor into a future build in this regard. So it's -- I guess, in short, Mr. Chair, it's part of a longer term strategy and it's the first piece of something happening in that region.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, no concerns with activities happening in that region, that's for sure. Just wanting to make sure that the science is there to back up the fact that we want to do that work there and we don't have low water levels dogging the project.
Mr. Chair, also on this page is the Taltson pre-construction planning "(CERNAC)." So far, Taltson is 100 percent funded by CERNAC. Can the Minister tell me if the GNWT has had conversations about what a funding arrangement will look like after the planning phase is completed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, those conversations certainly have begun, but I can't say that they are -- I'm not going to suggest they're far advanced at this point. This is a project that does continue to move as a partnership. The GNWT is but one member of the steering committee, and then there's a working group that's established with staff and officials from ourselves, as well as from all of Indigenous governments around the watershed both north and south of the lake at the landing points as well. And that is one of the items that's sort of next in line, if you will, for a key item that needs to happen in the next -- well hopefully over the next year is to start to look at what a funding stack might look like. And one of the things that we're quite hopeful with major projects office that's been announced with the federal government is that this is an entity that can provide us a direct link in to the federal government who fundamentally have to be a partner here. And the sooner we have an understanding of where they might fall in as a partner, that can help our partnership, the MOU partnership, in terms of understanding who would need to put what in and who would bear what risk, but knowing where the federal government might come in in a more organized fashion could help those discussions in this way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Great Slave. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yeah, no, I can appreciate that. And I appreciate that the Minister does keep Regular Members updated about the status of Taltson quite regularly. Does she have an estimate of when, beyond the next year or so, when she hopes that those pieces might be concluded with Indigenous governments in Canada? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So key milestones that we're expecting for 2026-2027, which is the money that's being advanced or proposed for advancement at this point, would be to get us to the beginning of an environmental assessment process. So, and to get there, we are partners on both sides of the lake are responsible for doing some of the environmental preparatory work in terms of determining exactly where the landing points would be on both sides. I understand that work is at least underway, does need to be completed before we can go to an EA, obviously, for the coming fiscal year. And along with that would be finalizing associated permits and some design packages all towards that work. We are still targeting a potential construction decision for 2028, which would come about once we know what the EA results are and what a final design would look like. I think there was something else, Mr. Chair, in the question that I've forgotten but maybe the Member will remind me. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If there was, I didn't catch it, so.
Moving forward to another item under this Minister's page is the Fort Simpson power plant replacement, relocation I suppose. And that is, I believe it says here through ISIP, which is another federal piece. If I recall correctly, it is 75 percent federal, 25 percent NTPC.
Can the Minister confirm whether, and maybe this is the wrong time to ask but I hope it isn't. Can the Minister confirm whether NTPC will construct the capital project or will its role be limited to ownership and O and M? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I do believe that we are expecting to flow the money here to NTPC via the GNWT so they would overtake or be responsible primarily for the construction of the plant. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further comments? I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is about the Taltson pre-construction planning. So the Minister said that they're hoping that they would be at the beginning of an environmental assessment stage by the end of 2026-2027. So that would imply that, you know, you would have sort of terms of reference or be moving towards a report that you can make public. So keeping in mind that this is for the next three years, but at what point in the next three years or at what point in the process will the public be able to see, well, first the estimated cost of this project and the business case being put forward? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
So Mr. Chair, there already is a fair bit of public engagement that is happening, particularly in communities -- more organized with the communities around the watershed. So let me certainly say, I think there's a commitment here that maybe we need to be doing some of that here in Yellowknife and doing a better job of bringing the story of this project to Yellowknife. So certainly happy to commit that we should be doing that. I know that when I had appeared at the city to talk about the project and to share some of the steps and stages, people did seem surprised although and I think some of us on the team were perhaps forgetting that it doesn't get out as often as we think it does. So happy to do that.
With respect to business case, I think that would have to -- at this point I'll have to confirm if it's fully up to date and when it can go out, but I know it's been shared with all of our partners and I expect that they probably are sharing it with their communities.
So again, let me take that back and make sure that I'm correct in my understanding of what the community members, I'm sorry, of what the partners are expecting of us and whether we can get that out, and/or how we can get some of that information out. And it may well be, Mr. Chair, that we share at least some more formal summary of it than what has come out.
So again, I do wanna, this is a difficult one in that everything I'm saying, I'm wanting to make sure I put through our steering committee. But anyways, as I say, I think it's important that we do get a lot more information out to the public, particularly in Yellowknife, because as I say, I know there's been community engagement sessions held with leadership in the communities and other partner groups. So there may be a gap here and I'll take responsibility and make sure we fix it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife.
Thank you, Mr. Chair; I appreciate that.
I know that many members of the public are eager to see the costs in the business case and the sooner we can do that, then the sooner we can have an informed public discussion about a cost benefit analysis, which I'm certainly eager to engage in.
Second, regarding the Slave Geological Province All-Weather Highway, can the Minister tell us has -- so keeping in mind that this project is slated for the next two years, the planning process. Can the Minister tell us whether a route has been set or decided yet for this project? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, not yet, Mr. Chair. And there have been studies done really over the last few years of quite a large number of routes. There have been -- and with varying degrees of technical research on each. For instance, some have had geological analysis to understand what potential geology is in the regions. And some have had further than that, also more environmental analysis and more design analysis. But Mr. Chair, the stage that we're at right now, we have -- there's the YKDFN and Tlicho who I think are -- who I understand are looking to find a path to work together in order to, you know, given that the route almost certainly would cross either or both of their lands, both traditional lands and Tlicho lands. And so they are looking to take a bit of a leadership role at this point and confirm what a final route would look like. So again, subject to some work that they want to do, there is not a final decision. It is, I think, understood that there needs to, that that work does need to get done with some urgency so that we are lining ourselves up with maybe the interest that's happening on the federal level. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain then what the government hopes will be accomplished by the end of 2027-2028 or any milestones that are being targeted up to then, especially in terms of where it would be at, the environmental assessment process and, you know, at what point the government would have a developer's assessment report prepared. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
