Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. If schools can no longer access Jordan's Principle funding, the resulting cuts to education will be so severe that our treaty rights will be violated. Will the Premier direct the Minister of ECE to restore that funding through exclusive education for our children, or will you stand by and let our sacred treaties be ignored and eroded? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a bit of a loaded question there. I will say this. For the members of the public who want some insight into how things work around here, the Premier does not direct the Ministers to do things like that. That is a money decision, so those types of decisions are made by the financial management board. That is how that $14 million that was allocated came about. It was a decision of all of the group of Ministers here. So I don't -- from the technical standpoint, I don't have the power to tell the Minister to fund this. From a fiscal standpoint, the Minister does not have $16 million in her budget to fund it. So there's some issues with how things are being proposed there. That being said, the federal government has a long history of creating programs and then abandoning those programs and the GNWT picking up those programs because often they're much needed. This is an instance where we cannot pick up a $16 million a year increase in funding so we are going to continue to lobby the federal government, along with all the other Indigenous leaders at the Council of Leaders, to reinstate the program so that it works for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate -- today I want to ask questions - surprise - to the health Minister, one of my favourite Ministers there. Not the only favourite, but in the top 7 for sure. I was going to say top 8. In top 7, Mr. Speaker.
In my Member's statement, I talked about the way we could improve our health care security as well as potentially cost and credibility in the sense of making sure Northerners are using health care and those who certainly deserve it or qualify for it.
Mr. Speaker, I mentioned BC uses a photograph on their driver's license and also has a health care number on the back. Mr. Speaker, we may not be able to take all the leaps and bounds, but as I say, I'm here to help. So, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to investigate the options about being able to put a northern citizen's picture on the health care as a first step to ensure we can guarantee the credibility of our cards and our system at large. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can commit to connecting with my colleagues. I did have a little bit of a one-off conversation in Alberta as they're looking into this as well. But I can reach out to the other jurisdictions and see, like, how it's coming, the pros and cons of it, and how could that potentially be implemented here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker -- never mind. Thank you.
Colleagues, please remember this is oral questions. I don't need commentary afterwards. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in NWT, the majority of our community landfills are unlined. For Minister of MACA, can the Minister indicate which communities in the NWT currently have lined landfills. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That I wouldn't know offhand. There's a lot of detail behind that question. However, what we can do is reach out and see how the community landfills are established. I know some of them are established on a clay base, not necessarily a liner. So I can reach out -- we can get the department to reach out to the -- they might even know but I don't have that detailed answer here. One of the things that I will say is that a lot of the landfills are -- actually all of the landfills are community-base operated, so they're operated by the community governments so they would be, you know, more, I guess, in tune of exactly how their landfill is operating. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Can the Minister explain if financial or technical support is available to communities, especially small and remote communities, to upgrade their landfill infrastructure to include liners? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All the communities receive their community funding and that part of that community funding is to operate landfills, a portion of it. But the Government of the Northwest Territories have also done a plan for hazardous waste removal back -- over the past few years, and they've done a successful job in taking out some of this hazardous waste in some of these landfills. So whatever the communities are deciding to do, if they need to do them, it's usually done through their community funding or any other funding sources that the community's able to achieve. However, but they do have supports from municipal and community affairs in regards to operating the landfill, certification for landfills, and any other resources that they may require. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, it's a good time to partner with ECC regarding that, that question.
Okay, Mr. Speaker, permafrost thaw is affecting landfills. Mr. Speaker, MACA guidelines for modified solid waste facilities were developed in 2003. Is the department considering updating these guidelines? They are now over 20 years old. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not entirely sure about the timeline on updating the policy or those guidelines. But what I could do is, again, reach out to the department and see what the plans are for them. However, we do follow the -- the communities do have to follow numerous guidelines when it comes to operating a landfill. Part of it is having a water license which goes through Wek'èezhìi Water Board in the Tlicho region, but in the other communities it's Northwest Territories Land and Water Board. Yeah, and the other thing to this is if there's any concerns about any spills or any hazardous waste spills from landfills, there is a toll-free number that can be called to report this, and it can be checked out. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, what is the status of development of an economic vision and investment strategy by the department?
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, work on the economic vision is underway within the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. It's important to mention to the Member that this document is not a strategy. It is intended to be an aspirational and values-based document but not a prescriptive plan. Really, it's a guiding framework for the territory, ensures we're aligned, and ultimately ends up being our combined elevator pitch, if you will. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would just note that in the government's response to the 2025 environmental audit, it very specifically says in there, in writing, that it is a strategy. I'm curious about this. And I guess I would just ask the question, what is the point of developing a vision if you don't have a strategy to implement it? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in conversations with multiple entities, it was raised to the Government of the Northwest Territories, including myself, that really what we needed was a combined way that we talk about the Northwest Territories and that we talk about our aspirational goals and where we're headed as far as economic development and as far as developing ourselves and investing in ourselves as a territory. And what we needed was a common elevator pitch that we could take beyond the borders of the Northwest Territories. And what, ultimately, this document would do would be to align the strategies that we're putting together, whether those strategies come out of housing, whether they come out of health and social services, whether they come out of the Department of Finance, so that they all fall under a common vision for the Northwest Territories and a common goal. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is being done by staff who are developing -- I'm going to keep referring to it as a strategy -- the new strategy response to the concerns raised by the 2025 environmental audit about effectiveness of previous strategies? I won't go into the audit here.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the audit specifically called out gaps in strategies, like the mineral development strategy and economic opportunity strategy, and the vision would respond by aligning what we've heard, including through ongoing collaboration to implement the Mineral Resources Act and modernize our regulatory framework. So, in short, Mr. Speaker, the vision would unify this work, unify what we've learned, into a single focus statement to guide future economic efforts across the territory. And I'll end that there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my second set of questions is for the Minister of Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains. You make it look easy, Mr. Speaker. How is the Minister working with climate science to make strategic decisions for investment in our current and planned energy systems? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is shortly going to be a North Slave resiliency study. The last one of these was some time ago. We are looking to have that updated. And part of what is being done within that study is, in fact, to look at some of the changing climate conditions we are under, including low water, and what that's doing to our water systems and power at various hydro facilities. And of course, also, Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss not to point out to the policy direction that was issued by the GNWT on behalf of our Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, which included things like long-term integrated systems planning, which, again, too would be looking at threats as well as opportunities and some of the challenges that we are facing here in the North. So those are a couple of the areas where we are looking to, indeed, to what I think the Member's looking for from us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. Can the Minister please tell me how scientific modeling and predictions are impacting decisions made for the future of our energy systems specifically hydroelectric systems, such as Taltson, that her department plans to action into the 2030s. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So certainly scientific study is going to be a significant component of the planning work that goes into Taltson expansion as well as the planning work that's going to have to go into the integrated systems planning more broadly. It is really -- the lack of an integrated systems plan for the Northwest Territories is something that holds back better long-term planning, and it's something that I'm very much looking forward to receive back from the Public Utilities Board. I understand that process has begun, engagement has begun, work with the utilities has begun. And it would necessarily and certainly our response necessarily to that will have to look at what we have available to us in terms of our hydro resources in order to make good on the recommendations that come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has spoken previously in this sitting, and mentioned it earlier in her answers, that she has directed her staff to understand the resiliency of our hydroelectric systems. Can the Minister outline what will happen to meet our net zero goal if we do not meet our timelines to upgrade our strategic energy infrastructure and continue with the status quo. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do want to reaffirm that the net zero goal is still there, that we would be at net zero by 2050. There certainly are different ways that we might reach that goal, whether it's through the simple attrition of industrial measures or whether it's through something more proactive. And there's small scale and larger scale efforts underway, everything from the EV corridor to the border that we do already have, to a Taltson upgrade that is advancing, I would suggest, far quickly than it has in many years, though still some work to go. Having the integrated -- the systems planning and having the resiliency study will help bring those things together. But, yeah, Mr. Speaker, certainly if we fall behind on some of that work, if we fall behind on upgrading the hydro systems that we have, that will certainly make it more difficult to achieve that goal in a proactive way as opposed to simply allowing assets to fall by the wayside or for industry to walk away from here. So the idea is to be proactive, the idea is to find a pathway forward. And, again, Mr. Speaker, that's the modeling that we're doing, the planning we're doing, and why we're continuing to pursue upgrades to the hydro systems. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As per my Member's statement earlier today, why are students in Range Lake being told that they have to pay late fees and other costs through no fault of their own due to the department's lateness in getting payments out the door to kids on SFA? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by acknowledging that this certainly would be very frustrating and difficult on the part of students who are really wanting to ensure that they're focusing on their post-secondary studies. As the Member mentioned, student financial assistance has seen an increase in their applications this year. There's been an almost 20 percent increase in the number of applications for student financial assistance that have come through to the government, and even though the Department of Education, Culture and Employment did hire five additional staff in order to take on some of this increase in applications, we have still seen delays in processing those applications this fall. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that bottleneck has been cleared. That's what I've heard. But the issue -- the question I asked was will the Minister pay for those late fees. Students shouldn't have to shoulder that burden because of a capacity issue. So I'll ask it again because the Minister didn't answer it: Will the Minister direct the department to pay the late fees and costs associated with these late payments for our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for bringing back the question. Mr. Speaker, there is currently, to be quite frank, no mechanism for education, culture and employment to pay for those fees. The way that this program is structured is to pay a portion of a student's post-secondary costs but not the entirety of the cost of their post-secondary education. And so the theory there is that as soon as their student financial assistance would come in that would reimburse some of their savings that they had to also pay for their student -- or sorry, for their tuition costs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Mr. Speaker, this program, I think, is all nestled under income assistance. When income assistance is late for -- has late fees related to power, they pay it. So I don't understand. We have a mechanism for that. Will the Minister use the same mechanism she uses for income assistance at the departmental level to pay these late fees and take the burden off of our learners? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, while they are still both under the same division, they do have different purposes, they do have different design. Income assistance is a program that is structured around the basic needs of residents who would not necessarily have a mechanism to pay those late fees because education, culture and employment is funding them based on their entirety of their basic needs whereas student financial assistance is structured differently and also does have an expectation that students contribute to their post-secondary costs as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
