Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to turn to the Minister of Infrastructure now for a few questions. Mr. Speaker, what is the functional life left on the Yellowknife airport terminal? There's been lots of talk about airport development. I am just curious if the Minister has an answer on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, let's just say it's at its end of life. That terminal was built in the early 1960s. I so happen to fly home every once in a while, and there's actually a picture of the original airport in one of the terminals, one of the exit ways there. It's actually pretty interesting. But it is at end of life. It's been added on numerous times. So, you know, the building has done its work and a lot of the work's being done to plan for future development. So it is at end of life, and we've obviously got to keep that going with the developments that are going on, so there is work being done to also look at updating it temporarily, obviously, because there are plans to move ahead with other things. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, continuing with the airport, are there amenities, features, or needs that the current terminal already cannot accommodate? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it goes without saying, you know, when there's peak times there it's pretty busy. I think everybody has acknowledged that. When you have a certain amount of jets on the apron there, you know, it's at capacity. So there is a lot of, you know, things that have, you know, not being able to do what we can do there. There's also issues with the washrooms, and there's some work going forward to try to accommodate that. So although the facility has reached end of life and the area is at age, a lot of work is being done to help maintain the facility and the grounds while we're operating it still. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate these insights from the Minister. So the next obvious question here, of course, is knowing that the facility is out of sight when will a solution be brought forward in the five-year capital plan for the airport? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's plans in place to get this moving ahead but obviously with all the developments recently of the Department of National Defence investing in the area, there's a lot of work being done, it's had to, you know, kind of slow down a little bit to wait for the Department of National Defence. But, again, working closely with the Department of National Defence, plans are coming along to bring more plans, more stable plans, more, you know, financial plans to the whole strategic plan for the area. So hopefully we'll have something here relatively soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ECE. As she knows, I am very passionate about the NWT nominee program. Can the Minister please tell me what is the anticipated 2026 allocation for spaces in the nominee program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal government has awarded the Northwest Territories 197 spaces. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me when the nominee program will open for 2026? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the nominee program will open in March of 2026. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when will further details on the 2026 intake be available for my constituents, including an actual March day? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the program details will be announced on February 18th, which is Wednesday of this week, and that March day will be available then as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Right now it is my understanding that the Premier is working with the Council of Leaders to push the northern agenda in Ottawa. The question is how is the Premier advocating to Ottawa in the run up to the federal budget to ensure any kind of funding to ensure Indigenous students receive an adequate education in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very familiar with Jordan's Principle. I previously served as the Minister of education, and I know people in the system who've taught prior to Jordan's Principle, during Jordan's Principle, and since then, and so I am very familiar with the circumstances and the impact it's having on students and teachers in classrooms. And so because of that, every time I am in Ottawa, every time I speak to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Northern Affairs, whoever it may be, I raise this issue with them and how important it is. Last time, or one of the previous times I met the Prime Minister, I highlighted it. I said this is the issue that keeps me up at night. If you take any issue in the territory, this is the one. And so I've been very clear and very direct that the territories are being impacted differently than the rest of Canada. And given our demographics, our history, there's no reason why the same Jordan's Principle program needs to be administered in the provinces as the territories. While the feds are trying to figure out what they want to do to fix the problems that arose in the provinces, I think there's an easy way that they can say okay, in the territories, we're going to go back to doing what we were doing before. It seemed to work. We didn't see big abuses the way we saw in the rest of Canada. And so there's an easy solution, and I've transmitted that to them as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government now obviously prefers to work on Jordan's Principle funding with Indigenous governments. Can the Premier let us know how is he supporting and coordinating with Indigenous governments to ensure funding for Indigenous education across NWT be handled, especially working with school boards? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the work with the Council of Leaders is very important to distinguish ourselves from what's happening in the provinces where there was a sense that the provincial governments were offloading their responsibility to the school board -- or to Jordan's Principle. So it's a much different situation here in the territory. We advocate jointly with Indigenous leaders. I believe there's opportunities for Indigenous governments to actually apply for Jordan's Principle and then help support students and other families that way. That type of work, I understand, is happening around the territory. So there's lots of work to be done in partnership with Indigenous governments, and we're travelling that path. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in this session the Premier told this chamber that his government is upholding treaty rights. Is he telling Ottawa to fund Indigenous education for him to uphold his own treaty right obligations here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I didn't quite get the question, I didn't quite understand, But I am advocating to Ottawa to uphold the ruling that requires them to fund Jordan's Principle. I try to educate federal Ministers about the history of the territory, how we came about, the responsibilities that the federal government has to the territory, how we're different from provinces, how we're different from reserves. So I do my best to provide the overall context so that Ministers can understand how this fits into the support the federal government has pledged to provide to Indigenous peoples and how Jordan's Principle is an integral component of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the nominee program my question is, is 197 spots that we just heard about enough to meet the NWT's economic demand for this program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No. Thank you.
Thank you. I would ask what the Minister is going to do about it, but I think she's had that opportunity. In the past, NTNP often opened in January of every year which set a rhythm for temporary workers' permits expiring in February and March. The NTNP has not yet opened. We know it's opening next month. How will the Minister support all prospective applicants who now can't apply when it eventually does open, because of this lag? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, last year we had three separate allotments awarded to the Northwest Territories from the federal government. So we started off at the very beginning of the year where on January 16th of 2025, we learned that our allotment had been cut in half. From there, we received two additional allotments throughout the year. The last one was awarded to us in the very last quarter. This meant that we had a decision to make. We either had staff prepare for our program for 2026, or we worked in order to make sure that we were processing those applications. The decision was made to ensure that we weren't losing out on prospective applicants to the Northwest Territories nominee program, and so we prioritized those applications. That means that our program this year, which is going to look much different so that we can maximize benefits to the labour needs of the Northwest Territories, will open in March of 2026.
I've also let the federal government know that having frequent allotments throughout the year and kind of changing the goalposts has meant that we can't be as strategic as we want to be, we can't plan like we want to be, and has an impact both to staff morale and also our ability to react here in the Northwest Territories as a smaller jurisdiction. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree with the Minister it was a boneheaded move from Ottawa, and I am glad -- and I hope it doesn't happen again and we can have certainty with this program. The question remains for people whose permits are expiring, they are going to be -- potentially have to leave the Northwest Territories because they can't get access to this program. Will the Minister prioritize those applicants who applied in January of last year, got their permits, and are now expiring? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to releasing the details of the program on Wednesday, on February 18th. That said, Mr. Speaker, there is going to be more demand for this program than what we have spaces for. We know this already. We knew this last year as well. This is going to be a challenge clear across Canada. I've heard from all of my immigration Minister counterparts how cuts to the program are going to impact their economic potential and their workforce needs in every province across this country. The Northwest Territories shares those concerns, and we continue to advocate to the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to target my questions to the Minister of ECC.
Mr. Speaker, not just recently but repeatedly I've been told by tourism operators how embarrassed they are to take international tourists to the museum area, park in front of where the encampment is, where we showcase our northern history, culture, our best of our best, Mr. Speaker. Given that, that there's spaces and openings and opportunities in the current shelter network, what is ECC finally doing to clean up those spaces, those public spaces? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the spaces that the Member is referring to is Commissioner's land, and under the Commissioner's Land Act, there's nothing preventing people from camping on Commissioner's land. Having said that, we've been working very closely with housing and other organizations within the city of Yellowknife to go do inspections, identify if there are safety concerns, and assist with other enforcement agencies to address those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, that's a great answer for this person's fault and that person's fault, and no one seems to be taking responsibility other than pointing to someone else. Mr. Speaker, given that we had a terrible fire there, we have garbage, we have theft, we have a whole lot of other types of problems, Mr. Speaker, citizens are retrieving their personal properties there, Mr. Speaker. That said, what would it take for ECC to finally step up and address this particular problem, especially because we have spaces in our shelters that can facilitate these folks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, the folks involved are camping on Commissioner's land. Under the Commissioner's Land Act, residents of the Northwest Territories have the ability to camp on Commissioner's land. We do not have the authority to remove those people from that land if they choose to camp there. I am very happy to continue to work with the department of health and the department of housing to try and encourage people to take advantage of the opportunities that we have created. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Planning. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister has a different definition of camping. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister enlighten this House the difference between encampments with big stovepipes and tents and all those kinds of things versus the traditional camping that most of us understand. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the difference in the definition would be between a permanent and a non-permanent structure. So a tent is not considered a permanent structure under the definition. I think that as you look at whether it's a canvas tent with a stove or it's a pup tent with a fly, a tent is a tent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
