Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Continuing on the insurance theme. Can the Minister tell us if the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance have received complaints from homeowners and/or businesses that they are essentially unable to access affordable insurance? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current superintendent of insurance has been in the role since December of 2022, and I am able to say that they have not -- they have informed me that they have not received any complaints from homeowners or businesses about being unable to access insurance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of me wonders if that's -- whether they are even aware of the office.
Mr. Speaker, since 2021, what specifically has the Department of Finance done to investigate having a Crown corporation like SGI Canada provide affordable home and fire insurance in the NWT, and how would this be regulated? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This was a question that came up, I believe, in the last Assembly, if not earlier as well, and I can say that the Department of Finance was asked and did reach out to counterparts in Saskatchewan to better understand the SGI model, to learn whether or not it could be applicable here or brought about to the Northwest Territories. Obviously, as a fairly small jurisdiction, very small population and very small revenue base, creating a program of insurance would be next to impossible as it would not give a sufficient base of paying in in order to be able to pay out. And so in that sense, having our own Crown corporation is not financially feasible and that -- yeah, so as far as being regulated, I mean, certainly the insurance industry continues to be regulated here, Mr. Speaker. As far as the private market, certainly, again, the private market can choose whether or not to come into the jurisdiction, and that is not something that we can sort of force or require any particular private actor to come in or not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I think that the suggestion is not necessarily that we establish our own Crown corporation but could SGI be brought in, as they've done in other provinces, to provide insurance in the Northwest Territories and thereby give Northwest Territories access to a larger base, the way we do for some other things. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I mean, I wasn't personally privy to the conversations with SGI but did follow up to get some information as to what became of those conversations. It was a couple of years ago now. But I can say at the time that their indication is that they don't have any interest right now in coming into the Northwest Territories market, nor do any of their brokers have any interest at this point, from what they're informed of, to coming into the Northwest Territories market.
Mr. Speaker, although, you know, again, I -- I can't really speak for an entity from another jurisdiction, the scent of our -- from the Department of Finance is that, again, the population here is quite small so that makes the market very small. The -- there's going to be very little economies of scale, very little returns, very little incentive to bring this entity here. Moreover the payouts -- because we are often in isolated communities, payouts can often be a lot higher, and so all of which leads both SGI as the parent and as well as the broker, and perhaps also others, to not have any incentive to come into this market. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
