I will certainly commit to keeping the Member up to date on where we are with progress on moving into that building. With respect to the last question, all placements in the Northwest Territories are determined through the Territorial Admission Committee. Residents of the Sahtu who are now living in other communities, whether it's in the Beaufort Delta or Yellowknife or Hay River or Fort Simpson, if they are interested in returning back to Norman Wells when the new facility opens, they should be getting in touch with the staff of the facilities they are in and looking to apply through Territorial Admission to express a desire to move back to the region. We are hoping that we will have people moved back to the region, as well as people who live in the region utilizing those facilities. Please have your residents review or follow up with the TAC, Territorial Admission Committee.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure about general identification cards, known as GICs. This issue was brought to my attention by a medical professional who has witnessed many situations in which family members, mostly elders, could not travel with a loved one who had been medevaced because of a lack of appropriate identification. Sometimes that means that people are alone in their last moments or that their loved ones don't get to say good-bye.

I believe that, here in Yellowknife, the RCMP can provide someone with a statutory declaration confirming identity, but that service is unavailable in most communities, and a statutory declaration cannot be used to fly out of the territory anyways.

The GNWT can issue a general ID card to residents without driver's licences and GICs are acceptable for air travel, but that process takes many weeks, as the government does not issue temporary GICs. I could get a temporary driver's licence printed on the spot in Hay River, but not a temporary GIC. A simple solution to this issue, it seems to me, anyways, would be to start printing temporary GICs on the same secure stock that we print temporary driver's licences on. I would like to ask the Minister: can we start doing this and fix this problem right now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, the short answer is no, because the stock that we do have for using them within our system right now is identified as driver's licence stock, and it cannot be used for that. It would also require significant software changes to be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The technology to print hard plastic licences must be cheap enough now that we can have these done in the regional centres. I am sure I could buy one off Amazon and start printing licences in my house if I wanted to. I wouldn't.

If we cannot print the temporary GICs because the paper is driver's licence paper only, are we going to start printing hard plastic permanent driver's licences and GICs in regional centres so that we do not have to wait for weeks while the application is sent to Inuvik, and then the card is shipped back?

To answer the question, first of all, in the 2018-2019 capital plan we have some money that is in there for a two-year project to replace the secure image management system within the Department of Infrastructure. One of these enhancements that we are going to do is to do a temporary GIC card for residents of the Northwest Territories, update the software, have facial recognition capabilities for security issues, and these sorts of things.

The answer is questionable regarding doing it regionally. Once we have this system in place, and we try to work through it in the next two years with this management system, we need to do a cost analysis on doing this, the security measures that need to be taken place -- we cannot be just issuing cards willy-nilly -- as well as inventory control, all these sorts of things. Once this program comes into place after we get the capital through, we will be able to work to fix this problem.

There is a lot of information there. I think I heard that something is rolling out over the next three years where the department will be able to begin printing at least the temporary GICs, and from there, they will see. I just want to confirm: when can we expect temporary GICs to be issued in regional centres?

As I have said, there is money in the capital budget to move forward with this project of the secure image management system, and hopefully, within the next two years, once we have all this stuff worked out; by 2020 at the very latest, we will be able to do that.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been an ongoing issue. I know the Minister is aware of it because I have brought it up to him. I believe that the Department of Health and Elections Canada have also expressed concerns about the lack of accessible ID in the territory. Is there any collaboration with any other departments or levels of government to get this off the ground? Thank you.

The Department of Education has worked with us, as this was an issue around some of their programming. The Department of Health as well, Elections Canada, there are a number of departments that could possibly use the temporary ID for residents in the Northwest Territories to assist with their programs and stuff moving forward. We've been in collaboration with a number of different departments in moving this forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on the responses from the Minister of Finance to the honourable Member from Kam Lake's questions on small businesses. The Minister indicated that a 1 per cent cut would cost the government about $750,000 in revenue. I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider another method of putting the $750,000 directly into small businesses in the NWT. Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will not commit to actually putting that $750,000 into other programs. I did say that, through the programs we offer within the government to support small business, that $750,000 that we would save by not implementing the tax would definitely help to fund some of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to ask the Minister, along the same line of questioning, if the Minister would do a socioeconomic model on what the reduction in, say, social spending would be if the $750,000 was put into small businesses in the communities where there is low employment. The models I have looked at indicate that there could be about 2.5 times the amount of a reduction in social spending on the expenditures. Would the Minister look at doing some sort of socioeconomic model on the money that we are referring to pertaining to a 1 per cent reduction in taxes for small business?

The $750,000, I mean, that's what this government would save. That money just stays within the government. It goes to a lot of the full fleet of programs we offer across government-wide. As far as the socio-economic government, I'm not sure what the Member expects to come out of that. I would have to look at that and see how much work that would actually be. I can say that, with the small communities, it was the small community employment fund that was recently approved, $4.2 million. We think that would go a long way into helping with the employment in the small communities. I'd have to confirm but I'm not sure how many businesses would be affected by this reduction if it were to go ahead. Again, I mean we are still open. We still have two years left in our mandate. We will still continue to do the work and if we feel that there is something that we need to implement, then we will look at it.

Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Porcupine caribou herd is probably one of the healthiest herds that we have in the North. That is largely due to very strong management by the national and international Porcupine Management Board and as well as the people of the Mackenzie Delta who view it very important to protect these animals and to use them wisely.

In the Northwest Territories, as well, we place a very large importance on caribou calving grounds. We have caribou protection measures for the various areas. Certainly, we will take whatever action we felt would be necessary to protect the animals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debate over the refuge has gone back and forth in the American congress for many years. However, the first series of attempts to erode the refuge in 13 years is currently under way. What actions has the Premier and his government taken now to represent the GNWT voices and defend the refuge to our American counterparts?

I believe the Board of the Porcupine Management has been doing a very excellent job, as I said. I have not been approached to take any specific action, but we are quite prepared to do that. Twenty years ago, when Jean Chretien was the Prime Minister, we did write a letter to the Prime Minister encouraging him to take action with the United States government the last time this came up.