Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi to the Minister for that. It's the second time she said there is no vaccination policy, mandatory one. But the thing I've been reading in several documents is all the employees of the GNWT are being forced, you know, into losing their jobs and they have to take the vaccination, which is mandatory. So that's where I'm getting that from.

Mr. Speaker, for us that live in small communities, we don't distinguish between vaccinated and the unvaccinated. We go about our daily lives. Kids go to school. Residents go to work. Residents do their shopping. Residents are eating in restaurants, and everyone is mingling with each other. This is like it was before the virus. Can the Premier explain what this situation does to the mandatory vaccinations policy? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, point of order.

Raising a point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of times the Member has stated that the government has a mandatory vaccination policy and has stated that GNWT employees are being required to get vaccinated or being laid off, and both of those are false. The Member is uttering falsehoods about the government and its policies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. There is no point of order. Sorry, I'll allow it. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I suppose there's a point of order on the floor.

There's no point of order. You may continue.

All right. Thank you. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, removing the mandatory and the continuance of encouraging the vaccinations may be a win-win for all, especially the ones who choose not to take the vaccinations. This has given the rights and freedoms we have all come to enjoy back to the residents of the Northwest Territories, especially the unvaccinated.

Will the Premier give consideration to removing "mandatory" and encourage residents of the availability of the vaccinations? Mahsi.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is no mandatory vaccine policy. Not for the public, not for the public service. People have a choice to make here. We are promoting a socially responsible place so that we can offer a safe workplace and a safe environment for the people of the NWT. That can be accomplished primarily by being vaccinated. It reduces transmission, and it reduces the severity of the illness.

So for further information on the government public service vaccine mandate, I recommend that the Member direct his questions to the Minister of Finance responsible for Human Resources. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho. Okay. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll give a brief update on where we're at with the project.

So TSC, Technology Service Centre, oversees the GNWT network connectivity provided to GNWT schools. TSC is currently rolling out the new digital communication network, which is the DCN, to GNWT schools across all the communities here in the Northwest Territories. This contract was awarded to Northwestel in September of 2021, and this work is currently underway.

To date, there has been completed approximately some -- the work that's been completed to date is about 50 percent of the communities. This includes hardware upgrades that, in most communities, will increase the bandwidth available to GNWT offices and schools. The current schedule estimates that the balance of the work should be completed within two to three months. Community service by satellite technology will unfortunately continue to have limitations, including the amount of bandwidth available overall.

So to mitigate this lower bandwidth availability, the school internet traffic leverages bandwidth that is not part of the GNWT network, and this will allow for better performance overall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. There's some new information there that I wasn't aware of, but. I noted that in my statement that problems of inadequate internet access continue to be raised with us as Yellowknife MLAs and that they raised this territorially and nationally. So can the Minister tell us what specific solutions and funding is going to be made available to fix this problem here in Yellowknife right now? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, under the new DCN contract, the TSC will be able to leverage new satellite technology which we call Low Earth Orbit, otherwise known as LEO, as it becomes available within the North for GNWT schools. So again, this is expected to be completed in the next two to three months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the Minister for that. I understood that Low Earth Orbit technology really is a benefit for more remote communities, not like Yellowknife. So I want to ask again, the Minister, what is this DCN rollout by Northwestel going to do to improve internet access for Yellowknife school authorities. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd be happy to provide the Member with more details on exactly how this would roll out. I think, you know, it would take up a lot of our time here today, and we still have lots of Members that want to speak. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final Supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that because neither one of us are techies. You can tell just from the tone of the questions and the answers. So I look forward to getting more information from the Minister. But what I'm really looking for is a clear commitment that the internet access problem for Yellowknife school authorities, students, and families here in Yellowknife is going to get fixed. So can the Minister tell us when that problem is going to get fixed here in Yellowknife? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's last question is a really important one. So I'm just going to make sure I speak slow when I'm going through this.

In Yellowknife, the provision of internet services is a shared responsibility with school boards as the Yellowknife schools manage their own networks and hardware within each of the schools, including the non-GNWT internet connections as they have purchased and installed within the schools. The TSC has no visibility into how these separate internet connections are used, managed, or how its usage is tracked.

The TSC provides Yellowknife schools with internet services through existing GNWT enterprise internet contract. So any increases to their bandwidth would be through the existing contract.

I hope I'm making sense here, Mr. Speaker. Capacity under this contract was increased in September from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes, and we have the ability to increase to 5 gigabytes under the existing contract when additional capacity is required.

Currently, our understanding is the 2 gigabytes provided to the Yellowknife schools is not fully utilized. It is not the case. If that's not the case, Mr. Speaker, I ask the YK schools to reach out to Education, Culture and Employment, and also Infrastructure, to increase that bandwidth. The TSC has also provided ECE with turbo sticks, Chromebooks, to be able to facilitate online learning. ECE -- and I'm looking at my colleague here -- manages the distribution among those in the various schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question for the Minister of MACA. Will the Minister commit to providing funding to the community to resolve this issue.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you. And I give the Member credit for keep on asking the question. I've had numerous emails. I've had conversations with the Chief and that.

We give money through gas tax, CIP, and we work with the communities. Through the new deal, communities make decisions on where it is. We don't have any other money. There's no slush fund out there. So the answer, quickly, shortly, no. Thank you.

Thank you. Does the Minister think it is fair to give community gas tax funding of a million dollars in 2007 and not provide any funding for a 40-year-old water pipe liability costing over $10 million. Will the Minister commit to seeking out unused funds from other departments to respond to the emergency? Thank you.