Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi to the Minister for that. I think we can argue this all day if we wanted. But anyways, I think my question was can we make any allowances for the settlement maintainers in the small communities who aren't vaccinated, you know, to not work in the RCMP facilities but to have people from the regional centres come in to do those duties? Because even what she' saying, I'm just not clear yet, you know. I'm not sure if I read somewhere where we're getting rid of the vaccine passport for travel. I don't know why they would do it there. But I don't know if she can reiterate if that is the case and if she can answer if the vaccine passport has been -- is going to be done away with. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not heard anything from the federal government directly in terms of how employees are being dealt with, that there's been any change in their approach right now. And as such, to the extent that an employee has an obligation as part of a bona fide work requirement to travel or to attend a federally-regulated space, then they will continue to have to apply by -- or to apply those rules.

With respect, again, to our own policies, right now, Mr. Speaker, there are only 326 employees of the public service who are undergoing either the enhanced testing approach or -- and who may therefore be having to get testing and PPE. It's a very small number. The vast majority of the almost 6,000 employees of the GNWT's public service have actually been able to comply with this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wasn't quite clear on what the Minister stated about the unvaccinated population, whether they're given the options to do all the testing regardless of the facilities that they would have to enter. If I could get that clarity. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, again, so there's 326 employees that departments have asked for testing materials, meaning the amount of materials required for -- to do the proof of -- or do a COVID test and to wear PPE rather than comply with providing a proof of vaccine.

Now, Mr. Speaker, for the handful of those who are attending federally-regulated places, for instance having to travel, I cannot tell the federal government that I'm choosing to not follow by their policy, nor can anybody else. If the federal government has a policy that requires people to be vaccinated to get on an airline, that applies to me just as much as it does to a public servant, and those individuals would be in a circumstance where they'd probably be on leave without pay at this point, or they'd be looking for other opportunities. But I can't control the choices that they might make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that answer. My concern here is, and I mentioned it several times, because one of the requirements is it's saying to work in a RCMP facility, it's federally regulated all right. I know about the flights and that; I wasn't alluding to any flights. But for the facilities, like in my community we have a facility the settlement maintainer can't go into there. But employees out of Hay River who typically and normally, perhaps on a weekly basis, do come into our communities anyways. I'm just wondering if those employees can cover that facility and still have our own settlement maintainer stay employed? Because I've talked about marginalization at length a lot of times because a lot of our employees are longtime Northerners and many are Indigenous and they have, you know, mortgages, payments, and all this stuff, and what we're doing is imposing our will upon others, to people that choose to have a right to do what they want with their bodies. And, you know, I don't want to say any more about the government in this regard at this time. But, you know, I'm just wondering if there would be any allowances made that can be relayed to Infrastructure to make these happen? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if an individual cannot do their job and their job requires them to attend a location that is federally regulated, then they -- then that -- there's not much that can be done about that. People have bona fide job requirements and job duties and if they have to attend a location regulated by the federal government and the federal government has put on a policy saying that they have to be vaccinated, that will apply to them as much as it applies to me.

The GNWT, unlike many jurisdictions, did not have a mandatory policy. Most -- many jurisdictions did. We've allowed -- in fact, specifically, I allowed and insisted that we ensure that there's the ability for testing, that we allow the ability for testing and PPE. But when the handful of individuals run up against a federal policy, there's not much I can do to change it.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly took a lot of criticism when we didn't have a mandatory policy because a great number of people in the Northwest Territories have been severely impacted by -- not -- by COVID-19 and all its variants, went out and did everything they could to protect themselves and at this point we are rolling that back, modifying the approach, and being responsive to this disease as we have been from day one, from the first instance, to try to be at the front end of what is happening. If the federal government makes a change to their rules, we will continue to adapt our rules accordingly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department works with the federal government to try to identify funding pots there. Unfortunately, it's a one-time shot that we were able to get money from the federal government, but it doesn't help shrink the funding gap.

The Member talked about looking at transferring land. We are working with the Department of Lands. We've reached out, developed a process that was looked at by the City of Yellowknife. They accepted it. So we are working with the City of Yellowknife to transfer land. Not bulk land, but small chunks to help them move forward. We're also move that process when we sent it to NWTAC and we are working with them to look at that as well as transferring that process to those small communities, including the tax-based communities besides Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week a colleague of mine tabled written questions in regards to the municipal funding gap specifically asking for the status of that gap and specifically also by community.

I'm wondering if the Minister responsible will commit to tabling actuals of the funding gap on an annual basis by community as this is a question that has come up annually since our term has begun. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would be a process, and we are working on that. So whatever information we have we can share it with the committee. We could also table it moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I'm sure that the Minister will appreciate less written questions for that one as well then in the future.

Mr. Speaker, my next question is in regards to support for municipalities. One of the things that we hear over and over again is that we have to decide where we're going to put our money as a government and that we have a very specific amount of money for new initiatives. The problem with that is that this is an invoice to the government from municipalities. This is money that we owe based on our own formula that currently exists. So this isn't new initiatives. This is simply paying our bills.

Right now, within the GNWT, we have over 5,000 employees. And so I'm wondering if the Minister of MACA will dedicate some of these employees from within his department that can specifically help source additional funding to increase the size of that pie and help municipalities access funding through the federal government, even if it is one-time funding, but a lot of times what we hear is that there just isn't the -- the same people available to do those funding agreements with the federal government in different organizations around the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community operation division is the one that works with us. Again, we have 15 staff there but it's not all 15 are allocated to that one specific topic. But the Member has to understand, and the people have to understand, this is a shared responsibility through other municipal and community affairs. Divisions, like the community governments, sport and rec and youth, corporate, but also other divisions which is Infrastructure and Finance. So it's a government approach to working trying to get funding from the federal government. We work together. It's just not one division specifically. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the municipal funding gap is something that you hear all Members talk about. And one thing I think that we can all agree is there's huge gains to be made by closing that gap from a community level. I'm wondering if the government will commit -- or when the government will commit to providing committee with a draft plan to reduce and address the municipal funding gap once and for all? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department is working to update the funding policies in this fiscal year, 2022-2023. We were actually going to do 2023-2024. And we will review the data from the 2014 funding review as part of that process.

The Legislative Assembly, I need to reiterate this, we committed $5 million of the 25 initiative funding. I recognize there is a funding gap. However, these funding gaps exist virtually in all levels of government, including the GNWT. It is not realistic to expect the government to cover the cost to close the gap considering today's economy and economic situation and our current fiscal situation. But we're willing to work with AOC on this. We are willing to work with NWTAC on this. We're trying to find unique and different ways of doing it. But we also need to, you know, work together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, question for the Minister of Housing. Can the Minister provide a list that details the value of all outstanding mortgages owed to the Housing Corporation by communities -- by community in the Tlicho region? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will meet with the MLA for Monfwi to discuss those mortgages and have those conversations going forward as I know that this is quite a concern for the region as well too, but it also opens the opportunity for homeownership as well too. So we could describe and explain what those outstandings look like and if we're able to transfer those units over to the constituents of Monfwi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay, thank you. Can the Minister explain the process that the Housing Corporation follows in order to request the Financial Management Board to write off or forgive debts owed to the Housing Corporation? What criteria is in place to allow the Housing Corporation to write off or forgive debts? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have an extensive process that we do follow when we're working with the outstanding and any debts owing to not only the Housing Corporation but the Government of the Northwest Territories where that's how these debts are considered. We do have -- the corporation does have legal counsel as well too with those constant, you know, communication in between the client and the corporation. If we're not successful with those conversations with the attempts, there is direction for the client to follow up with the legal counsel for the Housing Corporation to pursue either refinancing agreement payment plans or what further we can do to try to work and recover those debts owing.

But I also want to explain as well too that the mortgages that the Housing Corporation does have for these clients is that they're subsidized mortgages. So we don't look at the -- with the 100 percent mortgage owing, that we do have the refinancing amount, and we do have the subsidized mortgages as well too that I would like to further explain to the Member once we're meeting face-to-face. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.