Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I guess I would note that I understand why people are doing that and I think perhaps there is a hesitancy, you know, with a publicly-funded system to start reimbursing people when they go outside of our territory and perhaps some concerns about, you know, whether travel would be included. But I worked with constituents to get certain expenses reimbursed. I know there's an NWT out-of-territory reimbursement form for services. However, in doing that, I've been quite confused about what exactly and when is eligible for reimbursement. So I would just wonder if the Minister would be willing to review current reimbursement policies given, you know, we have a lot of long wait times in a lot of services and this seems to be increasingly happening.

So would the Minister be willing to review what we currently reimburse and perhaps get some information out there to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question. The dilemma we face is that in the NWT we provide many additional services at no cost to our whole population, and we have two challenges. One is the cost of providing those services and the other is recruiting people to provide those services.

So with a $600 million approximately budget for the next fiscal year and ongoing deficit position of the service providers in the health and social services authorities, I think it's very difficult to make the case that we should reimburse more uninsured services than we do now. But having said that, we're reviewing the health and social services budget tomorrow, and I look forward to having an additional conversation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to direct my questions to the Premier and if she wants to redirect them, I'm fine with that.

Yesterday, Alberta put a pause on collection of provincial fuel tax to help consumers shocked by high prices. I would like to let the Premier know that my community is shocked in our community by the gas prices. It's $2.30 for a litre for gas and $2.40 for diesel right now.

Can the Minister tell us if there's any conversation re the NWT pausing any fuel tax to aid in this shock to my community or any of the other residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, we haven't had those discussions. We're aware that the prices are going up. I will be having a conversation with the Council of Federation, I believe it's tomorrow. If not tomorrow, Thursday. But this week, we will be having that conversation at the Premier's table for all jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Heating homes -- sorry. Heating home fuel still continues to heat many of the homes in my community as well as the Northwest Territories. How will the GNWT work to ensure that people in the NWT can still afford to heat their homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those are the conversations, that is the discussions I will be bringing to the First Ministers meeting -- or to the Premiers meeting this week. It's also why we do have a -- I believe it's called a plan in place for which fuel is more expensive that we can actually look at compensating. So if necessary, those things will be looked at within the government. But at this point, it's a matter of finding out what we're dealing with, talking to the Premiers across Canada. This isn't an issue just for the NWT; it's all of Canada is facing this issue and so I am expecting that the federal government will be expected to provide some assistance as well. But I do know that the heating fuel in the territory is extreme and we do need to make sure that our residents have the ability to heat their homes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my third question is more to our NTPC. So if the Premier can answer this, I'm very afraid that the NTPC is due to submit another application for power rates to the Public Utilities Board. How will the NWT ensure that our residents can survive financially if these rates increase? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven't had those discussions with our Cabinet yet at this point so I can't speak on that. But I will bring back a commitment to get back to the Member on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know when we sat down as 19 Regular Members before we were Cabinet and before we were Ministers and before the rest of us sat on this side of the House, one of the things that we did bring to the table was the cost of living in the Northwest Territories.

With the cost of fuel, a potential cost in power increase, inflation, our groceries are astronomical especially in the smaller communities, you know, so is the government, and I know the Premier has said that she hasn't done this, but I'm asking if they're looking at a way to keep our costs low, Mr. Speaker? Is there going to be a plan in place? Is it going to be public? I'm afraid that we will be losing more residents if our costs continue to increase, or else this government better increase the money that's going to income support. So I'm looking for a plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. When we first began this government, we didn't know what we were coming up against. We didn't know about COVID. We didn't know about potential of a world war. We didn't know about the cost of inflation that would be happening. And we made 22 priorities, huge priorities. And I think that we're still trying to address those priorities and still, at the same time, address the realities of COVID, the realities of inflation, the realities of a world war potential.

So I think that, Mr. Speaker, we do need to make tough decisions. This is a session that we're talking about the budget and the finance minister's been diligent in saying that we don't have enough money to solve world peace. We don't have enough money to do everything that all Members will want done. So we have to make some tough choices in this Assembly, Mr. Speaker, and I'm hoping that Regular Members will assist us in that work as well because there will be tough choices, and we have to make sure that the priorities are priorities for all residents of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier.

I've raised the questions in this House over the last six years about how inadequate our minimum wage is, how low wage workers are left in poverty, the need to extend the Wage Top-Up Program, and a guaranteed basic income.

Can the Premier tell me whether this government has any sort of a plan or program to get working people out of poverty as part of a COVID economic recovery and just transition? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a few things. Of course, we have the anti-poverty fund which is looked after through health and social services. We do have, for people that are facing poverty, income assistance programs, housing programs as well. Much of the work that we do is meant to address people living in poverty.

Of our mandate, one of our mandates was to separate the income assistance program, tailoring it to seniors and people with disabilities. That should help a bit. And our Emerging Stronger to improve the existing income assistance program to ensure the type and level of benefits and income exemptions are meeting the basic needs of residents. As well as advancing work on the integrated service delivery so that people can get the supports in a timely manner. And we're doing a whole review of the NWT Housing Corporation policies which should help people with housing as well as looking at financial support for students. So yes, Mr. Speaker, we're doing the best we can. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier for that. I've raised these issues with the finance Ministers, the Ministers in charge of income assistance, to no avail, and I'm frustrated. I don't think the answers or solutions are easy, but if the only things we can come up with are some lengthy review of income assistance or some sort of integrated service delivery concept, we're failing our residents.

Can the Premier tell us whether this government has ever seriously considered a basic income program? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment has during this House and talked about -- they've done some preliminary looking into it; they're doing some more research into it. But as stated earlier, Mr. Speaker, we have 22 priorities, I believe, that we have to -- plus we had COVID and we had, you know, an economic situation at the same time. So we have to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all residents. And we're doing the best we can to do that with what we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I couldn't even get the minimum wage Minister to reveal advice from the last advisory committee or to consider a permanent increase to the NWT minimum wage to $18 per hour. Can the Premier tell me whether there has ever been any discussions with the federal government about a guaranteed basic income, and what happened? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly wish that things weren't the same as it has been for the last few years. But no, we haven't had those discussions. At the federal table, we've talked about COVID. We've talked about our priorities that we have, the 22 priorities of this government. We've talked about economic and social recovery. And now we're talking about Arctic sovereignty and the potential of a world war. So, Mr. Speaker, no, we haven't had that direct conversation yet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier for that and would encourage her to raise this with the feds.

But can the Premier commit to raising the issue of a pilot project on guaranteed basic income with her Cabinet colleagues and federal officials? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, the Cabinet is focused on trying to get the 22 priorities that we have identified already. So that is our focus for the next while.

At the federal table, I'm willing to take whatever assistance they can give us, recognizing that the federal government is also struggling financially with the amount of money they've had to give out because of the situation that Canada has faced in the last few years. But what I will commit to is if we get those 22 priorities done, we will look at bringing forward more priorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member -- or Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.