Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the development of regulations for discharges from the Alberta tar sands tailings.

Can the Minister tell us why no information on these discharge regulations has been shared with this side of the House, or the public, since I last raised this issue a couple of months ago? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the Alberta work plan to develop regulations to allow for the release of treated oil sand tailing water technical report to fill the knowledge gaps are expected to be shared with ENR this fall. No information other than the work plan and the RFP to hire contractors to fill knowledge gaps have been shared with ENR. These documents are public and presently out there.

Our next scheduled update from the Alberta mining/water science team is scheduled for early June. We will be working, once we have new information and we will make sure we get that to committee and to the Member. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Although I'm pretty skilled on internet searches, it would be great if the Minister could start providing that kind of information to this side of the House.

Clearly, we're downstream from this mess, and there's a lot at stake for us with regard to the potential impacts on water quality, aquatic life, and human health. The only thing I've seen happen is the release of two $60,000 Requests for Proposals for water quality expert advice to review what Alberta's doing.

Can the Minister tell us what, if anything else, is going on? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR has regular meetings with the Alberta government and their staff on the development of regulations. To date, there hasn't been any significant new information to share.

Alberta has made it clear that no decisions to develop a regulation has been made and that they will wait to fill knowledge gaps before deciding to proceed.

Regarding what ENR is doing, we are seeking expert technical support to support our review of the information we receive from Alberta. These Requests for Proposals have been and are expected to be posted shortly with the goal of having expert technical support in place prior to receiving the information from Alberta this fall. So we'll be proactive getting the people in place so that we can get this information. Once it's given to us, we can look it and provide information on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, but I shouldn't actually have to go on the Open NWT contract website to actually get that kind of information. Hoping that he can start sharing that a little more proactively with this side of the House.

I've also raised the issue of the refusal of the Government of Alberta to allow GNWT to have a seat on a couple of technical committees on downstream water quality. The Minister said he was going to get in touch with the federal government to try to secure these seats, but there hasn't been any updates.

Can the Minister tell us what is going on with regard to securing these seats on the committees and whether there was any contact with the federal government in this regard? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previously I spoke in this House saying that we've reached out to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. To date, we have not received a response from him. So to give an update saying that we're getting more information, we're not getting any information.

The Member asked for getting -- well, we need update committee. We can update committee once we have information to provide. He talks about the website. We have other issues and other challenges, and we're more than willing to share information once we have current and important information there.

To address our interests, the Government of Alberta has agreed presently to have monthly meetings with the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister level to share information about committee and decisions that are being made. So right now, we're still trying to work on getting those seats there. Reached out to the federal government. We haven't got a response there. But in the meantime, our department with our deputy minister and assistant deputy minister, we're having those communications with Alberta. 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 update. But I guess what I'd like to see is the Minister committing to share a little more information with this side of the House, even if there's no progress being made. Like, it's been radio silence, Mr. Speaker, for two months since I last raised this in the House.

So could the Minister commit to regular monthly, maybe quarterly updates, even if there's no progress being made, so I don't have to continually raise this issue in each sitting? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've stated previously, we receive additional information about the knowledge gap and Alberta's plan to develop regulations, I will share with the MLAs.

To be clear, no discharge of the tailing waters allowed from the oil sands at this time and no decision has been made by the Government of Alberta pursuant to regulations to release oil sands tailing water.

The GNWT understands and shares the concerns with Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, NWT residents, and MLAs on the potential release of oil sand tailing waters and continue to bring their concerns forward to Canada and Alberta.

If the Member wants to get monthly updates, we can't do that right now. We can provide the information. Should the Member, or any other Member, wish to get updates on a monthly basis, come see me, and we'll provide that information, even if it's no response. But we've got a little bit of other issues that we're dealing with right now, and I apologize if we're not being as timely as we can with the response back to the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for Minister of ITI. That's kind of where the procurement review is falling under.

So with the government undergoing the procurement review, will the Minister ensure that there are mechanisms put in place to benefit northern businesses to the greatest extent possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was really the purpose of the procurement review in the first place, is to ensure that we are maximizing benefits to northern businesses. Some of the challenges of the procurement review include how we define northern business, how we identify northern business, how we identify or define an Indigenous business, and that's why the procurement review has gone through the process it has with a lot of careful consultation across the entirety of the Northwest Territories, including with modern treaty holders and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also ensure that all Crown corporations that receive public dollars that we sit in this House do approve must comply to ensuring that they are following the same mechanisms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are Crown corporations who are not subject to the same procurement rules as the GNWT. For example, the NTPC does follow their own procurement rules. That said, they are guided and fairly closely align with what the GNWT does. So certainly I expect that they will benefit as well from the work that we are doing and can certainly follow my colleagues who are also responsible for the various corporations to see that we are working towards being as consistent with one with the other as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister also commit to ensure that there are processes? We can have all the procurement rules and establish how we are an NWT business, but if there's no reporting or no follow-up on things that are put on these companies, then if they're not meeting the obligations that we set in this new procurement review, then the review is, in my words, would be worthless. So will the Minister commit to making sure that there are ways to be following up on these mechanisms? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree. I'm happy to say that vendor performance management has been something that the auditor, or the Office of the Comptroller General has been working on since early days of this Assembly and, indeed, it's one of the areas where there's already been some progress. Construction contracts over $250,000 are already being monitored to ensure their compliance. But as this procurement review goes forward, I anticipate that that system and that process for monitoring will only improve. Obviously once we know exactly what we are going to be monitoring at the final conclusion of the procurement review, we can expand that. But I completely agree that, indeed, we want to be able to do that monitoring to know what we are enforcing to know whether people are compliant and then to also have a better process for a complaints mechanism, that is also included. Completely agree as well that we want to be held accountable and as well as to be able to hold others accountable. So on this point, again, Mr. Speaker, very happy to hear the question and very happy to be able to respond to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my last supplementary, will the Minister commit if obligations aren't met, that there are penalties going to be put in place so we can ensure that Northerners and northern companies benefit fully in the future? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this too has been the subject of the review itself and is subject of discussion amongst those participating in the various reviews, both during the review formally and since in terms of discussions with businesses and Indigenous governments. There's opportunities both for the potential for penalties. There's also potentially the opportunity for incentives. And I'm not going to commit one way or the other at this point. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of where the review's going to go other than to say that there does need to be a way by where once an analysis has been done, if someone's not complying with their contracts, that needs to be enforceable. But we also want to be encouraging northern businesses to comply and in fact to even do better, to do a better job of ensuring that they are providing value for residents. That's really been the focus of this entire thing. So in a nutshell, I'm in agreement, and I'm committing to a solution. I'm just not going to jump exactly to what that solution will be at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do police officers and those working in the detachment receive Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training? For example, Government of the Northwest Territories employees take the Living Well Together modules. Can those modules or other Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity training be made mandatory for RCMP officers as well?

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Justice.