Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm happy to talk with her more about that and get more information about Mactung in a timely manner.

The GNWT decided to try to market the Mactung property with the Cantung mine site with the federal government but all attempts seemed to have failed. Can the Minister explain what is going on with proposed sale of the Mactung property and when the taxpayers of the NWT can expect to recover their investment? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a joint decision made, quite some time ago now, between GNWT and Canada to attempt to market those two properties, Cantung and Mactung together. And that effort was underway to have a joint effort and a joint RFP out seeking to seek prequalified proposals. I believe that is the item that the Member was mentioning earlier with respect to the publication on the Supreme Court of British Columbia's court filing with respect to that not having yielded any positive results. But there do continue to be discussions by the GNWT, and we are stay remaining hopeful that ultimately a sale will be concluded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm actually getting more information out of the Cabin Radio story than I guess what I've heard so for about what the process is going to be, but.

These Mactung and Cantung properties are 140 kilometres away from each other by air and 700 kilometres by road. It was always extremely unlikely that some buyer would ever take these on as some sort of a viable mining operation without significant concessions and subsidies.

So can the Minister tell us what incentives, concessions, or subsidies will be offered to sell the Mactung property this time around? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had it described to me that when the decision was made, before my time here, to purchase the property, that it was thought to, in fact, be a good maneuver and, indeed, that it would in fact not have difficulty being sold. So regardless of that, at this point I will still note, Mr. Speaker, that the two properties, although being 140 kilometres apart, were jointly owned previously. They remain high grade Tungsten properties. Geopolitical events and the critical minerals and metals discussions suggest that there may well be a good opportunity right now for these particular properties.

There are no subsidies being offered, concessions, or incentives. There is, of course, the mineral incentive policy that we have that applies for anyone who might be seeking to apply in order for some supports when they go out to do exploration. But as far as the sale and the RFP process, that is not subject to subsidies, concessions, or incentives. 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.

In my view, the Cantung and Mactung saga is another example of post-devolution mismanagement of our resources. When I asked the Minister for lessons learned last time, she spoke about hope for a solid proponent to take over the property. I'm going to try the question again, perhaps a little bit differently.

Can the Minister explain what lessons have been learned about financial security and public liabilities from the Cantung and Mactung saga? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we are characterizing the events differently. I wouldn't characterize it as a saga nor would I say that the story has ended or is closed. As I had mentioned at the beginning, there are still confidential discussions underway. I am still hopeful to have a positive update here at the end that might close out the chapter. And at that point whether there are lessons to be learned in one direction or another, that would be the time to do that consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I understand the Member's frustration. Sometimes the rumour mill gets ahead of government and before there are decisions made, before all of the steps are followed, that information can be shared. Information gets leaked and so that was the situation. It came as a surprise to a number of people and so it wasn't by design that things were out there in the public before the MLAs were informed.

Really, the team looked at everywhere in Yellowknife. There were some requirements that, you know, were needed. So the space needed to be large enough for future expansion. There's a desire to have a site that would allow for on-the-land learning, for cultural spaces, a place that was close to the downtown core, somewhere where all of the, you know, facilities could be located together. So these are some of the requirements that we wanted to have as part of this. And, you know, for perhaps many of the reasons that there's a long history of proponents trying to develop Tin Can Hill, it's because it's a great site. It's because it has all of those aspects. And so it is clearly the most preferable place for a polytechnic university. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That could have been answered in just as an everywhere answer, so I would just ask that the Minister please speed up his responses.

Can the Minister please tell me when the public consultation began?

Mr. Speaker, it seems to be a bit of a habit that things become a done deal before we're ever asked about them. Clearly, my residents were also, my constituents were also very surprised by this decision and now many are worried that they will not have an input and it will all just be lip service. So can the Minister speak a bit to the public consultation process and when is that going to begin? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a City of Yellowknife consultation process. From what I understand, it's already began. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So what I hear, then, is that the GNWT and ECE itself did no public consultation before they made their decision to go with this site so I'm really glad to know that our inputs are being considered here.

How much consideration has been given to the fact that the access to this location will be through residential areas that cannot sustain the traffic patterns that a university or college would require? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of the facilities master planning, students were engaged, staff were engaged, Indigenous governments were engaged, the city was engaged, and now we are in the public portion that is being run by the city. It's a city process. There will be plenty of opportunity for public input in this zoning process. And the types of things that the Member is talking about right now - traffic access. Those are exactly the types of things that this established public process is going to consider. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we're done here, I will forward the email that I received and referred to in my statement about the numerous times that Tin Can Hill has been proposed for development, and it has been shot down by residents. I'm, again, concerned about the waste of money on this project going forward as I can tell you, from what I'm gauging from listening to residents, they do not want it. And for them to not have been asked, for my constituents to not have been asked, is unacceptable. And, again, it's just a matter of this government doing whatever they would like to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't hear a question there but the asking is happening now. There's actually a process being administered by the City of Yellowknife where public input will be solicited. So that's what's happening. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing that global gas price increases due to the Ukraine-Russian war are creating staggering impacts for our communities, what steps, if any, can the GNWT take to soften the tremendous blow of these increases on our citizens? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, this government is alive to some of the issues in terms of, you know, the rising prices. And we, as a government, have done a number of things to be able to help the residents in the communities. You know, Education, Culture has some subsidies. ENR has some subsidies. So we are helping the residents in the communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Can the Minister commit to looking at all potential actions, including a potential short-term reduction in gas taxes, to offset the impact of global price increases when carrying out the next gas price adjustment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Petroleum Products Revolving Fund Act requires the GNWT to recover all operating costs from the sale of petroleum products. In other words, we are not permitted to undercharge or overcharge our customers for what it costs to provide petroleum products to each community that participates in the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.