Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister. Does the government have plans to support the critical mineral industry with green power to help ensure NWT resources will be competitive in the global market where low carbon products will prevail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oh, Mr. Speaker, another one that I'd like to speak at about for some length. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a strong yes. I just don't quite know how it's going to unfold yet. That is a big ask.

The Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, we are not going to be able to last on diesel for the next ten years. That much is clear. Whether that will be in the form of the Taltson project, which we have spoken about in the House already and which has already a lot of interest in it, not the least of which is from the lithium companies, or whether we'll be looking for some other path forward. Mr. Speaker, I can say this is a good example where the industry is asking for this. The industry is asking for green power. They want a solution. And they want to be -- they want us to work with them and to keep them involved as we move forward so that they can, in fact, be the consumers, be the customers, and provide the pathway to really change the energy industry in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT continues to acknowledge the profound affect climate change is having in the NWT right now and the importance of building resiliency and addressing our emissions. Climate change has been a key part of this government's mandate. We've moved climate action in the territories forward through our climate change strategic framework and energy strategy. We're listening to Indigenous government partners through the NWT Climate Change Council, and we've advocated for the NWT perspective and funding at the federal and internationally level. We all agree that climate change will continue to affect our territories in many ways into the future, and we all need to work together to address this. Mr. Speaker, as the Member says, you look at climate change; four times of what the impact is at the national level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I didn't hear him actually use the word "crisis" or "emergency". At the recent Our Energy and Climate Future in a Changing World conference in July, some members of the public service used the words "crisis" and "emergency". So can the Minister tell us what the next steps are in GNWT's climate crisis approach as the current one continues to fail? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, other people use words that may or may not be what we're talking about. But the NWT is on track to meet its greenhouse gas emissions target though we acknowledge that this is in part due to the mine closure. GNWT departments are working with partners to implement the 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategy Framework and Action Plan. Of the 132 action items in the action plan, 74 are completed and 58 are on track. The climate change council includes a youth council and have been meeting quarterly to improve coordination, communication around climate change. And I've had the opportunity to meet with that council. I would certainly not characterize this process as failing. GNWT will conduct an independent review on the NWT Climate Change Action Plan/Renewal Plan in 2025. The GNWT is currently in the process of conducting engagement on climate change mitigation and adaptation actions through public engagement and our collaborative work on the risk and opportunities assessment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister. Of course, I still haven't heard him say the word "crisis" or "emergency" in relation to climate change. But the Auditor General raised the failure of two previous GNWT strategies to reach their greenhouse gas reduction targets, and the current one would also fail without the closure of the Diavik mine. Can the Minister tell us whether GNWT will actually embrace net zero as a target and when we might expect to reach that? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, GNWT recently completed a broad public engagement on emissions and targets. One possible scenario discussed was net zero emissions. There is a need to balance healthy economy with climate change mitigation in the NWT. The NWT approach needs to be achievable given our remoteness and cold climate. Any change to the approach to emission targets in the NWT will be part of the renewed climate change action plan and energy strategy in 2025.

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

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, we've actually already incorporated net zero as a target in the carbon tax that's been imposed. But many at the recent conference expressed concerns with the poor communications and accountability around GNWT's carbon tax, governance and direction at the NWT power corp, and need for community-based renewable energy solutions rather than mega projects.

Can the Minister explain how the NWT is going to transition from a fossil fuel importer to energy resiliency while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and drawing in the NWT power corp into building energy self-sufficiency? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, the GNWT recently completed broad public engagement on climate change mitigation emissions reduction. Any update to the approach to emissions target in the NWT will be part of the renewed climate change action plan and energy strategy in 2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, phase 1 of government renewal was intended to do an inventory of GNWT programs while phase 2 was meant to look at how those programs are funded. Can the Minister start off today by informing this House of the current status on government renewal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to say that all of the phase 1 work, including -- up to and including the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, have all had their inventories completed as of July of this year. That was the last group to make their way through. That work is all done now. And phase 2 is also well underway.

Since November of last year, we kicked off with Housing Northwest Territories, Department of Finance, and Department of Education, Culture and Employment. They are the first ones to see themselves having their programs -- select programs going through the evaluation stage of the GRI. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess my next question, then, would be when do Members on this side get to kind of see the fruits of the labour, so to speak, of the GNWT with -- in regards to phase 2? What is the expected timeline that they are working towards? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know we've been sending over updates along the way as the work has progressed. I'm happy to send another one before the end of the life of this Assembly so that all Members are well aware of where it's at. And, certainly, it's also part of our own business planning processes that we are continuing to report on where this work is at. And so all of those -- all of those tools can be used but, as I've said, happy to give one more further update to Members of this House and this Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that commitment. Mr. Speaker, my next question is for government renewal to really be effective, it cannot happen in silos. How is the GNWT working to ensure that now that they're at the phase 2 of this review that this review really is done with a cross-departmental lens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is really one of the core elements of government renewal and the shift in thinking around this is that every department has to be thinking about its evaluative process. We have, Mr. Speaker, when government renewal was coming out, we put in place a requirement of program evaluation policy requiring that any programs over $2 million, we need to have a logic model and performance tracking indicators. Mr. Speaker, a lot of programs did not. A lot of departments struggled with that. The majority of the capacity for evaluation resides in the Department of Finance. So having the GRI now underway creates that cross-departmental work so that this is happening, that departments can access these resources, that they can bring forward their needs and their programs to have logic models, performance tracking, so we can actually have evidence-based programs and evidence-based decision-making about those programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a lot riding on government renewal as far as fiscal sustainability is concerned. You can look through Hansard and find numerous occasions where the response in regards to deficits or concerns about spending where Ministers have responded well, we're doing government renewal, we're partaking in government renewal. So we're really relying on this exercise here. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how the GNWT intends to measure the success of this government renewal exercise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd go back to looking at, really, the purpose of government renewal short term, gathering information and evidence. We do like to talk about having data-driven decisions, about having evidence-based decision-making. You can't do that without the data, and you can't do it without the evidence. We had to get that in place, and it has taken quite some time, Mr. Speaker, because we are doing it over the entire Government of the Northwest Territories in a way that has never been done before.

Mr. Speaker, along the way, we found there was over 200 different programs that didn't have evaluation metrics in place. It was important to know that. It's important to understand that that alone, in my view, Mr. Speaker, is a success of this program. But over the long term there needs to be, of course, a really corporate-wide, government-wide, approach to evaluation to employ program evaluation policy, to have the tools ready, to know where to go within the system to do those kinds of evaluations so that -- so that we -- the traction around and the culture change for evaluation and data-driven decision-making only solidifies further. We have a tremendous foundation here, Mr. Speaker, and that is the success but as it goes forward, it will continue to be measured by the programs that get evaluated. Thank you.