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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the report at issue here was discontinued after 2008. It was extremely labour intensive and didn't necessarily capture all of the procurement that was taking place. It involved a lot of manual re-coding of things which really -- you know, having to manually re-code (a) takes a lot of effort and isn't always the most accurate. What we have replaced it with most recently, within this last year, Mr. Speaker, is the contract reporting dashboard which does breakdown current years by type of contract, by region, by jurisdiction, by the nature of the contract. But I will acknowledge -- I don't know where the questions are going but I will acknowledge the Tlicho region is not separated out in there, other regions are, whereas it was in that 2008 report. So I acknowledge that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Regardless, Mr. Speaker, Tlicho region should be identified. Mr. Speaker, what are the barriers to making Tlicho an administrative region? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that probably falls more within the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. I can certainly, from at least the perspective of Finance only, say that right now the organization of the different regions, with superintendents and associated administrative responsibilities, certainly would involve a reorganization of various, you know, each department's organizational charts, each department's reporting hierarchies. So there are some administrative barriers to doing it. That doesn't mean that this can't be done. It's certainly been done before, but it's something that would have to be looked at by the Department of EIA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is about time Tlicho region is recognized. Does the Minister agree that having a Tlicho region would improve decision-making? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to hope that the decision-making is not impeded by the lack of having a specific region. There are superintendents in the region for certainly -- I know ITI as well as other departments have superintendents there. And we also, of course, have, this is an entity that is a self-governing region and there is a Tlicho child and family services, Tlicho services agencies, so there are a number of organizational structures that are distinct and unique to the Tlicho region. If there's some specific areas where that is not working well, I would love to talk the Member more about that. As for what the future might hold in terms of organization, as in any other organization the government does find itself changing and adapting and, again, certainly the Department of EIA may want to look at whether it's time to reorganize that once again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I talked about some of the statistics of driving in the Northwest Territories and with the proper lighting in junctions, etcetera. Mr. Speaker, when we all drive to places like -- whether you're coming to Yellowknife, you have proper lighting. You go to Behchoko, you look at Rae or Edzo, they got nice proper lighting. The same thing in Fort Providence. And then you go all the way down to Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, at my constituency meeting on May 11th in Fort Resolution, this issue was brought to my attention in regards to proper lighting at junctions. Right now on Highway No. 5 going to Fort Resolution and Highway No. 6 going to Fort Smith, that junction there, we don't have no lighting and my constituent Members are asking if we could get some lighting in that area. Also on the Dettah junction, on Highway No. 4 on the Ingraham Trail, we probably -- we do need proper lighting in that area.

So, Mr. Speaker, I had a question for the Minister for her response -- Diane Archie, responsible for power corporation, if they could take a look at this and if they could make a commitment to help us out in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since it's Friday and we're all happy to go home this weekend and that kind of thing, and I'm hoping we have a -- you know, have a good day for my constituents, so I'm hoping the Minister could seriously take a look at making a commitment to really trying to get this done by this fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, yes, we will look into the four different -- three different junctions; I better not add more work to the department but three different junctions that the Member's talking about and to be able to look at to see what we can do in terms of getting new lighting for their highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I don't have any further questions. But I welcome that and I look forward to seeing the Minister working with us on that and since this is a safety issue for my constituent members. Mahsi.

Thank you. Taken as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I do have a couple of questions for the Minister of Finance to follow up on my colleague's questions, the Member for Kam Lake yesterday on the issue of emergency paid leave as the Minister announced in the House yesterday.

I just want to make sure that that position has been communicated to staff within GNWT who are in a supervisory position so that they can work with the employees to make sure that they know that they could access -- those that need it could access emergency paid leave if they had to leave Hay River or K'atlodeeche. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we've mentioned Bear Facts here before. It is the primary tool for communication for all staff within the public service. And on May the 15th, we did put out a fairly detailed note here stating that employees required to evacuate, both Hay River, K'atlodeeche, may use emergency leave pursuant to the conditions in the collective agreement. So I certainly would hope that there's been no misunderstanding or lack of awareness of it, but I'm happy to have the chance to raise it again here in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. And I did have a look at the language in the collective agreement. The collective agreement allows for both paid or unpaid leave, but I think I heard clearly in the House yesterday that we're, as a government, going to allow members of the public service that were evacuated to use paid emergency leave. So can I just confirm that with the Minister and ensure that that's the message that's going to go out to the supervisory staff as well as to all GNWT employees. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, that is correct, that it would be paid leave for those who are subject to the evacuation order. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Petitions. Reports of committees on the review of bills. Reports of standing and special committees. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following document: A May 23, 2023 letter from the Union of Northern Workers, regarding Hay River disaster emergency funds, addressed to the Premier and Minister of Finance. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Motions.

Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wondered if we can go back to number 5 on the order paper, recognition of visitors. I would like to recognize my page. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item five. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Member for Yellowknife Centre.