Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that; I learned a lot. When we develop significant environmental regulations or review and license proposed developments, our public and Indigenous governments have come to expect that these processes are open and transparent. I see no reason why our government cannot make its reviews of documents and submissions on the development of discharge regulations public, especially when it's public funds paying consultants to do the work.

So can the Minister commit to make our submissions and reviews related to tailings discharge regulation development public for the residents of the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can advise you that Alberta has asked we keep the key knowledge gap reports in our review confidential at the time while they complete their analysis. Noting that transparency is our interest, we've asked Alberta when they will be making the reports public as well as how they will be dealing with our comments. As I mentioned, we will also continue to advocate that Alberta engages and consults with NWT Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations as well as the public on the development of regulations. And I can honestly tell you, Mr. Speaker, I've made it very clear that we want to be able to get this information out publicly as soon as we can. 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. And I hope we get the Alberta government's permission to release information that our citizens should get very soon. I'm worried, though, Mr. Speaker, that there may be some important events or milestones that are going to pass with the development of these discharge regulations during the upcoming territorial election.

Can the Minister commit to keeping the public informed of any significant events on tar sands spills and discharge regulation development during the upcoming election, and how would he intend to do that? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, should there be any significant incidents upstream or advancement of regulation development, the GNWT will inform the public as part of the caretaker's role during the elections. So if there's information that needs to be shared, we will make sure we get it out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the new Disaster Assistance Policy, if a home was built in an area after it was designated as disaster prone, unless mitigation measures were taken to reduce the risk then disaster assistance is not eligible.

Can the Minister explain how many NWT residents live in a disaster-prone area? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, disaster-prone areas are those that are identified as susceptible to certain risk. For example, flood risk mapping identifies area that are increased risk of flooding. MACA does not keep account of residents living in a disaster-prone area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if the home experiences two different types of natural disasters and sustains damages in both times, does that still limit that household to accessing disaster assistance one more time? For example, the people of KFN experienced a flood last year and now wildfires this year. How does this policy apply to situations like that, especially in non-reserve circumstances? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intent of the disaster program is limited to the number of times a property is eligible for disaster assistance through mitigation. Disasters are more and more common and very costly. This limitation is to ensure that mitigation is undertaken where possible. Emergency recovery assistance for KFN is provided under the federal government Emergency Management Assistance Program and not through the GNWT Disaster Assistance Policy. Individuals on KFN Reserve, whose homes were affected by the flood last year, will still be eligible for assistance under the federal program that is specific to on-reserve disastrous events. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think the Minister answered about the second part of that question; I'd appreciate an answer. It was especially in non-reserve circumstances, was the ending of the question. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister explain why under the new Disaster Assistance Policy, eligibility for assistance is excluded for an event affecting a single sector or property? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Disaster Assistance Policy is a government-funded assistance program that may be implemented after a widespread disaster to ensure essential community functions and cover the essential basic needs of residents and businesses. Events affecting a single sector or property are not widespread, nor do they impact essential community functions.

The Disaster Assistance Policy is not an insurance program or a compensation program to recover all losses or to be applied to events affecting single properties. Property owners have a responsibility to protect their own property and obtain insurances where available and if they are able to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If a natural disaster occurs but only one house sustains damage from it, does the Minister believe it is okay to exclude the household from recovering any disaster assistance funds? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not going to give you my opinion but what I can tell you is the Disaster Assistance Policy is not designed to assist from recoveries from all events. It is designed to protect against those widespread events that affect many individuals and properties in a community. Across Canada, disaster assistance programs are not applied to events affecting single properties. The intent of the Disaster Assistance Program is to ensure the continued functioning of a community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I'm wondering, point blankly, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister increase the total number of eligible semesters for all NWT students given that what we're seeing as far as trends of who's accessing SFA. The students that are accessing beyond a bachelor's degree for graduate students is less than 4 percent of all of the students, and students that are accessing even more than four years is limited to under a total of 9 percent. And so I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to look at expanding who can apply for additional funding for SFA in the territory? Thank you

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we haven't even rolled out the first set of significant changes yet, and the Member's already asking for another set. So I can't commit to doing that. What I will say, as the Member has noted, you know, the SFA program was undersubscribed and so we looked at what new money we can find, what money is available internally, and what we could do with those funds. And so what we did is create a program that we could afford in that envelope. I do recognize what the Member is saying. There are still barriers that exist for some people to, you know, advance their education, especially when you're talking about getting a master's or similar degrees like that. So I am live to that but right now we are sticking with these set of changes that we are currently in the process of implementing. And in the future, we can look at even further enhancements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I wanted to save the Minister some printing and get those changes in before he printed his new rules.

I think there's a lot more focus that's needed on this one because I think that there's something that can be done here in order to include more students in this in the Northwest Territories without it meaning more money from student financial assistance in big dollar amounts given where we're at.

Mr. Speaker, back when I was a student using student financial assistance, I was walking around with my flip phone, I was T9 texting or whatever you used to call it, and so times have changed since then and now we can do a lot more on our phone, we can do a lot more from our computer. But SFA is still using the forms they used back when I was using them and still requiring people to go in with a paper copy to their university and then come back and bring it in to student financial assistance. And so I'm wondering will the Minister work with SFA to move more services online for students so they can spend more time studying and less time doing administration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So actually you can apply for SFA online. That is an advancement that has happened in the past few years. I think what the Member is referencing is that there is one form, the student enrolment form that needs to be filled out by the school, and so that is still a paper form. However, we have been -- and in terms of the ability to check your loan balances online, we don't have that; we are working with the Department of Finance to see if there is a way to make this happen. But I'll say that, you know, we don't have the IT infrastructure that you might see in some other jurisdictions. It is expensive and instead of investing in that, I guess we've been investing actually into the programs and that's why we're able to have the most generous student financial assistance program in the country. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, there's also the travel form that students need to fill out online and share there.

So, Mr. Speaker, in addition to the online services, what students are also looking for -- and it's not just students; it's potential employers, post-secondary institutions across Canada, as well as even the polytechnic here in the Northwest Territories, people are always looking for information because information allows us to make strategic decisions, it allows us to know what's going on in the world, and especially with our own students here. And so I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to doing a little bit more data sharing when it comes to student financial assistance and putting out an annual report that speaks to who is using student financial assistance, where they're going to school, what they're taking at school, completion rates, and also the number of students who are returning to the North to come back here and work. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a long list of things to include. So I can say yes, I will commit to annual reporting and I will commit to seeing how many of those items that we can actually get on the list. But I think it's a great idea, and I'm happy to action the Member's request. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.