Thank you, Minister for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And finally, does the Minister believe that it is both a federal responsibility and the GNWT's responsibility to fund public housing through capital and O and M resources, or is it only a federal responsibility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a shared responsibility. It's important that this government and the federal government realize that we need to invest in public housing in the North. I pressed this with Cabinet and my FMB colleagues. This is important. It's a priority of this government, of the 20th Assembly. The work we do and the message we brought to the Council of Leaders in Ottawa was a shared responsibility, working with Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories, making sure that the message set across from both the federal government and Indigenous governments is these are public housing units in our communities that our families and people in the communities live in and need on a day-to-day basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure regarding the condition this year, as I mentioned in my statement, of the Dempster Highway and the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. Can the Minister provide some context on why this year there were delays and what had happened to cause the conditions on the highway this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there were some delays and some particular challenges this year owing to the nature of the spring melt and just an unusual amount of snow that came in last year resulting in an unusual spring as that was melting. So that certainly posed challenges to the department and to our contractors. We also had two different contracts up in that region that were both out for renewal this year, and so that had to go through the usual public procurement processes. There was some delays therein. Every time, though, Mr. Speaker, we were reaching out to existing contractors who were continuing to work, the contracts were getting extended and, really, a big shout-out goes out to them for always working through those projects and those needs. And I appreciate I have heard a lot from the region and every time I would, would go back and was always quickly able to be assured that work was happening and was able to be assured when it was going to happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you Minister Wawzonek. And, yes, we did have a huge amount of snow this year in our region. So can the Minister kind of provide an update on the current status of those contracts now that were, as she had mentioned, had expired and where they're sitting today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm very happy to say that all of our O and M contracts for the region are -- for the Dempster region are now in place, they're being operationalized. The ITH O and M contract is still being finalized. We spent a lot of effort on this one this summer and have certainly been approaching it, I think, from a view of some relationship building with contractors in the region. I do expect to have an update on that this week, and I'm looking forward to it being in place before the freeze up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks again, that is good to hear that the contracts will be let. So I guess, finally, Mr. Speaker, going forward, has the Minister tasked the department with coming up with kind of a long-term plan to ensure that years like this year is not something that we'd expect going forward next year and in future years, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is regular reviews and regular eyes on both highways throughout the entire year. What I've asked for though, and very happy to commit to the Member that this information will flow to the Members from the region as well, is that we have outlined in advance what the regular maintenance process is, what are the regular times when there's someone that does go out and inspect, and what is the regular maintenance that's going to happen. So MLAs and Members and regional residents know themselves in advance what they can expect. Obviously, when there's extreme weather events, which there seem to be regularly, we will then also have to go out and do more. But at least folks will know in advance exactly what to expect, what's happening, and then there's hopefully less surprises and more eyes on the ground, frankly, to monitor and see how our efforts are going. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from YK Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And on my acknowledgements, I just want to correct the record. It's not hearts, we were playing bridge at the seniors -- I don't know why I thought that earlier.

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance, and it's with respect to my Member's statement earlier today. And what's causing me concern is this entitlement to write the federal minister exclusively on their own decision including Cabinet's without it informing Members that they're asking for more money. So my question for the Minister of Finance is, is what is the reasonable threshold on taking on new generational debt that will warrant a conversation with Members prior to writing that letter? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, about two years ago we began a very extensive process of having the fiscal responsibility policy reviewed. That process was undertaken with the Members of the House during the 19th Assembly, and part of what we did at that time was to review and to include an expressed threshold in our own policy after which point we would then be obligated to go to Ottawa. By doing that, it put an obligation on us. It was an obligation that all parties in this House, and anyone really within government would know, that once we hit the threshold of being within $120 million of the borrowing limit, the Minister of Finance would then be obligated to write to Ottawa to seek a borrowing limit increase. We do keep this House informed through various presentations, both to Members confidentially, to caucus, so that when we are approaching that threshold, we are now triggered to go to Ottawa to write. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unilateral decision to ask for how much, that's the problem here. We have no idea what generational debt this Minister is now taking on and saddling this Assembly. So this is well beyond an operational decision, Mr. Speaker. How much debt has the Minister requested from the Minister of Finance of Canada? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker. At this point in time, we've simply put Ottawa on notice that we're going to need to have a conversation with them, that there's a lot more information that will have to go into that, a lot more planning, including, quite frankly, happy to have that conversation with Members of this House. It's not a unilateral decision. We are triggered by the fiscal responsibility policy. We've undertaken that effort to begin that conversation, but the process is not one that happens overnight. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my questions aren't intended to be a trial by ordeal. My questions are intended to be like be honest. How much are you asking for? So you sent a letter requesting we don't know how much we need, we don't know how much we want, but we want more? Please, we must be able to narrow it down a little bit because Northerners are the ones who are going to be saddled with this debt. Hence, Mr. Speaker, what range of debt has the finance Minister requested that Northerners will now carry without a MLA discussion? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to say it again. At this point, the conversation's only just begun. So we've put Ottawa on notice that we're going to be coming to them in order to make this request, that there's more information coming. Our offices here in the Department of Finance and Fiscal Policy are looking at what kind of options we are going to be looking at, what kinds of needs we might have, what is on the capital plan for the next several years, what is in in the operational plan for the next several years. Mr. Speaker, if the Member doesn't believe me when I answered that the second time and doesn't believe me when I'm answering it now, I'm happy to share the letter with him.

Colleagues, please and thank you, address it to the chair.

Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you. That was a hint of Mr. Whitford style of managing the House, Mr. Speaker. Good for you. Mr. Speaker, what if Ottawa says no; what is plan B? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, we have certainly made efforts with fiscal responsibility here to try to make changes within our main estimates. Obviously, the main estimates come to the floor of this House, and we see how the changes to the main estimates go in the last government, and we were -- or when we last -- Assembly -- or last session, we were certainly asked to roll back some of the changes that we were proposing at that time. But it's a conversation for this House generally when the main estimates come forward, what else we can do to adjust them if that's the situation we find ourselves in. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to get to the bottom of these cost overruns that I brought up in my Member's statement. Can the Minister of Infrastructure speak to what appears to be a systemic problem with how we're budgeting projects? Let's start there. Thank you.