Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply.

My next question is the arrivals of materials to the final destination, is the Minister -- will be working with the local LHOs to ensure that the waybills and the product is being delivered? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, again, much of this work is ongoing. We have an infrastructure team within Housing NWT that works on design and also the rollout of housing infrastructure projects within the communities. So a lot of this work is ongoing. There's a lot of internal work and a lot of discussions with local housing associations to make sure that these projects are delivered on time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is that we have a one season annual approach to resupplying our communities, and earlier, we are hit -- we, the Sahtu, is hit with another increase in costs. Now we're going to see our power bills increase by 25 points over and above starting soon after the GRA is in the process. So viewing the additional costs and viewing the wood stove subsidies and the program offered to reduce costs on energy by Arctic Alliance, will the Minister work with my office to see if there's additional trucking loads that could supply wood stoves from southern suppliers to the Sahtu? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Something that Housing NWT does internally is work with communities on the loads going into the communities. I can have this discussion with the MLA, also with Housing NWT, to make sure that these loads going in are full loads and that we're utilizing all resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister for Housing NWT. Colleagues, before we get to continue with oral questions, we have lots of beautiful guests here. I'm going to turn to the Premier for -- since it's under his portfolio. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for using your prerogative to allow me to introduce to the House the government service officers from around the Northwest Territories who are here in town for training. These are the people at the frontline of integrated service delivery in the Northwest Territories. So we have with us today:

• George Morin
• Celine Proctor - Fort Good Hope
• Patricia Voudrach - Tuktoyaktuk
• Connie Villenuve - Jean Marie River
• Tina Apples - Gameti
• Cassandra Paul-Greenland - Aklavik
• Elizabeth Romie - Whati
• Irene Kodakin - Deline
• Sharon Pekok - Hay River Reserve
• Eddy McKay - Fort Resolution
• Kimberly Stewart - Tulita
• Ann Kochon-Orlias - Colville Lake
• Albert Ruben - Paulatuk
• Alayna Krutko - Fort Providence
• Sarah Kallak - Ulukahtoak
• Shandel McLeod - Aklavik

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Welcome.

I would like to welcome GSOs here. You guys do an amazing job. We're very fortunate, one of my former members, constituent -- well, I guess you're still my constituent, Connie Villeneuve and her better half -- or not her better half, Jonas Sanques for being here. I'm going to get in trouble now. Welcome. Thank you very much for the work that you do. You guys are a great asset by the government, and you got a good leader there, so thank you very much for being here today.

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

The review and recommendations on the city of Yellowknife Street Outreach program has been released this week, and the review noted that the program is currently being operated on a month to month basis on an annual deficit of $50,000 while the homeless population in Yellowknife is growing. So my question for the Minister is what are the next steps, now that this review has been released and with the recommendations -- what are the next steps for EIA in terms of engaging with the city of Yellowknife and figuring out the best role for the GNWT in supporting the Street Outreach program moving forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm sure the Member can appreciate that we've been busy this week. I haven't had a chance to read the report myself. But I know that staff are reviewing it, and staff from EIA did contribute to the report as well. So after that review is done, I look forward to speaking with the department to figure out what the next steps are going forward. Because as I've said many times in this House, the Street Outreach is a valuable service, and when I'm in Yellowknife, I stay downtown and so I see their work on a regular basis, and I very much appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier -- or the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs commit to meeting with the city of Yellowknife on a priority basis to go over the recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to follow up to see what the plan is. We want to build good relationships and partnerships with the city and with the local NGOs. And so I'm sure at the staff level, those conversations are happening, but I will ensure that those conversations do happen if that's not the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one recommendation that came out of the review was to increase the kinds of outreach services that can be offered because 90 percent of the clients, it turns out, are from communities outside Yellowknife, and there's a need to link people with supportive contacts, people, and services from those other communities outside Yellowknife. Is this an area where EIA might be able to help coordinate and assist the Street Outreach program in making those connections to connect people with the people and resources back home? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so EIA recently took over this file, and so the team is building capacity. I can't really commit the team to, you know, connect people in Yellowknife to services and people in the other 32 communities. That might be a bit much. But that being said, we will work with the population. We are working with the vulnerable population and the NGOs to see how we can best serve their needs and how we can do it in an integrated fashion. Thank you.

Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, finally, the review found that one of the groups most eager to help is actually the Yellowknife downtown business community. So does executive and indigenous affairs plan to engage with Yellowknife downtown business owners to see what they might have to offer in terms of ideas and resources? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The engagement has begun. I believe there's a meeting scheduled with the local business community for November 4th. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, I was speaking to the issues of cost overruns in our contracts procurement -- sorry, project management and budgeting. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree that cost overruns are not simply an anecdotal problem, but are part of a wider systemic issue in our government? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've rather made a bit of an effort here since the start of the Members' statements to try to figure out the reference that was made. Mr. Speaker, the best I can discern, if we're going to actually speak about data, that this came from Open NWT's data source; it's a reference that goes back to 2004 listing, 2,000 contract that is go back some 20 years. I will note the last three years have single digits in terms of the count of contracts that have had change orders and would suggest that, perhaps, the situation is not as dire as it used to be in fact.

Moreover, Mr. Speaker, I can certainly speak to the matters that are at hand for this government, and arguably could speak to the last government, but I certainly can't speak to, again, what might have happened in years gone by. So, Mr. Speaker, it's not, in my view, helpful to speak about something that is anecdotal, nor necessarily systemic, because each individual project I certainly can say that I've looked into when there's cost overruns, I've asked questions of individual departments when there's cost overruns, and at every instance there's a number of very specific challenges that often arise. One of the biggest ones of late has been inflation which has been a significant impact across this country in the last few years. Another one has been the price of gas which has been a significant impact over the last few years which impacts upon the supply chain. Last but not least, Mr. Speaker, is the impact of the labour impact which has had a significant impact over the last few years. Beyond that, individually, different contracts, different problems, have arisen. Certainly happy to speak to that. And moreover is simply the fact that the bigger the project, the more likely there is to be some cost overrun but not all the time.

Again, Mr. Speaker, until the wildfires hit, the Taltson overhaul was actually on track, on budget, and then the wildfires hit and here we are. So, again, happy to speak individually but not anecdotically. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for those -- that answer. Mr. Speaker, I think that the Minister is expressing some confidence but I would suggest that we do -- you know, and I've heard that Minister speak to -- and I know that she's committed to continuous improvement so, Mr. Speaker, are we reviewing our project management to look at how we can avoid excessive cost overruns? Are we implementing continuous improvement in our project management, learn from the mistakes that have been made in the past so that we can better manage our projects going forward and try and reduce the number of cost overruns? I do appreciate the Minister noting that reductions have started but let's keep going, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, committed to continuous improvement. And, Mr. Speaker, I want to give a few examples quickly. I know it's question period and the clock is running down, but, Mr. Speaker, Inuvik wind has come up a few times. That is a problem -- project that's had a number of different problems arise over the course of it. I can say that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation intends to do a review of that, intends to do a lessons learned, to ensure that even if we can explain each individual challenge, each and every one of them we should be looking at to try to ensure we avoid it on the next go around.

Similarly, Mr. Speaker, I can also say again we are well aware that when the projects take longer from inception to completion, then you wind up in situations where the initial cost estimate simply doesn't match up the reality 5, 10, 7, 8, years later. Too many things can change. The better we can do to improve our planning processes, the better we will do to ensure that the costs at the end match the budget at the beginning. And I can say that that is ongoing work. That is very much the work that the Department of Finance is committed to, procurement shared services, and the Department of Infrastructure on each of these projects to do those lookbacks. So that's the long answer. The short answer is yes. Thank you.