Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is working with the Council of Leaders to find ways of communicating with the communities in regards to emergency management. Also, we're well aware of the communication issues that happened. To be honest, I was one of the ones running around stealing StarLink so that we could have communication. So I hear what the Member is saying. The departments are working on these concerns. However, local community governments are responsible for local emergency measurement, EMO organizations. Part of that EMO organization is being prepared themselves. And they're the ones that know the area. They're the ones that know the resources. And the local EMOs, I encourage them to keep working on what-if scenarios and having those readily available for their local communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister, for your reply.

My next question is that we -- in my constituency meeting the other day in Dettah, we have members in our community that paid expenses into the fire season last year, and they haven't been refunded. Is there a way we could go back and revisit that so that our members and our communities can get refunded for the monies that paid during the fire evacuation of 2023? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm aware of the GNWT program that assists people through evacuation; however, I'm not fully confident or fully aware of how that is -- where it's at, so I'd have to get back to the Member on the date, the deadlines, and everything else like that. However, just be aware that, you know, some residents may have had insurance they could have tapped into also for being evacuated. So there's a few options out there. Unfortunately, through the federal disaster assistance program, we have to follow their guidelines in reimbursements and stuff. Thank you.

Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. Just so you know that the majority of people are in my four communities, a lot of them homeowners don't have home insurance, just so you know. Also, I just want to point out that, you know, the Indigenous governments in my riding have accrued a lot of costs as a result of the fire of last year. So we're looking at what can we do as a government to reimburse these Aboriginal governments for the monies they incurred for the 2023 fire season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I encourage the Member to reach out to their local government to also reach out to MACA. Maybe there's something that could be done there. However, most recently we did learn of CIRNAC releasing some funds. So there is an opportunity for the local government to also reach out to them to assist. Thank you.

Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from the Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has policies and that these policies are determined on -- seemed to be determined open a waitlist. Policies should be based on family needs. A family of four should have precedent over a smaller family. Will the Minister look at revisiting its current policies in terms of housing allocations to meet the needs of these families? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. We do have policies in place. It depends on waitlists, housing availability, the size of the household itself, the application itself. So we review these things. I don't know if we need to change these policies, but this is something that we can consider and have a conversation with the Member. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think more of these consultations should be taken out to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Will the department look at meeting with the residents of the Northwest Territories to get feedback on its policies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, housing in the communities is operated through the local housing associations. So we have housing associations in most of our communities. We also hold annual general meetings with the associations annually. So this is an opportunity for residents, if they do have concerns with housing, to attend the AGMs to have this conversation with the local housing associations so they can talk to district, and they can also talk to the Ministers and deputy ministers about these policies so that message is carried on. If there is concerns, they also can speak to you as MLA and also speak to the tenant relations officer. So there's many opportunities for residents to speak about concerns that they have with certain housing policies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the general public has lost confidence in the housing -- local housing authorities because they themselves have to follow these policies. Will the Minister look at doing a consultation round with the residents of the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope they haven't lost confidence because these are local agencies and these are local people that fill these positions, so it's important to have that conversation locally. And I'm willing to talk to residents. We are planning a tour of the Mackenzie Delta in April and I'm willing to have that conversation directly with any residents. So happy and looking forward to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the tour with the Minister. Thank you, and that's just a general comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Please, folks, if you don't have a final supplementary just advise me so we can get on to the next one. Thank you.

Oral questions. Member from Range Lake -- or sorry, Frame Lake. Yes, Frame Lake. Sorry, my fault.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to be clear.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Members made a number of statements suggesting open collaboration between the regular side and the Cabinet, suggestions for ways to move forward. I certainly made some statements to that effect myself. And then we saw the Premier turn around and go to the media after the motion was passed and state that they don't plan to listen.

Mr. Speaker, is it the Premier and Cabinet's intent to simply ignore the calls for collaboration and suggestions made by myself and my colleagues? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, no, that is not my intention. I have a responsibility when the House brings forward a motion and recommendations to carefully consider those. I also have a responsibility to ensure that we are operating the government in a responsible manner. I think there's a lot of information that -- there's a lot of assumptions about what a public inquiry is. Even yesterday, even after I tried to clarify some of the facts around what we can and can't do, there was still assumptions remaining. You know, there was comparisons of our Inquiries Act to the federal Inquiries Act without taking into account the other federal acts that interact with the federal Public Inquiries Act and allow them to set budgets. There were comments about independence of certain other reports. So there's a lot of these things that as the government, when we do something we actually need to know the facts. We actually have to do research. We have to look into things. It's a lot more than just, you know, standing up in the House and saying something. There's a lot of work behind the scenes. So we need to do that work, Mr. Speaker, and we intend on doing that work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate that goodwill from the Premier and look forward to collaboration.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke to difficulty engaging with constituents on the proposal that the Cabinet had brought forward. Mr. Speaker, why has the Premier not made their proposal and scope of work public so the public can assess it for themselves and decide if it passes muster? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It can be difficult to negotiate in public and through the media, and so when we are trying to work with just the Members, we want to avoid that type of noise that comes with that. It is a difficult balance. I get where the Member is coming from. You know, I struggled with that as a Regular Member. But the fact is that, you know, we are elected to do that work on behalf of constituents. So sometimes the constituents don't have all of the information but they've appointed us to look at that information and make our best judgments. But I understand where the Member is coming from. It's a constant battle between keeping too much confidential and releasing too much in the public at inappropriate times. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the Premier's goodwill and openness to discussing this with him publicly. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to openly and transparently engaging the public and Regular Members on a proposed approach for a fully arm's length review of the 2023 wildfires? Thank you.