Thank you. My question is for the Minister of Justice. Mr. Speaker, last May in the GNWT response to Motion 75-19(2), maximum allowable rent increase for private rental units, the government stated that the Department of Justice was going to undertake a review of the Residential Tenancy Act during the 20th Assembly. Can the Minister of Justice provide a timeline for when the departmental review of the Residential Tenancy Act will take place? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, this is something that is in our business plan. The review will be done within the next 12 months. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister share how extensive that review will be and explain what sorts of changes will be considered? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to provide some more information to the Member in written form about how extensive we are looking at the review. As of today, I'm not quite sure where things are in the process but I can commit to provide that to her. And some of the things that I can -- that I know will be considered are the recommendations made by the rental officer in their annual report, and those will go back a number of years. So there's many recommendations already that the department will be looking at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what the concerns that the department has or that the government has overall regarding the potential negative impacts that rent control may impose on the private housing market. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. So this did come up in the last Assembly, as the Member mentioned. I was at that time the Minister of Justice as well. And when the topic of rent control came up when there was a motion in the House, we heard from industry, and we heard their concerns, and we heard about the uncertainty that something like rent control brings to investment. And so one of the things that I want to do in this government is bring more certainty to our policies, processes, laws and regulations, to help attract investment. And so what we need to do to lower the cost of rent is to address the demand and the supply issues that we're facing. So we need more homes. We need more apartments. We need more houses. We need more homes across the entire housing continuum. And somebody has to build those homes. They're not all going to be GNWT social housing. We need a significant number of market units as well, and we are reliant on the private industry to build those. And so I want to provide assurances to the private industry that we are not going to put roadblocks up that would prevent them from being certain of their investments. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.

Mr. Speaker, thank you for the answer. With that in mind with what he just said, can the Minister commit to making rent control regime included or part of the Residential Tenancy Act? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure the Member knows my answer based on what I just said but no, I cannot make that commitment. During the review of the Residential Tenancies Act, there will be opportunities for public feedback, and we will take that feedback and we will fully consider it. And so I expect that some of that feedback will be around rent control. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ECC. Can the Minister update this Assembly on the latest situation with Suncor reporting runoff water testing above compliance parameters, which include rough timelines as to when more information will be available and if residents downstream from this incident in the South Slave region have to take any precautions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister for Environment and Climate Change.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on June 9th, Suncor was notified that a routine preliminary lab test results on one of the discharge ponds was outside the company approval parameters. As a result of this, there was a notification that was identified through our transboundary water agreement. And the current situation as we are -- additional testing is underway to validate the original test results, and we anticipate that we should receive those slowly and they will be shared once available. And at this time, no additional action is required from residents downstream of the release. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 1998, the Mackenzie Valley Risk Management Act was created, which gave way to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and Mackenzie Valley Impact Review Board. In the Yukon, they have the YESAB board, in Nunavut they have the NIRB board. Alberta, they have the Environment and Protection and Enhancement Act and the Alberta Water Act.

Mr. Speaker, my question will be is can the Minister work with the federal government to work on new legislation to protect residents in the Northwest Territories as downstream users from the development in Alberta? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently work being done within Alberta and with the federal minister from ECCC in regards to guiding regulations around release of tailings waters from the oil sands projects, and the Department of Environment and Climate Change is engaged in those discussions at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At what point in time are we going to start continuing to get more information like this as downstream users here in Northwest Territories? In my riding, we have high cancer rates and we got to figure a way this one out where Alberta consults with the Government of the Northwest Territories. We already do it through an agreement we have with Alberta, and we do it through the impact review board, but at the same time Alberta doesn't include us in their approval process as they go through the environment assessment for those projects. So I'm wondering can we continue to build new relationships with the Government of Canada to build new legislation to oversee the -- to make sure that our interests and the downstream users in Northwest Territories are protected? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, that work is currently underway both at the federal level as well as within the province of Alberta. There were questions that were raised by the Government of the Northwest Territories through Environment and Climate Change to which we've had responses from the Alberta government in relation to release of water from the tailings ponds. We're currently evaluating some of the responses and will be continuing that conversation on those proposed changes to legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, we don't have control over activities that happen within Alberta. I'm very pleased to stand up and say that the transboundary water agreement that Alberta and the Northwest Territories have was activated, as outlined within that agreement, so the notification was timely. In response to that notification by the Department of Environment and Climate Change, we responded quickly to get that information out to the Indigenous governments as well as the communities across the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to relay that information as updates come to the department to ensure that everyone is kept up to speed, and if there are any significant changes, there will be that notification. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of housing. So as it stands now, the Ne'Rahten Development Limited corporation in Fort Good Hope is contracted by Housing NWT to deliver the maintenance and repair programs within the community. Does Housing NWT see other opportunities to tie in and support efforts in Fort Good Hope as they strive to take back more control over both construction and maintenance of housing in the community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.