Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize a page from Range Lake, Eva Gordon. Thank you so much for your work during this last week of the sitting. And I'd also like to recognize my friend Grand Chief Lafferty. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Monfwi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [Translation] [Translation Ends]

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you. I too, like my colleagues, would like to welcome Mr. Jackson Lafferty, grand chief, former MLA for Monfwi. And also to my friend Lousia Mackenzie and her family up there, welcome. And I too would also like to say thank you to you, Mr. Speaker, and all the wonderful staff here as well as the translators and everyone here, and I hope everybody has a good summer. Look forward to seeing everybody in the fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Hay River North.

Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to join the chorus of MLAs thanking all of our staff here in the Assembly, thanking the interpreters, the clerks, and all the staff supporting us for the long hours that they put in over the past number of weeks. It's definitely been a lot of work, and we really appreciate your contributions. And I wanted to just acknowledge one of our many unsung heros behind the scenes in the ledge, Mr. John Gon, who operates our microphones and is a constituent of mine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to recognize the grand chief of the Tlicho region, Mr. Jackson Lafferty. Mahsi for being here. I also want to recognize Louise Mackenzie and June Mackenzie as well. Mahsi for being here.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

If we've missed anybody, we would like to thank you for much for being here and thank you very much for allowing us to be your representative in your House. Thank you very much for everybody being here.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased today to acknowledge the incredible career and upcoming retirement of Theresa Bonnetrouge. After an incredible 42-year career as an educator in Fort Providence, I thank her for her dedication and impact on the community. Theresa Bonnetrouge is a remarkable educator who has taught at Deh Gah Elementary and Secondary School for 41 years,11 months and 19 days. She has had an impact on education in our community, and I'd like to honour her dedication and effort to support our youth. Theresa has been instrumental in teaching Dene Zhatie to our students. Her tireless efforts have contributed to language revitalization, ensuring that the rich cultural heritage of the Dene people is passed down to the next generation. I thank Theresa for her years of hard work and dedication to education in our community, to preserving and promoting our language, and to educating generations of our students. I wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement. Talk.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Acknowledgements. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this time to congratulate all of the students who are graduating from kindergarten to grade 12 in the Tlicho region. Graduation is a milestone achievement and a stepping-stone to new opportunities. I am proud of all the students for staying in school and putting in the hard work. Thank you to all the parents for supporting their children through school. And thank you to all the teachers and educators for their guidance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the challenges the tourism industry is facing in the Northwest Territories. How is the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment going to partner with tourism operators who are struggling to provide access to remote lodges and campsites that are only accessible by boat or float plane now that water levels are historically low and rendering docks and piers useless? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of ITI.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by thanking the Member for raising this. We have a very beautiful tourism industry to match our very beautiful landscape here in the Northwest Territories. We're certainly very aware of the challenges that the low water levels pose on our remote lodges across the territory, and ITI continues to work closely with NWT Chamber of Commerce and NWT Tourism as well to make sure that we're understanding the specific needs of lodges and who is in that situation, and until we know more information about what that looks like for everybody independently, we won't really be able to identify kind of what is needed. But I'm certainly committed to finding creative ways to address this with businesses and seeing how we can support one another. But at this time, I don't have a concrete solution or response for the Member until we know more. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister missed a chance to say Spectacular Northwest Territories, so I will do it for her. We have a spectacular industry, a spectacular, pristine environment, but climate change is definitely impacting it. So what are we doing to ensure that the industry is part of the conversation when it comes to wildfires and making sure that tourists are well-informed of the dangers wildfires present and that operators aren't liable for issues that happen due to evacuations and things like that? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the North is definitely spectacular, so thank you to the Member for that.

Ensuring the safety of tourists and residents during forest fire emergencies is certainly a top priority for the Government of the Northwest Territories. It's important, though, for tourism operators to have robust business continuity plans and also appropriate insurance coverage in place to manage such situations. As far as communication, we do have our public safety page on the GNWT website, we have things like Cabin Radio who has always been very active in making sure they're informing residents. And so it's bit of a partnership that needs to happen there, Mr. Speaker, where we do what we can to get the message out, and we also rely on people to know where to go as well. And so I can definitely loop back in with NWT Tourism to see if we are communicating this information to our tourism operators as well so that they can pass the message on to their guests too. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. Will the Minister -- another issue is hotel capacity. We're often over -- sorry, often overcapacity -- we're nearly always overcapacity with our hotel command, and it's increasing year after year. So what is the Minister doing working with her Cabinet colleagues to ensure there are incentives for hospitality -- for the hospitality industry to grow? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from within the ITI umbrella, we do have a support for product development enhancement through the well established tourism product diversification and marketing program. This is specifically funding to reinvent, improve, and expand tourism products across the Northwest Territories. And we also have funding for business planning for product packages for marketing efforts. Within ECE, we have wage subsidies. And then if you head over to some of our other departments, there are opportunities to build business in the Northwest Territories for sure. I can say as far as the Member's question in regards specifically to tourism offerings, I've recently met with a number of our Indigenous development corporations in the territory here and had the opportunity to also speak about tourism with each of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.