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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our staff from environment and climate change and the lands division have been visiting sites throughout the city over the last number of months, and also have responded to some requests from citizens and some of those that came through other Members of this House, you know, on garbage and different things like that that have been out and around the city and some of these areas and have engaged with local NGOs to do some work in cleaning different areas as well as our staff have also gone out and participated in some of that activity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If someone went out on the Ingraham Trail and built a permanent structure, and one example I'll give is the tree house tower of some sort, out of building material and other types of things -- who knows what it's made out of; it doesn't look safe -- the Department of ECC would be instructing that that had to be cleaned up, torn down, etcetera. So why are these structures being allowed on Commissioner's land because they're downtown Yellowknife but if it was on the Ingraham Trail, they'd be posting an order to clean up? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unauthorized occupancy is certainly an area of concern. Within the Commissioner's land and public land, the ability for any resident of the Northwest Territories to occupy that land in a tent, you know, for in a camping situation, is within the allowable activities. Of course, they are responsible for following all of the associated rules and things that apply to that.

As far as the unauthorized structures, that is not allowed obviously. And as our officers go around and we attempt to engage with the individuals that we may or may not know who's created that structure and have that conversation to try and resolve that situation. And then there's a step process that would escalate it up to the posting and often to the court system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, I raise it again because it's so important. If there are propane tanks there, open fires, jerry cans, all within reach, Mr. Speaker, and garbage spewing everywhere and, in my opinion, some difficult living conditions, can the Minister provide this House, if not verbally today, some statistics and data on how often these sites are all individually inspected and what have been the results from each individual inspection with some dates? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, obviously, that is not information that I would have with me here today but I'm certainly willing to -- I will commit to go back to the department and see what we keep in statistics, in data, around those specific items that the Member has raised and be happy to get back to the Member with a response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we last sat, the drinking water situation at Yellowknife schools was just starting to break. The priority then was getting information out to the public about the safety of children and staff, and then we saw the entire situation play out over the summer.

Mr. Speaker, why did it take until August for drinking water measures to be taken at NJ McPherson when measures were taken at two other schools in May? And that's a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as we know, there was 42 out of 44 schools that were tested originally. The original test that came back for NJ McPherson school was right on the cusp, and so the GNWT retested that school and it was found to be significantly lower than required MAC level. And then out of an abundance of caution, following the testing protocol that was established, it was identified that the GNWT would retest NJ McPherson School based on the original test result that was received. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's a relief, then, that the new protocol does seem to be working, and it's being done properly. Are there any other schools that were initially tested that were -- now need to be retested based on the new protocol? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, from the original test numbers, it was isolated to those three schools that had the high numbers. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister commissioned independent study to look into why this happened. What actions has she directed the department to take to ensure there's accountability over decisions that are being made? We've had health protocols in place. We've been a -- this government's been through COVID. So are we going to ensure that the chief public health officer is consulted going forward any time there's a situation like this again so we can ensure the safety of our kids? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member as well as the public that I take this very seriously. As a government and as a Cabinet, there's been changes that have been made government wide from this lessons learned but also specifically for water testing of our schools.

Specific for water testing of our schools, we worked with the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer to establish a testing protocol territory wide for all schools in the Northwest Territories.

In addition to how we move forward as a government, we have also implemented project charters so that we understand as a government how projects are going to unfold and how we're going to work together as we do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my statement to the -- my questions are directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thinking and looking outside the box there, my first question to the Minister would be is the Minister willing to support and have discussions on forming a delegation to have a strategy session in Norman Wells? She may have ideas. We may even have ideas on the list of delegation. Would the Minister support that delegation selection?

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make an assumption that we're talking about NORTRAN based on the Member's Member's statement for today. I'm certainly very happy to sit down with the Member and discuss NORTRAN specifically, for sure. Education, culture and employment definitely has a different workforce development programs and labour market programs that individuals, employers, and organizations and communities can apply for and would also be happy to specifically also work with education, culture and employment along with the Member to be able to have a conversation about what NORTRAN ultimately is, what programs could be applied for in order to fund parts of it, and go from there. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply. Yes, my questions are a follow-up to NORTRAN. I see a lot of value in divesting into NORTRAN.

Would the Minister look at funding commitments to offset the travel costs of this delegation that could be minimized by utilizing the winter road season. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to sit down with the Member. I'm very happy to meet over Teams, but travelling with a large contingency of people is not something that education, culture and employment has funds for. We try to do as much as we can virtually so that we can ensure that funding for programs go into communities, go into schools, and go to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister here. My last question is ultimately our goal is to seek O and M support, NORTRAN. Would the Minister assist in coordinating the developments of this action plan to seek federal engagements for redirecting some of the royalties back into the O and M of NORTRAN. Thank you.