Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if the Member will just give me one quick second, I would be delighted, and there's no such thing as a silly question.

So historically we have an under spend of fees and payments. These typically go to costs for fees, licensing permits, registrations for workshop, development and training within the department. So as I said, historically we had an under spend of fees and payments and so that's what -- that's the difference that we are largely seeing there. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, yeah, that was just sort of a general question throughout the department, so I appreciate that.

Going to the business plan, much like my colleague from Frame Lake, I have a sort of a wider picture question. I know the department is working to revitalize/amend the Education Act. I'm curious if the Minister can speak to what kind of process they are looking at to develop that legislation with Indigenous partners. Is it going to be through the process convention that is established for lands and resources legislation, or will it be a new process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, no, it won't be a mirror of that process, but it will be a collaborative process. We've already undergone the part of the process where we have approached Council of Leaders and Council of Leaders' participants, many of which have provided us with names of officials who will be part of a working group that will work collaboratively with the department on that. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And when might a draft outline of process conventions be available for a review by this House? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that's the first order of business, is deciding how we would like to work together and to give us an idea of kind of how that will look from start to finish, I'd like to be able to pass to the deputy minister.

Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is the Minister and Cabinet envisioning that this process will be perhaps, for lack of better term, a pilot project for legislation that deals with the social envelope, is it going to be more widely expansive, or is it only for the Education Act and you'll take lessons learned moving ahead? I mean, I realize this is all theoretical but I'm just curious from sort of like a 30,000-foot view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly this is the first piece of social legislation in the Northwest Territories that will be collaboratively drafted by -- or sorry, with Indigenous governments, and so this is -- it's certainly not lost on me that this is a great opportunity to show how we can work on such an important part -- important piece of legislation together.

I also think that in order to do this work justice, it has to be done collaboratively in the Northwest Territories, and so not only is this an opportunity but it's something that really is a requirement for us to be able to move forward in really the spirit and light of what we expect not only from ourselves in this room but also what residents expect of us.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Turning to a different part of your business plan, under housing, the priority of housing, ECE has noted that you will complete a review of ECE's lands, reserves, and surplus, and all surplus land will be identified by the end of March of 2026. Is there a reason for why it's taking that long? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, not only do we have to make sure that we go out and we itemize all those pieces, we also need to make sure that we're conferring with our body partners on this. But in the meantime, we have had successes recently as far as taking pieces of land that are earmarked as ECE pieces of land and repurposing them. A great example of that is the skills training centre within the community of Fort Good Hope is going on what was traditionally a piece of ECE land that we were able to work with the community on and is now being turned into a training centre. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So identifying surplus land, does that mean there's no inventory prior to this business plan commitment of surplus land of ECE? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there's certainly an inventory but as we know, there are different ideas or different dreams that we all have of how we'd like to see land in the territory used, and so ensuring that we're working collaboratively with our education body partners is paramount in this process. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.