Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm the daughter of a journeyman electrician, so I know that existing multi-dwelling housing stock in the territory is not always up to snuff or code and can require major upgrades or overhauls. So can the Premier tell me whether in conversations with -- led by EIA with those partners that he just spoke of around existing housing stock, are renovations proving to be cost prohibitive to proceed with more renovation-based housing projects like Aspen Apartment or Nordic Arms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so it sounds like the Member's aware that once you start renovating something, once you open those walls, you never know what you're going to find, and there could be extraordinary costs that you don't expect. That being said, if there are units that lend themselves to potential renovations, we can have a look at those and do our best to figure out whether or not we might run into some of those issues, and then they go from there. So we don't want to write anything off without even looking into it.

When it comes to the transitional housing piece -- I don't want to speak to social housing, but when it comes to transitional housing, there could be some more requirements for the builds if there needs to be wraparound spaces, if there are supports, or other types of supports that could lead to some increased costs as well. So that's all very specific about what units we might be looking at if it's something we're looking to renovate and what is the -- how do we want to use those units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Premier's staff have let me know in writing that the regional partnership will be the means used to implement the NWT homelessness strategy here in Yellowknife. So many former members of that -- of an ad hoc working group on the encampment last summer are part of that table. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if the options that are identified by these partners are also being considered in the near to mid term for transitional and supportive stock? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and it's actually the regional partnership that really put the focus on Yellowknife. And so, you know, we're already working with them, taking their advice and insight. Of course, when you work at an NGO and you are doing this work on a daily basis day in and day out you have a lot of expertise and insight and, of course, we want to leverage that and work with these organizations. So not every organization's priorities will align with each other's, and so going forward there will be some -- you know, partners who are probably happier with what we are doing and some partners who might not be as happy with what we're doing, but regardless we'll continue to do that work. There will be a meeting in early March of the regional partnership and again in early April, and that will include NGOs, the city of Yellowknife, and we'll be using those opportunities to build on the work that's already started and discuss the studies that have been undertaken and any plans that might be underway to see how we can better work together and improve any projects that any of us collectively are working on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake. Got the lake right this time.

It's the best one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about ground search and rescue in the Northwest Territories. Can the Department of Justice indicate when they're going to provide an action plan to start implementing the recommendations provided in the review of ground search and rescue services that they commissioned themselves? Can we get a timeline and a costing -- a cost of plan so we could get these recommendations in place and improve ground search and rescue in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple years ago, a few years ago, the federal government offered us some money to undertake a review of search and rescue in the Northwest Territories, and so we did that, and the report came back with a number of recommendations. The responses -- the government's responses to those recommendations have been tabled in this House as part of a response to a written question that the Member made. And so what that written response says is that the government is not adopting those recommendations, so there will be no action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, that's concerning, and it's concerning to volunteers who are working in ground search and rescue, and it's more concerning to people who might get lost and need ground search and rescue.

Mr. Speaker, at the very least, can we improve -- can we ensure there's consistent recording of data? Because there's not. This data's lost year on year. We don't have a central repository. Can we at least start to implement some of these things that are low cost options like a central repository for search and rescue data. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I believe that would be sort of a difficult task. The RCMP records some statistics about search and rescue. They provide incident command services during search and rescues, but there is no central body beyond that that records this data. So the cost that a community or individuals might spend on a search and rescue, that's not covered. You know, there might be individuals out there supporting efforts that don't let anyone know that they're supporting efforts, and so we can't necessarily record that information either. So because this involves so many different groups and we don't have a coordinated system, I can't make that commitment, but I'm happy to look further into it. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Premier does because this is life and death stuff, Mr. Speaker. Can we -- can the Minister -- the Premier establish regions at least to organize ground search and rescue efforts with part-time staff responsible for their administration? These meetings could be done via Zoom. They don't have to be expensive things where we fly everyone in, but can we start to see some of those changes where we could get administrative regions in place so we can ensure there's more than just one team in Yellowknife doing work and we have teams in every region of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there is more than just one team doing work in the Northwest Territories. Throughout the Northwest Territories, there's dedicated groups of volunteer who might not be part of a structured incorporated group that go out and do this work on a quite regular basis, depending on the circumstances. But that group is -- you know, we don't have a coordinating body, as I said and right now the report itself suggested that the EMO, the emergency management organization, take over these functions. The EMO does not have that capacity at this time. And we'll be responding to recommendations from the afteraction review when it comes to how to organize themselves and what they need to focus on. And so at this time, I can't commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in my Member's statement, I talked about the issues in my community of the drug issues. I just wanted to ask the Premier, or the Minister of Justice, during my Member's statement I talked about a new drug strategy, a dedicated RCMP crime reduction unit, and SCAN legislation. Mr. Speaker, when can we expect that SCAN legislation to be brought before the Legislative Assembly to give the RCMP more tools needed to keep our community safe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member's comments. I speak about this topic quite often, but it's good to get the information out there. Because there is a lot going on. I want residents to be aware that we are doing what we can to deal with these issues.

So the SCAN legislation, which is a legislation that would make it easier to close or shut down buildings that are causing public harm, like a drug house, is going to go out for public consultation this spring. We hope to have a legislative proposal drafted by the summer. That would then go through the normal process where it is sent to Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for their comments. It would then go to Cabinet, and then a bill would be drafted. So hopefully at the February sitting next year we'll be able to introduce legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how is the territorial government working closely with the Indigenous governments, the federal government, to provide feedback on the RCMP new drug crime strategy and the crime reduction unit given these initiatives are just beginning to roll out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, as a Cabinet, as Ministers, we engage with Indigenous governments quite often, whether it's a one-on-one discussion, whether I just get a text or an email or a phone call from an Indigenous leader, or it's through a more formal process like the Council of Leaders or the bilateral meetings that we as Cabinet have with Indigenous governments, and this is often a topic of discussion in those different forums. And so that's how, you know, we get a lot of our feedback.

I'll let the Member know that just the other day I was on a call with the federal Minister of Public Safety, so the Minister who oversees the RCMP, and I talked about Fort Resolution. I talked about the Member's community and the impact that drug and crime are having in that particular community because it is -- I recognize the severity of it.

The staff from the Department of Justice and Public Safety Canada met with representatives from Fort Resolution in December, with the community justice committee, and we've also offered to go into the community to provide presentations on drugs and the impact of drugs and share information on a workshop that is currently under development that speaks to these issues and brings lived experiences of Northerners, you know, to the communities so people can actually see what the impacts are and hopefully prevent some of the folks from getting into that lifestyle. So I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. My third question would be how is the GNWT working to bring the input of Indigenous governments to the table when discussing public safety and crime reduction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one of the things that I do as Minister of Justice is I set policing priorities for the RCMP G-division, and one of those four priorities is to build and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities to understand and establish community-driven policing priorities and services. So the RCMP themselves in the communities are, on at least a month basis, supposed to be meeting with leadership, is my understanding, and they share information, they hear back from leadership, and they develop their own community policing plans using that information. So there's opportunities at that level. And as well, I mentioned a number of other forums where we work with Indigenous governments, and drugs and crime are quite often topics of those discussions, and I always take that into consideration as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.