Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Excellent, that's great news, great to hear. Can the Minister kind of put some timelines around when she anticipates the president and the owners of the building will be meeting to kind of start putting that plan in place and then follow up obviously with what comes from that plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the urgency of this concern and considering the activities within the housing -- or the building itself, I've asked the president of Housing NWT to have a discussion over the next month. So hopefully we'll hear something within the next few weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance. Is the Minister familiar with how many insurance companies that provide coverage in the NWT are increasing their property insurance rates beyond regular average increases prior to the 2023 wildfire season? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say that to my information there's 150 individual insurers that are licensed under the Insurance Act. As for what each or every one of them may or may not be doing with increasing rates, I don't have that information. The Insurance Act gives me the ability -- or gives the department the ability to regulate but not necessarily to control the commercial side of what these organizations do. That said, Mr. Speaker, we are, as a government, a member of a number of different groups across Canada, and rates are rising across the country so can certainly say that that does appear to accord with what we are hearing as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the Minister has kind of predicted what I want to ask next. But are there any policy or legislative labours at our disposal to lessen increases whatsoever across the board in the GNWT, not just in her purview? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And no, unfortunately, there's not. Again, we are the regulating body that ensures about the provision of insurance and how -- you know, how the behaviour of the insurance companies or the brokers might be but not a control over their commercial market and what the commercial market might be doing to prices. That said, Mr. Speaker, we do set the rate for the cost of having your insurance. I mean, there's a tax that's levied on insurance companies. We have kept that rate low. We have a 1 percent only for fire insurance, and we've kept ours at 3 percent on the main premium which is lower than Yukon or Alberta. So doing -- that's a small drop in the bucket, though, to be honest, Mr. Speaker. We have also, in the last couple of years, looked at taking on some of the schools into the GNWT's package which helps them manage their insurance rates. But in terms of residential insurance or small businesses, there's not levers in our hands. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister for Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, good news, the Standing Committee on Government Operations is scheduled to review amendments to this Act in the life of this Assembly. Is the Minister willing to review if there could be amendments to this Act or speak with her colleague at MACA to consider consumer protections going forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's early days to know what may or may not be in the review of a piece of legislation and, of course, always happy to consider amendments. I can say that we are members of the Canadian insurance services regulatory organization, meaning the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators and the General Insurance Statistical Agency. I mention all of those because as this process moves forward, I'll certainly look for the opportunity to see if there's any best practices happening. Again, cost increases are happening everywhere, and it's an issue that's coming up, so if there's opportunity to learn from others or to utilize other practices, I'd be happy to share that information and to put it forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I noted earlier today, I'm concerned about the continued misalignment between the Minister and the Aurora College board. Mr. Speaker, why aren't the department and the board coordinating and planning something like the CLC closures, polytechnic transition. How does the Minister plan to address this issue of misalignment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I absolutely hear the Member, and I agree that the goal is to have a strategic plan go out where, you know, we're answering all of the questions that we know that residents are going to have about the forward looking of a program and what the future holds. Ultimately, ECE will remain responsible at the end of the day for ensuring that residents have access to quality programs that support education and employment, and so right now, the work that ECE is doing is gaining clarity on, you know, what parts of adult learning and basic education Aurora College will continue to fill so that we can plan from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, just on the review of the CLCs themselves, I understand that when the facility's master plan was being put together, there was actually quite a bit of a review of the CLCs specifically and that a report was produced talking about everything that was heard during the review of the CLCs. Will the Minister commit to release that report so the public can better understand what's going on, better understand what's behind the decisions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my goal is to always say yes, especially when it comes to transparency. I will note that this report was commissioned by the Department of Infrastructure so I will say yes with a caveat of being able to make sure that there isn't any privacy concerns from the Department of Infrastructure or concerns about any commercial information given that they are the owners of the report. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I think that's going to be helpful information for the public to have.

So just on the issue of misalignment, I mean, is the Minister working with the board, working with the college president to improve the relationship to ensure that we have alignment going forward? I understand the Minister may be releasing a mandate for the college soon, or certainly should be. What are we doing to improve this relationship, to ensure that we have alignment on the goals that we're trying to achieve and everybody's pulling in the same direction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am one who is eager to share my -- even my personal cell phone number with the people that I want to be working closely with. That is something that the chairperson certainly has. We also have a joint mandate agreement and the ability to get together on a regular basis and definitely try to get together on a regular basis or as much as possible.

In regards to the Member's comment about a mandate agreement, that is something that will be released within the coming week, and Members do have an embargoed copy within their inbox today.

And then in addition to the question around, you know, going forward what will happen, there is a draft communication protocol document between myself and the chairperson of Aurora College that I will continue to pursue to get signed by both parties. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the ECE minister. Were residents in small communities consulted about the closure of the Aurora College's community learning centres? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Deh Cho. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.