Mr. Speaker, the deadline for these kids to get on the bus is 3 p.m. today. Will the Minister have a resolution before that deadline? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm currently working on this with the department. I also have slightly different information than what the Member is referring to on the floor of this House, but I can assure the Member that I am following up. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the information comes to me from the parents, so can the Minister explain what counter information she received; what different evidence is before us? I just want to know. I think the parents want to know as well. This is very concerning for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the families want to be able to bring their own children to the track meet, not to get on the bus. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to my colleagues for dealing with my consistent leaky eyeballs.

Will the Premier acknowledge that the evacuation did not go right on many fronts as outlined in the after-action review and apologize to residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member spoke about the collective trauma that we all experienced. And I agree, that is something that as a territory we have to come to grips with. The other day I was thinking that, boy, this is the best time of year. It was, you know, early May, it was spring, and I just felt like a punch in the gut because the last few years, you know, they haven't been great. It's been a really tough time. And I acknowledge that. And, you know, to the Member's question about the evacuation, I want to note there was evacuations. There were 12 communities evacuated a total of 14 times. So this is not just a Yellowknife evacuation issue. This was an issue around the Northwest Territories. And obviously things did not go as -- there were many areas where things didn't go well. I've been saying that since I've stood up in this House and ran for Premier. That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into this House and into this role is to address the deficiencies that I saw, that I experienced, during that evacuation. And so that is the work that began on day one when we formed government and with this after-action review, we are going to make sure that we are implementing the recommendations based on the review that we're doing of that report because we want to make sure that what we saw, the deficiencies that happened, don't happen again. And so, you know, this is something that happened in the past years ago, and I'm sorry to those residents who had, you know, terrible experiences. Many of us had bad experiences, Mr. Speaker. We're all coming to terms with it. You know, I was an evacuee. My colleague from Hay River was a first responder. And so, you know, we had completely different experiences. And there's unique experiences across the territory. Some people, it was no big deal for them. Other people, it was devastating for them, and I feel for them, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Premier for that. And please let it be known that I never meant to minimize the fact that there were multiple evacuations. I use evacuation as a singular as to cover the entire year and -- yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, will the Premier make a point that in the GNWT's response to the after-action review to also address that healing needs to occur in the public service to demonstrate that leadership supports them in tangible ways. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I've gone over the recommendations in the review. In time, the GNWT will be putting forward a response. And I do recognize that healing needs to occur. There has been reach-out in the past from, you know, senior management to staff, but there needs to be ongoing support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yeah, I recognize that's a thorny issue. I'm just asking for some tangible ways that the Premier can address that and address specifically to the public service who feel kind of hollow with the responses thus far. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no easy fix to this situation. There's some people in the public service who are, you know, emotionally scarred from this. And I hear the stories from across the public service of the work that was done, you know, heroic efforts. You might not have been on the front lines; you might have been in an office; you might have been in a hotel room with three kids and two dogs. It doesn't mean your efforts weren't heroic. So I completely recognize that, and I appreciate the work done by the public service during an unprecedented time. It's clear that we were not prepared for a disaster on the scale of which we've never seen in the Northwest Territories. We don't have a standing army to respond to these things.

What we're doing now is we're taking steps to ensure that we don't put public servants in those positions again. We're making sure that people know what their roles are, that we can all work together in a coordinated fashion as government with community governments and with Indigenous governments to ensure that next time something like this happens, we will be better prepared and everyone will feel more supported. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, yeah, I guess the thing here is we're doing the integrated plan, system plan, to ensure that we have the right mixture of power to meet the demands of our system. The work has already been happening. It's already begun. So, you know, it's not a wait five years. You know, we're planning to have our goal of 2050. So, you know, we're already working on this system. It's not just starting right now. While the plan, the full plan, will take some time to complete, it's not a prerequisite for implementing the other policy directives. The plan will consider the impacts to those directives and support the long-term energy security, affordability, and sustainability of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as the Minister alluded, you know, work has already begun and, in fact, the GNWT's already commissioned four independent analyses and completed extensive research, so couldn't the Public Utilities Board simply use the existing research to speed up its policy development, or does the PUB have to start all over again with its own research; can the Minister clarify? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has commissioned several technical studies. The PUB has directed the use of existing studies also. We're not just putting them on the shelf. So we're using them. The PUB established its own process of implementing each directive. For example, while the GNWT has directed the PUB to establish an independent power producer policy, the exact design will be based on evidence and consultation through the PUB process. So the PUB can commission additional studies, if needed, but it's been using existing ones also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Public Utilities Board. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wonder if the Minister could provide us with a revised timeline that's sooner than within five years and perhaps even prioritize some of the directives to be completed sooner, especially the ones communities have been asking for, such as the policy on independent power producers or the overly restrictive cap on community generation of renewable energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the structure of our directives allow for the -- for a phrased or prioritized rollout. That said, it's up to the PUB to determine the process and timelines for the implementation. So we're recognizing the strong community interest of these changes, and the PUB is expected to consider that as it sets its priorities. The GNWT's role is to provide direction. The PUB is responsible for executing the way that is informed and align how our utilities operate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Public Utilities Board. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.