Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ms. Denise McKee, the executive director of the NWT Disability Council who is joining us here today in the gallery. As we begin National Accessibility Week today, I want to acknowledge and commend her leadership and the council's partnership with GNWT which continues to advance inclusion and support for people with disabilities across our territories. Welcome to the House, Ms. McKee. Thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also wish to recognize CEO of the NWT Disability Council, Ms. Denise McKee, who is my constituent. Thank you for being with us here today.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize Sheila Laity. She is a registered nurse and nurse practitioner, and resident of Yellowknife South, and also a long-term advocate for her profession. Thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife North.

It's always a surprise today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize, first, Andrew Gregory, who is the clinical coordinator at the emergency room and intensive care unit at Stanton Hospital, a Yellowknife North constituent. And also to recognize Sahkeb Sadecki, another registered nurse with Local 11 and the UNW. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. I have a couple.

One is Tegah Connelly from the Mackenzie Delta. Thank you very much for being here. As well, I was told if I did not do this I would get in trouble, so -- and this is from a former Member, Mr. Rocky Simpson -- he would like me to recognize Betty Simpson here, the Premier's mom, wanting to making sure he's doing a great job here today. So thank you very much for being here.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chamber. I hope you enjoy the proceeding. It's always nice to see people in the gallery, and we would like to thank you very much for allowing us to represent the people of the Northwest Territories for the 20th Assembly.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister from NTPC. Sorry, I had a note that I get sidetracked.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm always very happy to talk about the Taltson project that we have underway right now. This is a project that is a partnership amongst the GNWT as one member of the MOU, but our other members are the communities and nations that are around the watershed region, so Akaitcho First Nation, Salt River First Nation, and Northwest Territories Metis Nation. We sit regularly. We had a steering committee meeting just before session commenced, and it was an opportunity for us to reaffirm commitment to the project, met with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, in fact, at that time, and we had an opportunity to discuss the next step which would be actually creating sort of project company or a project co and to determine then what kind of financial arrangement we might be able to find ourselves in in order to take this on to its next steps.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know that there's been a public release of any preliminary budgetary information at this point. I'm not going to take that step here on the floor. Certainly would be happy to come back to committee and provide an in-camera briefing but also can certainly assure the House that we are working towards getting, as I said, a project company into its -- into existence, and that will be a major next step for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister able to provide any detail to the first question asked, which was can she provide some specifics around the costing and timing. And I'll be very clear, Mr. Speaker - referring to what is the anticipated project cost and when would we expect something to actually prove to fruition in the sense of come online. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in response to the first series of questions, this is not a project where there is, to my recollection, a firm budget that's been provided publicly, and this is not the place to be doing that. But, Mr. Speaker, with respect to timelines, the second question -- of the second question, Mr. Speaker, we are still working towards having the system online for 2033. Quite a lot of things do have to fall into place. First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, there are legacy issues surrounding the original Taltson Dam that date back to the 1960s and '70s, and that is a first priority for myself and for the other nation members of the MOU. But beyond that, the next step that we are in, Mr. Speaker, is to get this project in for an EA. We are hopeful to have that work done over this fall. Individual members of the MOU are each taking on parts. For example, YKDFN are looking at where the line might line here on the north side of the lake while the nations from the south side are looking at where it might begin. So that work is well underway, and we're looking forward to, with that, being able to go into an EA, again, as soon as possible so that we can move forward to regulatory proceedings thereafter. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister responsible for NWT Power Corp. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, it's difficult to sort of give a quantum as to what it's worth versus what it's timed versus how much Ottawa is giving. Like, we don't know, and that's kind of the question that's being asked. Because I don't even know if we should be pursuing the Taltson project given the fact that, remember, it doesn't go far back that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline dream died because it was studied to death and by the time -- so, Mr. Speaker, my question, really, is focused in on is this the right opportunity? Because I've heard the Taltson project when I came in the House in 2003.

So to shorten up to a sure question, Mr. Speaker, could the government consider, or has the government ever considered, maybe bringing north -- sorry, power north from Alberta because they have a much straight -- simpler and straightforward regulatory regime that's interested in being in business and getting things done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I would be very happy to appear in front of committee. In fact, perhaps a public briefing would be most appropriate to be able to give much more lengthy answers to all of these questions. This is an opportunity with this project to connect 70 percent of the population of the Northwest Territories to hydro. It's an opportunity to take advantage of energy that is spilling over at the current facility in Taltson Dam. It's an opportunity to link our grids, which are currently disconnected grids which is a huge problem for our energy costs and for sustainability and reliability of our system. And, Mr. Speaker, yes, we certainly have looked at running power lines south, both in towards Saskatchewan, down towards Alberta.

Transmission lines do not come cheap. There are several hundreds of thousands of dollars per kilometer. And so, Mr. Speaker, with that, this opportunity to advance the project with partners from this watershed and one that has a sustainable and reliable source of power, yes, Mr. Speaker, in my view it certainly is an important project. We're farther than we ever have been, and I think we're in a good place to move it forward and see some significant progress in the life of this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister responsible for NT Power Corp. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my statement today, my first question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is I'm glad to see the Minister's focused on improving care and services in in the small communities. Will she commit to creating and implementing clear service standards that make community members can expect as part of the work her department's doing. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within health and social services, there are core services -- standards do exist throughout the Northwest Territories but right now, what's happening is we are reviewing those and focusing on updating a lot of those core service standards to ensure better supports and guidance for health and social services authorities implementing these standards, and that's one of the things that we are focusing on. And hopefully that these recommendations from that review will help to move these next steps forward by this summer that we will have that finalized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that information and reply.

My next question to the Minister is the work plan developed with the public administrator promises improvements to the healthcare system within the year. What specific recruitment and retention targets, such as vacancy rate reductions, will the Minister use to measure success in small and remote communities and will she report those results publicly? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we will be publishing right shortly is the people strategy which goes into detail on our updated plan for recruitment and retention that's guided by feedback from staff and residents. I'm looking forward to being able to brief standing committee on that strategy. While the success of this strategy is -- will not be seen instantly, it aims for this as to be continuous improvement and feedback from the staff. So one of the things with part of the question is assessing the progress in small and remote communities, so one of the key areas that we are striving to document is these vacancy rates. So in these frontline positions, so how long it takes to fill these positions, as well as responses to exit surveys, when employees leave our system, and we can use this data quarter -- to compare quarter to quarter, year to year, and so that we can see whether things are improving with the people's strategy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that information.

My last question, in my statement I noticed that -- I noted that fully staffed small communities relieve pressure on regional centres, on the territorial hospital as well. How will the Minister's department track and report the system's wide impact? Mahsi.