Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so some of this has to do with the change that's recently occurred within Aurora College where students would be able to be supported to take learning in a digitally and online environment but supported with wraparound services through Aurora College.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, later on this week, I have the honour of having conversations with my colleagues on the other side of the House in regards to some upcoming suggested approaches to adult learning and basic education for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all of our schools' water systems were tested, and two of the schools came back as needing confirmation testing and so, proactively, the departments of education, health and social services, and the school board, worked together to make sure that that water is not used right now for drinking or for cooking purposes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, so that's good to know that the only two schools with problems are Willy Mac and Range Lake North. However, I'm wondering has the drinking water at Ecole William McDonald School and Range Lake North School been tested on a regular basis and determined to be safe up until now, or is this the first time that the drinking water at those schools has been tested? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, drinking water is routinely tested in communities throughout the territory. This project was done as a pilot to test drinking water from the school sources, and so this is the first time this work has been done.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So it sounds like we don't know for how long the concern has been there.

The final question is if the plumbing and distribution systems in these two schools are the source of these high lead levels, does the Minister know how quickly they can be fixed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the course of the next week, confirmation testing will be done in both of the schools and until we determine what those results are and then also from there do some exploration as to what the source of the issue is, I would have -- it would be impossible for me to say kind of what the next steps are for remediating that and fixing that until I know what the issue is and if there is, in fact, a longstanding challenge there that needs to be fixed. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my questions are also for the Minister of ECE. I don't want to preclude conversations she will have in Ottawa, but when can constituents expect more information of a redesigned -- equitably designed NTNP program intake for 2026 applications? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment will be working with all stakeholders, redesigning that program over the summer and the fall of this year, and working with businesses, working with advocates, working with Canadian newcomers who want to be part of the program and are part of the program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will this program, as it's being redesigned, make reasonable allowances so as not to create an extension gap where people are put in limbo needing to extend their work permit and not be able to seek their PR? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In the re-release of the program this year, one thing that quickly became apparent was that there was concern over people whose work permits would be expiring in January and February of 2026. That quickly became apparent. And so while there is never an intention to design a program that has a gap, certainly I do know that going into next year that we have more people interested in the program than we currently have spaces for. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if I heard an answer there so I'll put it in a different way. Is there contemplation in the redesign that will give affordances to the fact that your application, if you do not -- if you're not successful on the NTNP application, you have to then extend your work permit. This is creating a cycle of gap and anxiety for people. Will that begin to become addressed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this certainly is part of what I'm travelling to Ottawa to advocate for but while the Government of Canada holds exclusive responsibility for things like work permits, I would not be able to guarantee that without an agreement with the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a big part of our health and social services has been falling short with Indigenous governments and in our small communities because Indigenous governments are not closely involved with healthcare administration. The leaders from my communities are calling for a creation of intergovernmental working group to ensure Indigenous governments have a seat at the table. Would the Minister agree to a proposal like this in her deliberation? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. We do involve Indigenous representatives throughout different parts of our health system to guide us in the work that we do. As I mentioned in my statement, under the cultural safety and awareness anti-racism unit, the work that they're doing is guided by representatives from all Indigenous governments that are pointed to the Indigenous advisory body where they meet and they go over policy and get their feedback to ensure that these policies and things are reviewed under a cultural safety lens, anti-racism lens, for Indigenous people.

We also have the regional wellness councils. In the last round of appointments, I made sure as the Minister who picks the appointments, that I reached out to -- even into MLAs and Indigenous governments if they did not have a representative on those boards to say -- put names forward because I wanted those boards to be representative in all of the regions to be representative of the differences in their communities, so ensuring that there was different people from the communities. So -- yeah, and for the Member's riding, I know we have two seats in the Yellowknife region riding that come from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. But I encourage more people to put their name forward for those. Those are the ones that -- they work directly with the chairs and the chairs work directly with -- like, with myself and the PA. We recently created a chair Minister meeting that will be having the first one with the regional wellness council chairs, myself, PA, and the CEO, on June 12th. That will bring forward the regions' issues to a table where we can have those conversations. And there is one more that we recently did at the Council of Leaders. So all Indigenous governments and then government, we sit at the Council of Leaders as equals.

Health issues continue to come up. We need to find ways to resolve these issues. So everybody around the table has appointed executive members to sit at that table to take direction from each of their group, to speak on behalf of the issues in their community. I can -- you know, and I can share this information with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in British Columbia, there's an agreement with the provincial government to establish a First Nations health authority. At the same time, some First Nations operates their own private health centres there as well. Can the Minister indicate if any -- sorry, indicate if health and social services were to consider the creation of First Nation health authorities here in the NWT while allowing community-based initiatives to be jump started to fill in the gap in the meantime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.