Thank you, Minister of Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Final supplementary. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. She probably answered a little bit of this, but I need it to be on the -- say it again. Can the Minister say whether this work is dependent on applications for federal funding or more part of our government's budget initiatives? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are waiting to hear back from the federal government. We do have an application in for the whole funding. The importance of having 100 percent public dollars on this is that it means that it doesn't go on the ratepayers. It doesn't add to people's costs of power which, of course, are as I said earlier today, the highest in Canada. So it's very important, as the Minister responsible, that we are not putting this on the backs of ratepayers. Even though we want to ensure they have sustainable and reliable energy, we don't want people to be paying for costs they just can't -- they just can't be paying these extra costs, even in the face of needing the infrastructure. So it is very important that we get 100 percent dollars. And that application, as I said, is in.

The other issue, again, is that we find a path forward with our friends at Naka so that we are working together with them and ensuring a collaborative path forward for an asset, again, that is their distribution franchise but our transmission opportunity or our generation asset, and I'm confident we will find that path forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Member from Sahtu. Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. We got to come up with a shorter acronym. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had to practice it several times, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. There's a lot of work that is happening. We are still, of course, actively involved with our MOU partners and, together with them, are reviewing an update to the business plan, to a final business plan, so we can have that ready to go with -- obviously the business plan is an advocacy document, but it also updates the final costing. We are working through the final remaining information requests that I -- I believe at last count we were well over 400, and we are down to the last few. We are -- we did ask for a short extension on a few of them so that we could work with the community of Wrigley and the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation on some of the information they have provided. I had the opportunity to travel there just earlier this month and had very positive engagement with the community to ensure that they are properly being reflected in the proposed project.

And with those two things in hand, Mr. Speaker, that will would allow -- or with the business case, and then with the project proceeding to through the board and through the board process, my understanding is that we are still on track for the work plan to have an EA done this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that information update. I can see our -- my constituents are getting very happy. I see the smiles.

My next question is will the GNWT work with the communities of the Sahtu so that they are ready for this project? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and I will say one important thing that's come on this project is that very typically departments do community readiness working plans on large scale infrastructure projects and would typically do them a year or so out from construction.

Mr. Speaker, the communities in the Sahtu have been are very clear. They want that work starting now, and so I can say we have put an application in to the federal government to realign some of the ICIP money that is supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway so that we can get the working groups for these readiness working groups up and running immediately and not wait until we're just at the construction stage. We want to get that work started now, and my hope is we'll hear back -- now that there's a government, my hope is we'll hear back and that we can get that work going so that the communities are ready well in advance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Final supplementary. Member from Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm very glad for the continuous good news here. It's going to be an enjoyable weekend.

Will the Minister show Ottawa how critical this road is to connect the people of the Sahtu to the rest of Canada? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, yes. Mr. Speaker, I've already had at least some introductory calls with counterparts in Ottawa, and I can say -- I'm happy to say that I already raised the Mackenzie Valley Highway as being a nation building project, correcting a critical part of Canada that is right now unconnected from the rest of Canada, multiple communities, an entire segment of this country has no connections on roads, and if we can't get barges in because of climate change, no connections really whatsoever other than by air, we can't have that. That's not the Canada of the future. It's not the building Canada that we are hearing the federal government talking about. So, yes, we will be in Ottawa, in fact, the Member might have a nice weekend. I'm flying this weekend, and I'm flying to Ottawa, and I will take this message with me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

So following challenges around the encampment last summer in the middle of the city of Yellowknife, I know that the GNWT has been working hard throughout the winter to establish better relationships with shelter providers to get to know members of the unhoused population and their specific needs and to get new transitional housing initiatives off the ground. However, it's unclear whether there was any specific planning around what to do about any future encampments, and now we have new encampments at locations popping up within the city of Yellowknife.

And so I understand that the average occupancy rate at Yellowknife shelters has been only 87 percent since last October, but was the GNWT operating on the assumption that given adequate shelter space, there would be no encampments to deal with in the city this summer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Member's correct, we did take a number of steps to ensure there were enough shelter beds, and so that was funding NGOs to increase the number of shelter beds. We had the on the land transitional housing program running for a couple months in the winter. We hoped to already have a transitional housing setup for this summer but it's been delayed a little bit. So between the shelter space increase and the transitional housing increase, we were hoping to be able to address any shortfall that we have in spaces, beds. That being said, people are going to do what they're going to do, and some people would rather stay in a tent and they are going to set up that tent and stay in there even if there are beds available. So I was never under the impression that we would have no encampments ever again in the territory even if we had all of the adequate space that we needed. So I would say the assumption was not that there would be no encampments. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that answer. So now that we have better awareness that encampments are not necessarily related to a shortage of shelter space per se, but perhaps shortages in the broader housing continuum or people's preference for how they want to live, is the GNWT preparing to do some longer term planning around identifying some specific suitable space for an encampment in consultation with neighbours? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, as I mentioned yesterday, understanding that even with adequate space there will be encampments, we want to ensure that where those encampments might set up are places that are not disruptive to neighbourhoods, and so we are looking at different locations around the city trying to figure out where might be an appropriate location, then the plan is to try and work with those at the encampments and their legal representatives to try and relocate them to a more suitable location. Thank you.

Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have heard from the lawyer spokesperson for the encampment residents that they've been looking for advice or direction from the GNWT as to which lots or specific areas might be suitable. So has the GNWT already given such advice as to what specific areas might be off limits or what specific lots might be preferable to the current encampment residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been discussions. I'm not -- I'd have to get back to the Member to find out if, you know, a specific address was provided. But those conversations have begun. Thank you.

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On a similar topic or same topic as the previous Speaker, I don't share her points of view very closely although I do share the humanity of the issue. I want to say that undoubtedly. Mr. Speaker, I feel that what's important to stress before I get to my question is I may be critical of this government but at times, defined as spicy, but I feel something's being missed in this articulation.

To imply that there isn't shelter options or shelter -- the shelters are full, there isn't to imply there's treatment or counselling supports aren't available, there's food available, for the record, there's beds available -- certainly, Mr. Speaker, and there's facilities.

Mr. Speaker, what is the major holdup of identifying spaces for these folks to move to so the residents are no longer in a situation that they feel unsafe? So what's the delay in identifying these safe spaces that these people can be parked into. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.