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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance knows that I love data. So can the Minister tell us when an annual report for 2024, which is required by the Insurance Act, will be made public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The insurance license year ends June 30th, so the June 30th, 2024, would be the end of that year. The annual report is then prepared thereafter. We could expect the 2024 Annual Report that gets prepared through the year will then be released in October, so the fall of this year. So roughly fall 2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. Can the Minister say whether the 2023 Annual Report, which is already out, takes increases resulting from claims made during the 2023 wildfires and evacuations into its calculations for gross receivable insurance premiums? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is correct, it does. The insurance premium tax that gets paid to the GNWT does take into account any increases in total gross premiums for the calendar year. So the premium tax is 3 percent on general insurance, 1 percent on fire insurance, and that is, indeed, based on the previous calendar years' insurance premiums. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The superintendent reports on four previous years in each annual report. Can the Minister speak to what percentage increases to insurance premiums that the superintendent is tracking for 2024 or for even into 2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, the March 2023 -- or March 2025 year has not yet been completed, Mr. Speaker, but the 2024 amounts are still being finalized, and I can give you an estimate that we're sitting around $6.9 million. That would be 3.6 percent decrease from the 2023 reported premium tax. As I'd said earlier, we are now tabulating 2024. 2025 will be reported in a year -- just over -- just under a year from now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Continuing on the insurance theme. Can the Minister tell us if the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance have received complaints from homeowners and/or businesses that they are essentially unable to access affordable insurance? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current superintendent of insurance has been in the role since December of 2022, and I am able to say that they have not -- they have informed me that they have not received any complaints from homeowners or businesses about being unable to access insurance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of me wonders if that's -- whether they are even aware of the office.

Mr. Speaker, since 2021, what specifically has the Department of Finance done to investigate having a Crown corporation like SGI Canada provide affordable home and fire insurance in the NWT, and how would this be regulated? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This was a question that came up, I believe, in the last Assembly, if not earlier as well, and I can say that the Department of Finance was asked and did reach out to counterparts in Saskatchewan to better understand the SGI model, to learn whether or not it could be applicable here or brought about to the Northwest Territories. Obviously, as a fairly small jurisdiction, very small population and very small revenue base, creating a program of insurance would be next to impossible as it would not give a sufficient base of paying in in order to be able to pay out. And so in that sense, having our own Crown corporation is not financially feasible and that -- yeah, so as far as being regulated, I mean, certainly the insurance industry continues to be regulated here, Mr. Speaker. As far as the private market, certainly, again, the private market can choose whether or not to come into the jurisdiction, and that is not something that we can sort of force or require any particular private actor to come in or not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I mean, I wasn't personally privy to the conversations with SGI but did follow up to get some information as to what became of those conversations. It was a couple of years ago now. But I can say at the time that their indication is that they don't have any interest right now in coming into the Northwest Territories market, nor do any of their brokers have any interest at this point, from what they're informed of, to coming into the Northwest Territories market.

Mr. Speaker, although, you know, again, I -- I can't really speak for an entity from another jurisdiction, the scent of our -- from the Department of Finance is that, again, the population here is quite small so that makes the market very small. The -- there's going to be very little economies of scale, very little returns, very little incentive to bring this entity here. Moreover the payouts -- because we are often in isolated communities, payouts can often be a lot higher, and so all of which leads both SGI as the parent and as well as the broker, and perhaps also others, to not have any incentive to come into this market. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister for NTPC.

Can the Minister explain whether there's currently a plan in place to supply power to Fort Providence and Kakisa from the Taltson Hydro Project. Thank you?

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister responsible for NTPC.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is actually a GNWT project, and so in that sense there is a plan. There certainly is a strong desire to see an opportunity to run a transmission line from just outside of Hay River through -- past Kakisa and up into Fort Providence that would -- that represents -- that extra bit would represent about 15 percent of our total emissions and obviously a significant reduction on reliance of diesel which is very volatile prices to the residents in those regions. So there is this plan in the way. It already has regulatory approval to get to constructions. We have an application in with the federal government for funding.

Mr. Speaker, one thing is we are still having some positive conversations with our friends at Naka Power. They are the distributing agent in Fort Providence and also in Kakisa, and so it's important that we discuss with them how we are going to find a way to put all this together knowing that we don't, as GNWT or NTPC, own all of that infrastructure. So that is a conversation we've had not too long ago, and I will be following up with them so we can move the project along. Thank you.

I think now you're saying you're the Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. So Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Will any of the work for projects in the region lead to the creation of new jobs within NTPC? Thank you.