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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We in the NWT have a tremendous amount of needs, as I heard from my colleague there, Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, highlight the benefits of from the Jordan's Principle program and possible jeopardy. My questions are for the Premier on advocation.

My first question is this question -- or could the Premier explain why the senior envoy to the Government of Canada role was created and what it is intended to achieve? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Sahtu. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I appreciate the Member's question.

So there's been a lot of focus on the North over the past year and a half, a focus like we've never seen before I would say. There's also a new government in Ottawa. And so there's momentum right now. There's attention on the North. There's a desire to make investments in Canada, build up the strength of Canada, and take advantage of our natural resources. So there's momentum, and we need to keep that momentum going. We need to capitalize on that momentum. We need to keep the NWT at the front of people's minds in Ottawa. I think about the Council of Leaders' trip that Cabinet took with Indigenous governments from across the territory. It was a great event. We went down there, and then we left. We made waves while we were there. Everyone knew we were coming. We had a number of Ministers show up. But then we left, and then we didn't have that constant presence. And, yes, we're up here, we're making phone calls, we're sending emails. But we need to take advantage of this moment and stay at the front of people's minds. Part of our job is educating Ottawa about the North. So having someone there who can actually, you know, speak to the different offices about what's going on in the North, keeping them up to date, and then sending back intel, that's going to be important. And so those are the -- that's the rationale behind this office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that that -- well, I know that that trip to Ottawa with the Council of Leaders really highlighted the importance of having Indigenous voices at the table in Ottawa. We're a small territory. Authorities are disbursed among a number of different bodies and governments and boards. And we're not going to advance unless we work together to advance, and so it is absolutely critical to have Indigenous governments support their advocacy efforts in Ottawa. We all sink or swim together. If an Indigenous government is able to go to Ottawa, get support for something, bring money into the territory, that's a benefit for the territory. And when we were down there with Council of Leaders, there were some Indigenous governments and we helped them set up meetings with federal officials, both elected and employees of the federal government, and have meetings. And in some instances, those chiefs had never had meetings with federal representatives before in Ottawa. They never -- maybe didn't know how to navigate the system, didn't have the contacts, for whatever reason, but we saw the value in that and we want to ensure that we continue to support those efforts.

So there's been a lot of positive feedback from Indigenous governments about the envoy position, and we received formal and informal requests for support in Ottawa. So I think that this is going to be good not just for the Government of the Northwest Territories but for Indigenous governments as well, and I look forward to working with them and supporting their efforts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Premier for that reply. Yes, I have talked to our Indigenous governments in my area. I appreciate that we are including Indigenous governments in this important work, Mr. Speaker. I know this envoy position is relatively new, but could the Premier advise the House of any results from this new position? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, the position is new, and we're in a transition period in Ottawa where we had a federal election, now we have a new government who are, you know, trying to find out where their offices are. And so right now, we are educating ourselves, strategizing, but, yes, there have been successes. So the Endacho Healing Society, which is led by Roy and Gina Erasmus -- you probably know them from the Dene Wellness Warriors -- they recently announced that they received $7 million from the Government of Canada, and my office was supporting them through that and that money is to support the development of a trauma healing lodge. You know, it speaks directly to our mandate or the priorities of this Assembly. And I will read from an article that was published in NNSL written by Roy Erasmus, quote: I want to acknowledge the support from the GNWT during our application and more specifically the recently announced senior envoy to the Government of Canada. His support, advice, and political advocacy for our project was essential, and we appreciate the Premier's commitment to providing this type of connector to Ottawa. And that's the type of feedback we're receiving from around the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about a building code for the North. I would like to ask the Minister, given the number of units that certainly we are planning on building through our housing corporation as well as all the work that's being done with the Indigenous governments in my region and throughout the territory, can the Minister update this House on the work that's being completed by the working group to datez. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks for the question. Although the Ministers have changed, the work is still continued, and we're going to continue on with the line of work that's been completed for developing and working on the national building codes for the structures. So that being said, I know we don't have the full implementation yet. However, we do have it in had our projects. When we send anything out to RFP or anything like that, it is to develop to the national building codes. So right now, we're utilizing the 2020 National Building Codes and the 2020 National Fire Codes under the Fire Prevention Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and I appreciate that, and I recognize that we still have guidelines that we do offer through the department; however, what we don't have is enforcement. Can the Minister commit to -- and I know the previous Minister had a plan to have a plan. Can the Minister commit to sharing that plan, workplan, once developed by the working group with the House, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will commit to that, and as soon as we have it done and ready, we will share that with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since we're on the topic of commitments, we love commitments and I certainly appreciate that, can the Minister -- big, huge commitments. Can the Minister please -- would the Minister commit to, then, as the previous Minister committed to, having this building code in place when we walk out of this building at the end of this 20th Assembly. Thank you.

The goal is to have the -- all the policies developed by next summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.

Mahsi. Can the Minister say what plans or energy initiatives the government has in place with the Tlicho government or get Tlicho communities off diesel power? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains.

Better than I could do, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. This is an area of tremendous importance. First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, any work that we're doing with or for the communities in Monfwi, we're doing in consultation and in involvement with the Tlicho government. They really are leaders here in terms of where they want to see their communities go, and it's my hope that we can just be partners to them to help enable those visions to come true. There's a couple of major things and I think, in fact, the Member already mentioned them. One of them is the transmission line to Whati. This is around a 50 kilometer stretch which will connect the community into the Snare hydro system, and the hope and expectation is that it will be a project that goes to the partnership that built the same -- that built the TASR highway so -- or the Tlicho highway. That is mainly the Tlicho-Kiewit partnership. Beyond that, Mr. Speaker, that will work very well with a hydro project if there is a Lac Le Martre Hydro Project. This was many years now in the making, but we're bringing that back hopefully to life. We're going to see if we can bring that up and move it forward to a stronger feasibility and get that on to the system as well. It adds -- it will add in not only for Whati, it will add into the whole system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. Can the Minister provide a status update on the Whati transmission line?

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Happy to do so. The only -- what we -- the stage we were at, Mr. Speaker, is we're negotiating -- there is, of course, the infrastructure cooperation agreement with the Tlicho government, and so we were working with them to negotiate the final stages of a design contract. That may well even be signed by now, but certainly the last time I had checked in on it, we were at the final stages of that. That will go to design, and then from there, we will be hopefully jointly going to help get some funding to see this project to its completion. Thank you.