Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, myself as Minister, and I know the Premier, have had discussions during my time as a Cabinet Minister, and I think these discussions started prior to this government, working alongside and supporting the Endacho Healing Society on their work towards a trauma treatment centre in the Northwest Territories. And right now we are, you know, collaborating with them and the work that they are working to get -- you know, the funding that they need to do this through Indigenous Services Canada, and we will continue to work with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree that establishing a dedicated, in-territory, Indigenous-led trauma healing lodge would strengthen the North's trauma continuum of care and reduce reliance on out-of-territory placement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, this is one of our priorities of this government, that we all said that we needed and we wanted, and so that's why we are committed to working and moving this type of a project and supporting the Endacho Indigenous-led to being able to establish within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that the department currently funds out-of-territory trauma placements, will the Minister commit to funding in territory trauma treatment with equivalent service exits? And what is the concrete timeline for establishing a formal partnership with a northern Indigenous-led trauma healing lodge? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our whole point of supporting this is to being able to utilize the services within the Northwest Territories. So, however, we continue to work through these to support them be established, and then those conversations and how we, you know, ensure that residents who are needing this, that we're able to support them through that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have questions this morning for the Minister of the power Corporation, NTPC.

So we know we've experienced power outages, some lately, and these can be costly to households and businesses when it causes damage to equipment, appliances. So my first question to the Minister is are there any circumstances where NTPC or Naka Power would be liable to reimburse households or businesses for the cost of any damages to their equipment or appliances? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for NTPC.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any payments on behalf of any utility, and in the case of Yellowknife it would be Naka most likely but they too would be subject to fairly standard terms and conditions, standard insofar as they're utilized across Canada. And in those circumstances, it would really be only, you know, if there was something rising to the point of negligence and not an outage that is unfortunately a run of course type of outage. But short of that, Mr. Speaker, there's not a provision under which the utilities pay customers back for surge damage that they may experience. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So is the Minister aware of how this practice would compare to standard practices from other utilities or governments in other parts of Canada in terms of funds or opportunities for people to be reimbursed for damages due to power outages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so, again, you know, I am cautious that I don't want to speak for Naka but certainly the NTPC and Naka's terms and conditions are, you know, I think fairly well known if not publicly posted on their websites, and they are, indeed, consistent with utilities across Canada. In speaking to the CEO of NTPC, I know there are quite a number of avenues where the utilities maintain contact with one another. And, lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would note that the public utilities board, for us, also provides oversight over all of those terms and conditions to maintain that consistency. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So does NTPC provide any fact sheets or information to residents to help them understand what -- or businesses, to help them understand what they can be doing to prevent damage to equipment or appliances such as various types of surge protection devices? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate that question. The customer service branch does send out various bill -- the little stuffers that can go out now and again when folks receive their power bills. At least, speaking on behalf of NTPC. I would expect that Naka likely does that as well. But I also expect that both utilities put a fair bit of information out on their websites, on their social media pages, and I will happily ask them to do that again now, particularly in the winter months when we are experiencing -- or at risk of experiencing more outages. Folks can look to what to do in a power outage and they'd find information, I know, on NTPC's website. I think BC Hydro has some good information. And I know I've looked, I think, at Hydro Quebec as well in the past for some of this type of information and would encourage people to have a look and to heed the advice. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on February 9th, I gave a Member's statement on the Innovate Centre in Inuvik and the dire situation that it's in and requested that the Minister speak with the chair of Aurora College to look at continuing the funding.

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of ECE. I guess my first question is, is she aware that they've now been given notice that the funding will be done at the end of March and the Innovate Centre is to shut down maybe, Mr. Speaker, forever. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly the Member has raised this in the House and in this building before, and it's certainly a huge loss to the community. I definitely always think that there are creative ways that we can look at futures of buildings and programs and see how they can evolve and that often requires a broad conversation with lots of people at the table so that we can make sure that we're being creative in future uses as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I wholeheartedly agree but similar to what happened with CLCs, it can happen so quick. What the centre is looking for, Mr. Speaker, is one-year funding, approximately $200,000, to continue and do that work that the Minister is talking about, to find new ways to kind of have the Innovate Centre amalgamate with the community. So what I am asking the Minister, can the Minister find a way to keep this centre open, to find that $200,000 to keep this centre open for another year to do the things that she's suggesting they do?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is not dollars within the education, culture and employment budget that have been dedicated to this purpose. There is, however, the SEED programming which does and has seen applications come through, for example, in order to hire and work with consultants on the evolution of businesses, and certainly a SEED application might be a space where some of those dollars can be discovered to really help plan for the next chapter and next phase of this program. Thank you.