Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I agree, but as the Minister knows, SEED funding does not cover core funding and it would be good for the governance, absolutely to get that, but this is a volunteer board. Can the Minister commit to once again bring this up with the chair of Aurora College -- I had asked for that back on February 9th -- to implore him to find a way to -- and the board, to keep this centre open for another year so they can find a way to keep it open forever. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly commit to discussing this with the chair of Aurora College board of governors. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in December, Burgundy Diamond Mines received a large enterprise tariff loan in the amount of $115 million, as we saw in the news. Mr. Speaker, was Cabinet -- oh and sorry, my questions are for the Government House Leader on this item.

Was Cabinet asked for their views on the $115 million loan and what should be done with it? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's more properly addressed to the Minister of Finance so I would like her to answer that question. Thank you.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the LETL loans are arm's-length from the federal government but it is administered or overseen by the Department of Finance for the federal government, and so that's what brings it to me.

Mr. Speaker, we certainly were aware that there was a request being made for the loan. I know there was outreach from the company. There was outreach from Indigenous development corporations. I don't know if any of them were asked their specifics, what -- we were certainly asked for information about the state of the economy, the state of tariffs, the impacts of tariffs on the economy, impacts of tariffs on mineral resources, and we certainly were, in that sense, following up quite clearly. But our input was not as to what the details of what the loan would be used for. I am not -- I think that would have been between the LETL entity and the company directly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Minister effectively just answered this question, but, Mr. Speaker, the news article on this mentioned that there's creditors to pay, severance payments to workers, local contractors. Did GNWT contribute in any way to any provisions requiring our northern workers and contractors are taken care of as part of the conditions on this loan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, Mr. Speaker, not necessarily in the context, again -- I mean, I didn't have any direct contact, nor do I recollect any of us having direct contact with that entity from the federal government. But certainly raising the fact and raising very clearly the fact that a sudden and unexpected closure would have pretty dramatic impacts on a number of employees here, would have a number -- would have impacts on our government, and would have impacts on development corporations who are quite deeply enmeshed in this industry right now, and certainly made that point quite clear, as I believe they were as well. And in that sense, the implication being, Mr. Speaker, that we are concerned, as we were when we offered relief in the spring. We're concerned about jobs in the North. We're concerned about contractors in the North. And we're concerned about procurement in the North. So I am confident that message was heard. Thank you.

Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for those answers. Finally, Mr. Speaker, is funding for the independent environmental monitoring agency up to date, and was that considered in provisions in this loan as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is up to date, Mr. Speaker. Again, I don't know what specific details were discussed on the loan, but it is up to date and we are certainly monitoring ongoing. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from the Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Member from the Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not looked at the current numbers. The numbers within the facility fluctuate on a daily basis, and I am certainly given consistent information on that plan. Currently, we're are looking at some changes to the facility in Hay River to allow another grade of inmate to participate in the programming in that facility, and that will help us to address the capacity challenges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, you can only keep filling the cup so much until it spills over. You can only keep putting inmates into cells that no longer fit. Mr. Speaker, what does the department do when you have reached 100 percent capacity? What is the trigger point to ask yourself we need expanded space? Schools have it, why doesn't the jail system have it? Or maybe the Minister can enlighten the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are provisions within the facility to allow some doubling up of inmates and to help to increase capacity. Currently, we are looking at -- full capacity is 207 inmates, and we currently have 139 male inmates and two female inmates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to say the numbers are wrong. What I am going to bring it back to is what triggers an expansion in the jail system -- and that's ultimately the question -- to ensure that we are meeting the inmates' human rights version of the necessity there and as such there must be a trigger point to consider that capital response. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are -- within our system, we currently take inmates from other jurisdictions. So there are some federal inmates. There are some inmates from Nunavut. So if the capacity requirement for inmates from the Northwest Territories was to rise, we would have to go back and look at the agreements we have with the other jurisdictions and focus on the requirements of the territory first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have a question for the Minister of Finance. So within the past few months, many GNWT employees have received a letter from the public service pension centre about an opportunity to participate in an early retirement incentive program that was proposed in last year's federal budget. In the case of federal employees, the program is meant to help manage workforce reductions by encouraging federal workers to retire early voluntarily. So my first question is does this mean that the GNWT is also now encouraging its public servants to retire early in order to allow for workforce reductions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.