Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Report on the Statutory Review of the Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, that Committee Report 19-20(1), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Statutory Review of the Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act, be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. So in that process, is it going to be possible for reassessment of the planning for this facility in considering the assessment of the projections that the department is going to be undertaking? So I guess what I'm asking in plain words is are we ensuring that the facility is right size for the demand prior to moving forward with construction?

Okay, thank you. So by my calculations -- and I'm going to be speaking about a couple of different reports here. So we did a long-term care review in 2015 which kind of initiated the process of planning for these facilities, updated that review in 2020, which found that the 2015 review had overestimated what the demand is going to be. And so based on these new numbers, the first year that they projected demand for was 2024. And I would just note in Hay River, they estimated there was going to be 35, a demand of 35; in Fort Simpson, they estimated there was going to be a demand of 25; in Fort...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, first, kind of a preliminary question. What is our current total number of occupied long-term care beds in Hay River, Fort Simpson, and Fort Smith, and what is the current waitlist in each of those communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to follow up a little bit further on the questions I asked earlier. I was wondering if the Minister of ECC would commit to a year for getting this process done, so having target the amendments to the waters regs by the October session of 2025. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister able to give us any kind of a timeline? I think the idea with the recommendation from all these different entities for targeted amendments is that we get them done quickly, that this could be a quick win for the department and a quick win for regulatory fairness and certainty in the territory. So can the Minister give us a timeline for when they expect the targeted amendments to be concluded? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And so, you know, I appreciate that answer from the Minister. I'm very glad that they are considering the O and M for these. You know, that does bring me some comfort.

So I want to speak a little bit -- I mean, we heard from the ECE Minister just today detail the magnitude of costs for infrastructure for the college, for example. And of course, there's only so much federal money we can seek. The same can be said for housing, which MLAs have been clear is a priority. And so one of the problems we have is we can only seek so much federal funding. We can only...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, my questions are around kind of the -- all three of the big kind of planning projects that we've got here. To be clear, the Taltson, Mackenzie Valley Highway, Slave Geologic Province.

So it appears that the fiscal responsibility policy does not require any kind of assessment of O and M implications for proposed capital projects and whether the government could even afford those costs going forward. So I guess I'm just kind of curious how this much -- how planning for building of this kind of -- this much infrastructure all at once fits within, you know, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Respectfully, I believe the Minister was looking to refer to her deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have some questions -- or a question about the Aurora College student housing unit in Fort Smith. There's renovation of a couple units there. So my question is not so much about that project but, you know, the capital plan indicates repairs for those but there's no funds for other Aurora College capital needs proposed this year. So what are the timelines, priority levels and expected funding for other critical areas or need across the Aurora College campuses? Thank you, Mr. Chair.