Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So following up on my Member's statement, my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

So even for those projects we may have decided are necessary, like roads, we need environmental assessments with full and open participation by scientists and traditional knowledge experts in order to make them the best they can be. So on a project like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, once the GNWT's already submitted its developer's assessment report, as the government did in 2023, are there any further opportunities within the environmental assessment process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I do look forward to following up with the Minister to pursue this further. But my final question is just that given that the women's centre has a policy now stating it can't safely support intoxicated individuals during the daytime, even if they rent a room within that space, if these folks are being turned away at the sobering centre and they can't go back to their room at the women's centre, is the Minister aware of anywhere else those folks can go if they're intoxicated to safely get off the street? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I wanted to ask the Minister about the policies of the GNWT-run day shelter and sobering centre here in Yellowknife around how and when they might restrict access to prevent individuals from using those spaces for reasons other than immediate safety threats. And I just wanted to especially note that the day shelter is the only co-ed space available in Yellowknife for social connection and community support.

Can the Minister confirm, do the day shelter and sober centre have policies to refuse access to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I understand it, the role of the GNWT-employed scientists is to give their input and expertise internally before that gets fed into the process. Does the GNWT employ any traditional knowledge experts that the GNWT's scientists can engage internally with to have that dialogue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today about environmental assessment as a way to make projects better and how it makes projects better.

Sometimes we talk about environmental assessment as if it's just an obstacle, as if it's some GNWT employee sitting in an office tower gatekeeping, checking off some boxes, and could they please just get it done faster because we have mines to develop and roads to build and jobs to create. But it's not that at all.

Environmental assessment is central to our co-management systems. It's enshrined in modern treaties. It brings Indigenous governments and the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it sounds like we are hopeful that we will exceed our revenue estimates or expectations for this year. I do hope to see that and certainly open to future conversations if we're encountering continuing challenges and barriers on how we can keep improving our fishing sector, which is very important.

I wanted to turn now to another one of ITI's goals in the business plan is to ensure there can be a transfer of skills from mine closure into new areas, and this is specifically listed under the housing priority. So I would interpret that to mean that the intention is to...

Thank you for that. I think it's good to get the word out about these opportunities.

I have a question on commercial fisheries, and this relates to the revenue summary also back on page 230 but, you know, we're continuing to support our commercial fisheries, and we had predicted in 2024-2025 that revenues from fish sales were going to increase from $1.2 million to $1.6 million but last year the actual sort of sort of revenues ended up being more like $1.2 million, and now we're predicting again for this coming year still at $1.2 million.

Can the Minister explain what was the hope in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister justify why we would spend public money on Aurora College developing online programs when many students already access online learning programs from other places and, in fact, that's the entire sort of attraction of online learning, is that you can get it from anywhere. What would Aurora College's niche be in this space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

So this morning, Aurora College informed committee that they would be reallocating about $2 million of the funds that previously went to the community learning centres and CLC staff towards online learning, including hiring three online program coordinators, hiring three new tech support staff, and 1-800 support lines and online platforms, possibly buy everyone a computer as it seems they were promising to ensure that everyone would have access to modern technology.

Does the Minister support this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after our public briefing this morning with Aurora College, I want to speak further about the community learning centres because there remains so much misunderstanding and confusion as to what has been happening at the CLCs, what the vision for starting them was in the first place, and then what is the path forward that communities have been trying to sketch out.

The community learning centres are rooted in an initiative started by Frontier College in the 1960s and '70s and was rooted in a philosophy of community development. So that means providing...