Thank you. Committee, we'll take a short recess and resume with the first item.

---SHORT RECESS

I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we agree to consider Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act. I'll ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to introduce the bill.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to present Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act. This bill seeks to amend the Education Act to allow a term of office of four years for elected district education authority trustees in cases where a DEA's community government has a four-year election cycle.

Currently, only election cycles of two and three years for DEAs are permitted by the Act. The proposed amendment arises from the 2018 change in municipal election cycles in Yellowknife from three to four-year terms of office for mayor and council.

Bill 25 would allow the two Yellowknife DEAs, Yellowknife Catholic Schools and Yellowknife District Education No. 1, to move to a four-year election cycle and realign their DEA elections with municipal elections starting in 2022. The amendment will also allow the two Yellowknife DEAs to hold interim elections for one-year terms this fall, as the current three-year terms of the DEA members ends in 2021.

I am pleased to bring forward this amendment to support our education partners in ensuring the efficient administration of their board trustee elections.

This concludes my opening remarks. I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 25. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, the committee that considered the bill for opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 30th, 2021. It was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

On May 31st, 2021, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and completed its clause by clause review of the bill. I thank the committee for their efforts when reviewing this legislation, and individual Members may have additional comments or questions at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, I would.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To your right is Mr. Mike Reddy, director of legislative division, Department of Justice. And to our left, making her first appearance in the chamber, Megan Wahlberg, director of policy, legislation and communications for ECE. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, and welcome. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 25. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. First off, I guess I'd like to say that I did raise -- I've met -- a number of the Yellowknife MLAs have met with the district education authorities here in Yellowknife, Yellowknife's Catholic School and YK No. 1, and we knew about the situation of how their length of term for their boards was now out of sync with city council. They requested that there be changes made to the Education Act to ensure that their term of office could be bought back in line again otherwise they'd have to hold separate elections from what the City of Yellowknife does and incur extra expenses, which I'm sure we would all rather see spent on education.

So, certainly, I supported that. I raised the issue in the House. I pushed it, even I-- earlier in this Assembly that this should get dealt with.

So I guess, first off, I'd like to know from the Minister and staff what consultation was done with the two Yellowknife school boards. And, for example, were they given a copy of the language in the bill? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was extensive consultation with the Yellowknife school boards. I've had numerous conversations with the chairs of those boards as well. As to the question of whether or not they were provided with the proposed language, I will hand it over to Ms. Wahlberg but first I'll note that the consultation with education bodies, and consultation in general I think, is to figure out the what not necessarily the how. And so when it comes down to the particulars of the, you know, the words used in legislation, it's our job as the government to ensure that those words achieve 'the what' that the school boards want. But I can pass it to Ms. Wahlberg for further information. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Wahlberg.

Thank you. Member for FrameLake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So here's what I said in the House on February the 6th, 2020, about these bills when I was asking questions to the Minister of Education. The situation for CSFTNO, which is Commission Scolaire Francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, which is the Francophone school board, is different as I mentioned in my statement, in that its commission represent two communities that now have different cycles for their municipal elections. So I raise the issue that CSFTNO, based in the two communities, that there was an issue here, that I wanted to make sure that whatever changes were going to be made in the Education Act would not adversely affect CSFTNO. So can someone explain to me whether there was the same sort of consultation or consideration given to CSFTNO on development of this bill? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there was definitely consideration given to CSFTNO and the effects of this bill would have on them. And it was our understanding that this bill would have no effect and, in fact, they expressed that they were in a different situation than the other school boards. They're in two communities, and they don't align their elections with either municipality. They have a different way of conducting elections. They don't require the same voters list and enumeration and things like that. But as it turns out, there are regulations that-- under the Education Act, that reference term lengths of other education bodies in education districts and that is really a remnant of when the French first language school board was created. And so in an indirect way, these changes will affect the CSFTNO. And, again, we know what they want, and it's our job to ensure that-- that that is ultimately achieved, so. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. So there is a problem, then, in that the regulations say that the length of term for CSFTNO is tied to the district education authorities, and now we've got one. We will have, if this bill passes, a length of term of office for the Hay River ones, for possibly Hay River commissionaires versus the Yellowknife commissionaires for CSFTNO. So how's this issue going to be fixed? And I'm curious to know why it wasn't discovered earlier. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I've spoken with the chair of the CSFTNO and informed him that there exists this issue and that we will reach out as soon as this bill is passed and begin work on amending those regulations. And I've been assured that from the time that those consultations with the CSFTNO are complete, and really the consultation is 'do you want to remain with your three-year term limit or do you want a four-year term limit?' Once we're done with that, within two weeks we can have new regulations drafted and likely enforced.

And the reason this wasn't discovered, well, I can take that one; that's on me. It is the Department of ECE and the Department of Justice's job to ensure that when we're putting forward regulations like-- or changes to acts like this that we fully consider every aspect, and this was overlooked. But-- and perhaps that if this was not discovered, it would have been overlooked for all eternity and elections would have gone forward as normal because it literally took the legendary tenacity of the Member along with a team of lawyers to really discover this. So it was-- it was something that we did overlook, and I take full responsibility. And I thank the Member for his contribution. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Well, I'm happy to take compliments. You know look, my objective here is not to embarrass or point fingers at anybody but given the-- how shall I put this? Litigious relationship in the past between CSFTNO and this government and the extraordinary efforts I recognize that the current Minister has undertaken to build a better working relationship with CSFTNO, my objective here is to make sure that we continue to build that relationship and that when we do these kinds of changes, it doesn't adversely affect the Francophone first language community rights holders and so on. And that's why I guess I'm tenacious about this, is I don't want this to end up in court again and I-- you know, look, full disclosure. Our kids went to Ecole Alain St. Cyr. I'm a quarter-French Canadian, my wife is a Francophone, and they're a vibrant part of our community and we just want to make sure that their rights under the Constitution are recognized and implemented fully. So I accept what the Minister said. I will hold his feet to the fire, though, in terms of getting this resolved quickly because CSFTNO does have elections scheduled this fall, and they would like to proceed with them.

And as the Minister said, basically the way they conduct their elections is a ballot box in the foyer of the schools. And the parents who are right holders under the Constitution can come in and cast their ballots right in the school. So it's different than what the school boards or the city, how they carry out their elections. But it's still democratic and all the rest so I think we want to make sure we work with them to get the solution that they want. I hear that from the Minister. And I'll hold his feet to the fire. Thanks, Madam Chair. I think that's all I've got to say. And I do support our school boards in Yellowknife getting their elections back in sync and in no way do I want this bill to be delayed. We owe it to them as well to fix this problem. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister, did you want to respond?

Thank you. I appreciate the Member's comments.

Anything further? Questions? Comments? Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments? We can proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page1 of the bill.

Clause 1, does committee agree?

Thank you. Clause 2, does committee agree?

Clause 3, does committee agree?

Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act is now ready for third reading?

Thank you, committee. Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act, is now really for third reading. Does the committee agree that this concludes the consideration of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act?

Thank you, Minister, and thanks to our witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber?

Committee, we have agreed to consider tabled document 412-19(2) Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) Number 1, 2021-2022. Does the Minister of Finance have an opening remarks?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No, 1, 2021-2022. These supplementary estimates propose a total increase of $36.6 million comprised of the following major items:

• First, $4.3 million for investments committed to as part of the 2021-22 main estimates process, including $600,000 to advance the Northwest Territories midwifery program into phase 2 of its implementation;
• $1.4 million to support after-care and community-based addictions programs and services, comprised of $750,000 for a community-based addictions and after-care fund;
• $150,000 to fund the senior advisor to support Indigenous knowledge and wellness coordination and $500,000 for additional community development activities;
• $935,000 to support efforts towards reducing poverty in the Northwest Territories. This includes $750,000 to the anti-poverty fund, $110,000 to increase funding for the roundtable advisory council, and $75,000 to increase core funding to the Hay River shelter;
• $743,000 to pilot a new approach to assisting with improving cultural safety and patient experience; supporting Indigenous patients in having their concerns, complaints, and questions resolved, and bridging cultural and language barriers;
• $500,000 to increase the childcare infrastructure fund;
• $100,000 to increase the Child and Family Services contribution.
• These investments will be offset by a reduction of $4.03 million to departmental travel budgets.
• Second: $14.8 million to support the Northwest Territories aviation sector. This funding request is partially offset by $12.5 million in revenues from the federal government.
• Third: $5.7 million to provide short-term relief to the Northwest Territories tourism operators and accommodation providers, two sectors that have been significantly impacted by the economic disruptions resulting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Fourth: $5 million to support community governments, small businesses and NWT residents for costs incurred due to the 2021 flooding. And consistent with the Disaster Assistance Policy and previous practice, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has established the Disaster Assistance Committee. This committee will establish a list of recoverable costs and the coordination of the recovery process. We do recognize that that process will take some time and in the interim the Departments of Finance and Municipal and Community Affairs will be working together on a process to ensure that there is advancement of some financial relief to residents.

That concludes my opening remarks, Madam Chair, and I would be happy to answer any questions that the Members might have.

Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes, please.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Madam Chair, on the right is Jamie Koe. He is ADM at the Department of Finance. And on the left is Terence Courtoreille. He is director at the Management Board Secretariat.

Thank you, and welcome back. I will now open the floor for general comments. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair; sometimes we all look alike. I want to start by thanking the Finance Minister for carrying through with a number of commitments she made as part of our budget negotiations on the main estimates back in the last sitting. So there's a number of new spending items in here to carry through with those commitments and that those are much appreciated, and I think they were mutually achieved by both sides of the House to-- on behalf of all the residents of the NWT.

One of the other areas, though, that they agreed upon was changes-- or reductions in travel expenditures. And I just want to confirm with the Minister that these reductions are to travel outside of the Northwest Territories for nonessential purposes. So if the Minister can maybe just talk a little bit about how the travel expenditures have been reduced across all departments, that would be helpful for, I think, the public to understand that. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do appreciate the commitments that were made, I want to echo that, you know, that really was a consensus government approach was a very positive one for the people of the Northwest Territories. So I think the appreciation really does flow in both directions on all of those commitments.

Madam Chair, with respect to the travel reductions, this was not a simple process and it was not a simple calculation. It was done in a way where the departments came forward, did an analysis of all of their travel spending in order to understand what of the various travel budgets is in the category of discretionary as opposed to nondiscretionary. And, certainly, all of the travel that takes place takes place for the purposes of advancing the initiatives and efforts in programs and services of various departments. Some of that, though, of course, is to -- has transitioned to being more in line. Some of that is not going to be occurring because of various restrictions-- well, outside of the territories as well as in the territories over travel. And so what they looked as was to determine, indeed, what type of travel is critically and critically required, and generally that would, of course, be in the Northwest Territories as opposed to the discretionary and certainly non-Northwest Territories travel. So it wasn't a blanket 20 percent across all. It was 20 percent in the total budget but applied differently to different departments depending on the needs.

So there's some departments, for example Health and Social Services, their travel budgets might be not impacted the same way as, say ITI, because just of the nature of the travel that gets undertaken in the course of the year. But it was done, again, the focus was on ensuring that Northwest Territories travel and essential travel for the delivery of programs and services was maintained. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for FrameLake

No, thanks, Madam Chair. That's good to hear, and I think important for the public to understand that. And it's one of the reasons why we couldn't make the reductions in the main estimates themselves, because we wanted to make sure that this was done carefully and thoughtfully. So I think it's fair to say that there's going to be a some concerns or questions around some of the other items in the supplementary appropriation and we'll get to those items a little later this afternoon. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Are there any further general comments? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think once we start opening up and going back to somewhat normal, you know, I do not want to discourage travel. I think that face to face and some of these contacts that could have been made during these past two years with our new Cabinet and Premier must take place, and along with the MLAs on this side. It's extremely important that contact is of great value to any government, and I don't want to lose sight of that when you start deducting all travel, okay. Because, I mean, there has to be some travel. You know, there's things that we expect the ITI Minister to go to. We expect the Education Minister to expand his horizons. If we're going to be doing these kind of things, we can't limit everything, okay. It's at the discretion of how the travel is going to be done. And I just want to make that comment because I'm not one to tie hands and do all these things because I'm one about vision, improving government face to face. You don't get the same thing on Zoom. I don't care how many times you go on Zoom, you don't get it. Just a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.

Yes, Madam Chair. I'm certainly somewhat Zoomed out myself. And I can say, you know, I do think, Madam Chair, that every department does still have a travel budget, and I appreciate the comments. There will be some business, I suspect FPTs, for example, the federal-provincial-territorial meetings that we often attend, where those may be slower to open up because there are so many different travel restrictions across Canada, whereas perhaps other areas of travel will be soon-- faster to open up. And I-- I can certainly say that I think every-- I think can probably safely speak for every colleague here that there's no replacing of face to face and if we need a reminder, the Zoom experience has probably taught us all that. But at the same time, there's more that can happen online as well. So we're going to be spending the next year, no doubt, seeing how that balance unfolds and then probably over the coming years as well. So there's still travel money in every department; it's just that it wasn't all-- it wasn't necessarily a blanket 20 percent. There really was effort to look at what is spent where and by -- and for what purpose. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

MS. MARTSELOS; Well, Madam Chair, I just want to make sure that no hands are tied. You know, once we get to a new normal, it won't be the same as before, nothing's going to be the same, but I want to make sure that this government is able to operate in a very-- with a new vision of reaching out and making sure that they have the opportunity to learn and to see different things and do-- have that face to face contact, including not -- all Members in this Assembly. Restricting travel and think you're going to save a dime and in the end you end up spending more on something else is not okay. If you're going to move ahead in the economy and in business and in anything else, you have to be able to have that contact, you know. You should be able to just click of a -- and you know who to phone. I mean, some of them have it already, but that face to face is missing here. Some of my colleagues always talk about Zoom and all this other thing about online and stuff. I'm not with that. I get my job done by being face to face. I like to know the reactions. I like to know all those things. And it's very important in leadership. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have any other comments.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, there are department staff watching these proceedings, and I think the comments will be well taken. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's always, like, interesting to be on this side and see how things function and one of the new things to me was, I think I mentioned last time, the negotiation that happens between Cabinet and the Regular Members. So I, too, want to thank the Minister for participating in that and actually I believe it went fairly smoothly from what I heard feedback on. And also just in that, I want to say 'thank you' to her specifically for the antipoverty funding money. Instead of bringing it up when we get to that section, I'll just speak to her right now.

It's really important to me that we see more money going into the hands of our NGOs. They are filling the gaps and services that we aren't able to provide as COVID changes our landscape. So for me, I think that it's always important because NGOs will always stretch their money more. And I know I'm saying things that, I see the Premier nodding and such, because this is their area, but, yeah, they'll always do more with their money than, I believe, the government will. So for me, I just really wanted to specifically speak and say thank you for the money for the antipoverty fund and so now we just have to work on the making sure that money gets out the door easily with as little red tape as possible. So, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister, did you have any comments?

For sure. That it is actually a good example of where I think numbers identify an area of issue and an area of concern. We're able to come up with some faith and trust in the department to look at and say what can we do to address your concern, and then there was this discussion. So these are all good examples of how that process can and should work. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Any further questions, comments? I see no further general comments. Seeing no further general comments, we will review the supplementary estimates by department. The committee has agreed to forego general comments on each department. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document? Committee has agreed to begin the review with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?

Okay, we will begin with Department of Education, Culture and Employment on page 4.

Supplementary Estimates (Operating Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Culture Heritage and Language, not previously authorized, $27,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, early learning and childcare, not previously authorized, $451,000. Does committee agree?

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll try and keep my comments brief considering we already agreed to this. I'm very happy to see the child care infrastructure fund. This is much needed money. I believe, though, we need something like $20 million to make up our infrastructure deficit to get to the required-to place where all our communities have child care. And I know the previous fund was oversubscribed. And I'm hoping we can get this money out the door very quickly, and I know the department will do that. I guess I'm just looking for-- I know some of the previous applications didn't quite meet the criteria or didn't necessarily get funding, and there's a very large demand in this area. I'm just looking for a commitment that we will reach out to those people who had previously applied for this fund and, you know, work with them to continue applications for the top-up here. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, I think that's a question for the Minister of Education.

Minister of EC and E.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This money is long gone; it's out the door.

---Laughter

And there are discussions between, you know, our-- between ECE, people in the regions, people at headquarters and communities who are require infrastructure and so, you know, if a project wasn't successful for whatever reason, there are those conversations that have happened. So that work is definitely being done. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

No, I guess we'll just have to top it up again. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. All right, let's do this again.

Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, early learning and childcare, not previously authorized, $451,000. Does committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, not previously authorized, $2,744,000. Does committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and advanced education, not previously authorized, negative $96,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, total department, not previously authorized, $3,126,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on page5.

Supplementary Estimate (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, main estimates, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, corporate management, not previously authorized, negative $44,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Supplementary Estimate (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, environment protection and waste management, not previously authorized, negative $18,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you.

Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No.1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, environment stewardship and climate change, not previously authorized, $939,000. Does committee agree?

Supplementary Estimate (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, forest management, not previously authorized, $1,328,000. Does committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, water management and monitoring, not previously authorized, negative $39,000. Does committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resource, wildlife and fish, not previously authorized, $163,000. Does committee agree?

Oh, Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, one of the items here is $300,000 for the barrenground caribou calving survey. Given that it's June 3rd, I think this work might even be underway right now but I'd like to get some confirmation from the Minister about the status of this work. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, there's no way I would have let this one pass by without hearing from the Minister of ENR on this one, please.

Thank you. Minister of ENR.

HON. SHANE THOMPSON; Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. The work started Monday. The people are out there. We were able to work with the Hamlet of Coppermine, getting permission from the Nunavut government and their CPHO and the municipalities. So we have the workers out-- or the people out there surveying a herd presently. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for FrameLake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. That's great to hear because I know one of the reasons why it's here again is because the work couldn't be done last summer with COVID restrictions. So can the Minister tell us when the department expects to have the survey results available to us as MLAs and for the public? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ENR.

Thank you. My understanding, with all the data and that, we're hoping to have it at the end of the summer but I will get back confirmation with that to committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for FrameLake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. And the reason why this is so important is the last time the survey was down, the herd-- or done, the herd was down to 8,200 animals compared to a high of almost 400,000. So this is a critical piece of information we need to make the best possible decisions about that area, including whether we should be building roads or not. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Oh, sorry. I didn't know if it was coming to me or. So, yeah, we'remaking sure that data is critical. That's why we were able to work with the Nunavut government and the hamlet of Coppermine to get the survey done, and it was probably unfortunate because COVID. You know, it hit us last year but we're able to start continuing to manage our survey, moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So it's my understanding, just reading, yeah, that this is just the money being brought forward to pay for the project that didn't happen last year. However, because COVID has happened and we do have additional expense and such, do we anticipate that you can still do the-- that the department can still do the caribou survey for the same costing as they had originally budgeted, or do we think we'll have to come back later on for more money for this work? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

I have not been given any indication that this is going to be-- that the project scope or the budget needed to change. So for the time being, the project budget is the same.

Thank you. All right. Any further questions, comments? Seeing none, I'll call the page.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, wildlife and fish, not previously authorized, $163,000. Does committee agree?

Committee, we will now consider the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs on page 7.

Supplementary Estimate, (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Cabinet support, not previously authorized, negative $45,000. Does committee agree? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to make a comment that this is the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs almost having their travel budget, and when I look at the few million dollars we took out the GNWT travel budget and what it's paying for, you know, investments in mental health and wellness, investments in the poverty fund, I think this is a great work, and I think it was this Cabinet leading by example. And I know we've had no controversy about Ministers, MLAs, and senior management travelling, but I just commend this Cabinet. They made lots of sacrifices, and it hasn't been an easy year, and you didn't get to go to Vancouver or Calgary or Ottawa or all the other places that Ministers usually get a lot of flack for, so. This is by far the biggest proportional cut to any travel budget, executively anyway. That's all, thank you.

All right. Any further questions, comments?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2021-2022, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Cabinet support, not previously authorized, negative $45,000. Does committee agree?