Thank you, committee. Department of Finance, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $4,389,000. Does committee agree?

Please now turn to page 12.

Department of Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and supportive service, not previously authorized $10,631,000. Does committee agree? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see $10 million for priority health information system improvements. 100 percent federal money, which is great. Can I just get an explanation of what that is?

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there's four different funding pots through the federal government that were brought together on this one, relating in some part to the response to COVID-19 and to a restart and arising also from recognition around immunization, virtual care. And all together, they are being used to advance the longer term need to have Health and Social Services assist and -- or not transferred entirely but do make better use of virtual care, electronic medical records, and then the management of public health information in that environment. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I'm glad to hear that. And as part of that, I heard that the EMR, the electronic medical records, was in that. I know that it's currently telesoftware and the licence is expiring. My understanding is that it's going to cost us -- well, I don't know. Does this cover the total cost of that? Does that mean we now have a new EMR in place, or is this just -- I guess that's my question, is this getting us our new EMR, this $10 million? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my understanding at this point is that this is still at a strategic stage and as such, I don't expect it entirely guarantees the full delivery of the new system. That said, it is certainly an important and critical sort of step in that regard. So I do expect to hear more from this over the next year, certainly over the life of this government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I guess I do expect to hear more, because my understanding is our electronic medical records system is going to cost us more than $10 million, and we're already spending $10 million here. So I guess -- what am I looking for? Well, I guess a commitment, perhaps, to come back when or if we have an estimate of what the total of a new electronic medical records system is going to cost us. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was a bit hesitant to commit my colleagues but certainly to when there's a strategy that's underway being developed for electronic health records, it is common practice that we would -- as the Ministers appear in front of the standing committees with that type of information. So I'm relatively confident that my colleague won't mind me making that commitment on her behalf. Thank you.

Thank you. Department of Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and supportive services, not previously authorized, $10,631,000. Does committee agree?

Department of Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, health and social programs, not previously authorized 8,853,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Department of Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $19,484,000. Does committee agree?

Please turn to page 13 and 14.

Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investment expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $9,746,000. Does committee agree? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister confirm why we have that increase in the plan and what would be the drivers of that increase? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there's a couple of different reasons for it. Approximately $1.8 million is due to increased costs of equipment, and that in itself is in turn due to the changes globally right now. It's a specialized equipment, and it's being impacted by the supply chain delays and being impacted by the costs on some of the basic components that go into the equipment.

There is additional amounts increased as a result of change orders. There were some delays in this project as you might recall, and as time is going on, it does seem like all costs are rising rather quickly these days, so.

And Madam Chair, just to anticipate a further question, I don't know if there's going to be some other impacts as a result of the floods. The fish plant itself was not damaged or in an area that was damaged. But I'm certainly conscious that the community itself is obviously going to be experiencing some significant impacts and will no doubt have some significant impacts on the local construction industry, including those working on the plant. Thank you.