Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't have any prepared comments; I've got scribbled notes. I'm going to do my best to cover a number of areas. And I guess I just want to start by saying we don't really do a very good job explaining to the public what happens in this place. And I keep making that point again and again. And we always tend to think that we're the center of the universe in here but lots of other things are going on outside in people's normal lives, you know, picking up kids, arranging care for an elder or whatever. And in any event, there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. A lot of things. And I think we need to try to find a better way to explain what we actually do here. But we start discussions on the budget, the main estimates, back in September of the year before they come forward. And so there's an opportunity to sit down, try to work and discuss with Ministers what they are proposing to do in their departments, the spending that takes place, and try to negotiate back and forth. Then we get the main estimates that are, you know, given to us in late December. You know, we work with our staff to better understand what changes have taken place from the business plans that we got in September. And then we, you know, try to sit down and begin a series of negotiations of changes that the Regular MLAs would like to see in the budget and in the main estimates. And, you know, sometimes it's a bit of a challenge even for us to agree amongst ourselves on this side of the House as to what the priorities should be and what we should be trying to achieve. But, you know, we do have a common and shared objective of trying to ensure that whatever additions are made to the budget are in the interests of all of our residents.

And as Regular MLAs, we cannot force things to be added to the budget. We can cut things, but we cannot force things to be added. So that means we have to actually sit down and work and negotiate with our colleagues on the other side of the House, and that's through the Minister of Finance and her staff.

And I do want to say that, you know, based on my experience in the last Assembly, that was a very difficult process in the last Assembly and I don't think that the Regular MLAs achieved as much as they perhaps could or should have. But in this Assembly, I think it's a different working relationship with Cabinet. It's a better working relationship, and I'm proud to say that. And I think we have a good working relationship with most of the Ministers, all of the Ministers. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down, but we generally have a pretty good working relationship. And we actually have a Cabinet in this Assembly that is interested in trying to work with the Regular MLAs.

So I do want to sincerely thank the Minister of Finance and her staff for the process that we did go through. And I can tell you it is exhausting. But it is productive. And I think we've seen the results here today, where the Regular MLAs, we've worked with Cabinet to increase the spending in the budget by $4.77 million. It's not a huge amount, but I think it is a reflection of shared priorities amongst us all. Things like housing, things like sports and recreation, investment in youth, helping communities with emergency, you know, response, making sure that people can get out on the land in the interest of food security. These are important improvements to the budget and we should never lose sight of that. It's not a huge amount, and it's incremental, but these are significant changes that have been made to the budget.

I do want to talk a little bit about some of the additions that have been made and -- because I think we want to ensure that everybody's on the same page. We are probably are still going to be a little bit of a negotiating back and forth and exactly how some of these expenditures get down, and we will have an opportunity to review this in more detail when the supplementary appropriation comes forward in May-June.

So on the issue of homelessness investment, you know, I think the $2 million needs to be thought of as an initial investment. And it's going to take a lot more to address homelessness in a more comprehensive manner, and we'll see the strategy soon. Hopefully, the public will see that as well. And it's going to require a lot more investment. There needs to be some recognition of the specific needs for youth and housing. We heard some of that from the Standing Committee on Social Development. So we want to make sure that this is just seen as the initial investment and that pilot projects, proposals, are eligible for this funding and that NGOs and Indigenous governments can also apply for this funding.

In terms of mental wellness and aftercare, the funding is really aimed at suicide prevention, as the Minister noted, and we want to make sure, again, that proposals are eligible for funding, that it's -- and we understand that the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation is -- they have a strategy and they will probably be first in the queue and we commend that work. We want to make sure that the funds are available and will continue to be available through time for other communities and regions that want to do this very important work as well.

Sustainable living programs, I think we're good with increasing this. And as I said, this is really in terms of building greater food security for all of our communities. And we probably will look forward to working with our Cabinet colleagues to ensure that that money's invested wisely and in the best possible ways through the supplementary appropriation.

On the SEED funding, this is one-time funding so it's going to be up to future Assemblies and Regular MLAs on this side of the House to continue to push investment in the arts. And I think that also requires the funding that's made available to the arts. I think it needs to all -- and this is my personal opinion, need to all flow through a revamped and independent NWT arts council. So that's my own opinion. But we do need I think to increase our support for the arts. This is a small effort to try to do that.

In terms of emergency assistance, this is sort of one-time funding as the Minister mentioned, but we still have not dealt with the difficult and thorny issue of Crown-based ambulance services, particularly in smaller communities. I know the staff at the health centres are not allowed to leave. They cannot -- so it's up to the community and families to bring their people to the health centre for treatment, and that just leaves smaller communities in a very difficult situation. So we need a systemic fix to the issue of ground ambulance services in all of our communities.

On the issue of inflationary increases to NGOs, I believe the Minister has said that all departments will -- are encouraged to request forced growth and can make submissions to the financial management board. I think our view is that all departments should be required to conduct a forced growth review and make a submission to the financial management board, even if it's for zero dollars. Then at least you can see that each of the departments has actually considered the inflationary pressures that are put on NGOs. Right now, some NGOs got an increase, some didn't. Some departments got increases, some didn't. And it's really hard to interpret what happened. So I would encourage the Minister of Finance to require all departments to make submissions for forced growth in the future.

And in terms of multi-year funding, I hope that includes the provision for inflationary increases and the agreements themselves on sport and youth -- and I'm going to run out of time, Madam Chair. I think we have some interesting ideas about better supporting youth with some tours and visiting to their community with mentors. But we also want to make sure that regional sports events are supported, that there's the ability of individuals and families to access funding.

And lastly, on the NTPC board, this issue of public governance is a holdover from the last Assembly and needs to be resolved within the lifetime of this Assembly. So we very much look forward to getting that options paper, and I think there needs to be some public engagement around that as well.

But those are my comments, Madam Chair. Again, I reiterate my thanks to the Minister and her staff for working collaboratively with us to get some improvements for all of our residents. Thank you, Madam Chair.