Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. The supported living review had 33 recommendations, and 12 of those were ones that we could begin work on without additional funding. So for the remaining 21 recommendations, we would need to develop them for the next business plan in order to obtain funding to implement them. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And does the Minister or the department know whether or not -- or can they somewhat anticipate if that would be part of this funding that's coming from the federal government that we already have been announced, or would we be looking for new funding for these changes or something that would be restructured internally? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes. I'm not sure where the money's going to come from. I don't think it'll come from the new tailored agreements. Tailored bilateral agreements, none of them speak to people who need supported living unless they're elderly and they need long-term care. So there's a question there about whether we can find an appropriate pot of funding from the federal government or whether we will be looking for an increase in the budget from the GNWT. Thank you.

Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And is there any funding that's potentially coming from the federal government or something we could access around Indigenous supports, particularly for people working in the communities -- or living in the communities, sorry. And the reason, again, I ask is that I'm aware of people that have had to move to Yellowknife in order to access the services here for their children or to another regional centre. And I guess my question is is there some way to leverage attention from the federal government on Indigenous issues and reconciliation to get some money to sort of take up this area? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. The money is offered to the GNWT as the public health provider. That is to say the public supplier of health care in the Northwest Territories. There has been some discussion about a health equity fund for Indigenous people, but the parameters of that have not been set. And I'm not sure if they would apply to the case that the Member is asking about. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Does the department have the ability to input around this Indigenous equity fund conversation or to at least facilitate that conversation between the federal government and Indigenous governments in the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, I anticipate this conversation will take place between Indigenous Services Canada and the Indigenous governments directly, and we may or may not have a seat at the table.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope that we'll have a seat at the table. I think always that any of the experience that I'm sure the department can offer would be well -- you know, something that would be good to input on. I'm sure you know a lot better than the federal government necessarily what needs to happen. I think that's it for me now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. All right, so long term community care, if there's no other questions, please turn to page 203.

Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 2023-2024, $67,960,000. Does committee agree.

Thank you. Now we will turn to out of territory services, beginning on page 207 with information items on page 208. Questions? Any questions? Seeing none, please turn to page 207.

Health and Social Services out of territory services, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 2023-2024, $83,650,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will now turn to supplementary health benefits on page 210, with information items on page 211. Questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm looking at page 210 and the medical travel benefits line. There's quite a drop between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, probably in the neighbourhood of $5 million or, you know, it's like maybe 20 percent drop. Can I get an explanation as to why there's so much less money for medical travel in 2023-2024? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. The territorial health investment fund has not yet been renewed for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. So it's not included in this budget. But in the previous fiscal year, we allocated $5 million of that fund towards the cost of travel, medical travel.