Thanks, Madam Chair. Can we anticipate seeing another supplementary appropriation, then, for the last sitting of this Assembly, scheduled for late September, that would perhaps deal with the firefighting issue but also support -- financial support for evacuation, you know, other costs associated with the emergency that's, you know, presently throughout the Northwest Territories. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I think at this point, ECC would be getting, you know, the benefit of this supplementary appropriation that we're proposing here today, and that would be for the fire suppression budget. MACA's responsible for evacuation/emergency costs, and certainly those have now been quite significant. There's quite a lot that does go into that, whether it's the evacuation of flights that have now been opened up, or whether it's the -- you know, just the coordination efforts that now span many communities. That is something they do budget for. Now, that said, the additional support funds that have been announced through the Department of Finance and through ITI are not necessarily something budgeted for and are also into the millions already. So I do expect that we would see that come forward in a sup if there is a late September sitting. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I would certainly strongly encourage Cabinet to do that. I don't think it's in anyone's interest to see a special warrant issued in that just in the interest of accountability and transparency, there is obviously financial need for these areas and I think that the appropriate way to deal with it is through supplementary appropriation and not a special warrant, so -- and I think I saw the Minister shaking her head yes.

The last question, perhaps, Madam Chair, is -- or maybe one more comment after that very quickly -- what is Cabinet doing to try to secure any federal support to try to deal with this huge shortfall? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, typically leave for that does, of course, fall to the Premier's Office, and I think it was made public, and it certainly was shared with Members that the Premier's Office did meet with the Prime Minister so, you know, in that sense has taken the message about as high up as it can go. And, you know, obviously as we move forward, if there are some individual areas of interest, you know, different Ministers are meeting with their counterparts. For example, the Minister responsible for emergency Preparedness would be meeting with his counterpart in the federal government or myself with CanNor if there's some specific issues but it is led by the Premier's Office, and that has already begun. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake, you have about a minute left.

Yes, no, thanks, Madam Chair. I guess lastly, I will have a number of comments that I'm going to make about the adequacy of the evacuation transport financial assistance program, whatever it's called, and the fairness and adequacy of that as well as some other supports that I think are needed as some of the other Members alluded to, but I thought that it was best to make those sorts of comments at second reading of the supplementary appropriation bill that should happen later today.

But I do want to thank my Cabinet colleagues for the work because I know that they are working very hard on all of this, so. And the public needs to recognize this, I think, as well, and we are going to need to work all together to get through this. So thanks to my Cabinet colleagues and my Regular Member colleagues as well. I will support this supplementary appropriation when it comes forward. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just have a couple kind of technical questions. I'm wondering if the Minister has any ability to put this kind of into how much we are spending per day or per week? I get you're asking -- well, it's $100 million total but, you know, if I had to wager a guess we've probably spent the vast majority of that in the last week or two. I'm just trying to get a sense of, you know, the pace at which we are spending. Is there any of that detail that could be provided? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have a vague recollection, in fact, that -- well, I can certainly, firstly, confirm that, yes, a large proportion of the spending on fire suppression has, indeed, happened over the last, say, month, and in particular in the last couple of weeks. I had a number in my head, and I'm just trying to see if I can find where in my notes that was before throwing it out inappropriately. I think I will not do that since I can't seem to find it quickly. I'll turn it back to the Member but, Madam Chair, if I find it, I will -- I'll share it. It is -- it has been a significant amount. Perhaps, I'll put it this way: We were preparing for there to be a supplementary appropriation going into the -- what was to be the August session. The number in terms of what we were looking for is -- has just -- it has astronomically grown in the space of the couple of weeks before what would have been our August session to now. So I don't necessarily know if it was -- I was estimating it was at around $10 million a week, Madam Chair, and I'm getting some confirmation that my recollection might be accurate. There you go. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize this is an emergency sitting, and I am in support of this money. I don't think we're likely to vote down what is necessary fire suppression money but I think, you know, perhaps if we could get some details out to the public about, you know, how we're spending $10 million a week, and if that is the number, and if that's going to be the number for the next couple weeks as we forecasted, and I guess in terms of a question there, I'm just wondering if we have a high level breakdown of what exactly this is being spent on? Is the majority of this helicopters and aircraft, or is this a massive thing of overtime and labour? I mean, I know it's a combination of both but if we have any of those details of what our fire suppression budget looks like as a breakdown. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, Madam Chair, I don't have a detailed breakdown in a way that I think what I'm hearing is being asked for here. There are the costs, of course, for air tanker support, then there's the cost for the helicopter support, and then there's the cost for moving crews around. There are the fires that folks are watching that are impacting Fort Smith, Hay River, Kakisa, Jean Marie River, obviously Yellowknife, but there was also fires that were impacting all the way up the entire valley. This -- there's been an estimated 70 percent of the residents of the Northwest Territories who have had to evacuate their communities and, Madam Chair, there's been more than that who are under threat of evacuation. So it's been, you know, the fires that were being dealt with are all over. And just one last note on that, Madam Chair, I want to make a point, too, that it's not because we're necessarily actioning more fires. As of the end of July, only 32 percent of the fires had actually been actioned. The focus has been on trying to ensure, of course, areas where there are populations or residences or are other areas of infrastructure. So just to get a sense that there's been a real targeted effort to focus where the spending was taking place and, you know, then keeping in mind how many other fires are actually burning and what that is doing right now. Thank you.

Thank you. MLA for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I guess at this time I'm wondering if perhaps we could get a commitment of a detailed costing breakdown to be provided. I know, I believe in our capital infrastructure the GNWT is asking for 10s of million dollars for some new planes we were buying. There was some other -- I think there's about 50 million -- or there's 10s of millions for a fire centre. There's a lot of big other ticket items. Obviously going forward, we will probably adjust the fire suppression budget and perhaps have a date about -- or a debate about more, you know, prevention and more prescribed burning in communities. So I don't know if now is the time necessarily to get into all those details but this kind of $100-million season definitely cascades into some very large decisions that have to be made by this Assembly. So if we could get a detailed breakdown provided at a later date? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the timing is certainly rather challenging in that I don't know how much more this Assembly will necessarily have in terms of time or opportunity but certainly will commit that we will get a detailed breakdown. I know there is that information around; it's just that it's coming in from sources and it's changing as the costs go up and as the fires continue to be uncontrolled and therefore difficult to predict. But we'll get that to Members as quickly as we possibly can, and certainly if there is to be another sitting before this Assembly dissolves, I am conscious that we'll have that information available in advance so it's useful. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

No further questions on the appropriation. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.