Thank you. Committee, we'll continue with the Department of Finance. Turning to page 3. Are there any questions? Don't see any hands up.

Summary of interim estimates, item 5, Finance, appropriation authority required, $97,645,000. Does the committee agree? Thank you.

Committee, we will continue with the Department of Health and Social Services. Any questions? Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I know that the purpose of this interim budget is to keep the lights on, keep core operations going. And in terms of health and social services, some of our essential services that we provide to our vulnerable populations, some of them we provide directly through the department of HSS, such as our day shelter here in town, and those operations will continue. And as we've seen it's much more expensive to run it in-house so instead we often contract out some of these essential services to non-profits and agencies.

So one example of this is the Yellowknife Women's Society currently runs the Spruce Bough transitional housing facility with harm reduction programs, and the women's society was recently informed that the current funding that they're receiving just for operations, to keep the lights on so to speak, was actual -- is actually ending March 31st. And I know that it was -- it's ending because it was obtained through a federal funding that was COVID related and that's coming to an end; however, this facility, which provides essential services to a vulnerable population, is in danger of not being able to keep the lights on as of March 31st. And so I'm wondering first if the Department of Finance, or others, have been able to find at least some interim funding past March 31st to help keep the lights on in this facility or if it would be possible to add a little bit of money into the interim estimates to, again, keep the lights on at the Spruce Bough? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your question. I'll go to Minister Wawzonek.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that -- I mean I have, you know, good news and bad news. The good news is departments will now have their funding as of April 1st for at least a portion of the year to go about their business. And certainly to the extent that a department may find that it is -- that's providing a program or a service that they can't otherwise contract out or can't otherwise, you know, see another path forward on, they may well be able to find that funding. They will now have funding as of April 1st. Without the interim estimates, they don't have an appropriation as of April 1st. So that's the good news. The longer term, though, in terms of what this funding might look like or, you know, going forward what the structure or the services, who should be providing, should it be contract, all of those decisions, those are longer conversations and bigger decisions, part of business planning for the departments between housing and social -- housing and health and social services and, indeed, to the extent that there may be an initiative that gets brought forward again, that too would fall under the work that will happen now that we have priorities and can move forward to having a mandate.

So that's a fairly long question. I apologize, Mr. Chair but, again, interim estimates aren't meant to necessarily be around, you know, a new initiative or extending of an initiative but really are sort of a keeping lights on. But keeping the lights on, again, does include providing those core services and operations, whether it's under housing or health and social services. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Wawzonek. I'm going to the Member of Yellowknife North.

Yeah, and I understand this may not be able to be resolved today, but I think it speaks to sort of a dilemma we have that, you know, this is -- this is not a new initiative or like a temporary initiative. It's at the moment keeping 26 people housed that otherwise would be on the street and -- yeah, I guess I'll leave that for now but just wanting to put out that in the future I think we need to reconsider how we fund services like this, that I think we would all agree are essential and sometimes we do in-house and sometimes contract out but very much take for granted that there are volunteers and non-profits in our communities who will sort of hold that safety net.

I did have one more question about health and social services and the interim budget. I'm wondering if to adjust the anticipated high demand for health services and as we know we have ever rising costs as we rely on agency nurses and locum doctors as we were just talking about, I'm wondering if further contingency is required for the Department of Health and Social Services around compensation and benefits to ensure that we will have appropriate staffing just over the interim for the next few months.

Thank you. I'll take it as general comments. And I am going to continue on. Any further comments from Members? I don't see any.

I'm going to -- committee, we will return to the summary of interim estimates, item 5, Finance, for official Hansard records, the appropriation authority required, $95,645,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Summary of interim estimates, item 6, Health and Social Services, appropriation authority required, $201,071,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we'll continue with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Are there any questions? Okay, thank you. No hands are up.

Summary of interim estimates, item 7, Industry, Tourism and Investment, appropriation authority required, $24,073,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the Department of Infrastructure. Is there any questions? No hands up, I don't see. We'll continue on.

Summary of interim estimates, item 8, Infrastructure, appropriation authority required, $110,446,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will continue with the Department of Justice. Turning to page 4, is there any questions? Don't see any hands up. Thank you.

Summary of interim estimates, item 9, Justice, appropriation authority required, $56,259,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will continue with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Is there any questions? No questions, I'll continue on.

Summary of interim estimates, item 10, Municipal and Community Affairs, appropriation authority required, $97,313,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Now we will move on to the operation expenditure total appropriation authority required, $782,345,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Now moving on to page 5, schedule 2, borrowing. Borrowing plan for the government reporting entity and established borrowing limits for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Total government borrowing established limits per 2024-2025, Appropriation Act, $1,315,826,000. Does the committee agree?