Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just wondering, so the total -- well, I mean, we can ask about the $6 million but also the total appropriation. Is there indications that the feds are going to be coming back to the territorial government with support for this due to it being related to a natural disaster?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there's a chance. There's a chance they would support the travel support, not the income disruption. So income disruption wouldn't, as far as we understand, qualify under the financial assistance arrangement which is really meant to support the emergency piece. So, again, so yes, that $3.6 million was a decision made early in the fire season to try to support folks who had been subject to multiple evacuations. The Travel support program came a little bit later in the fire season. Again, we made the request; we've put it in. I believe it will be going in formally with the MACA application but at this point no formal confirmation, and we're not necessarily going to count on it. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Frame Lake.

Member from Monfwi, did you -- you had your hand up earlier? Okay.

Yes, I'm just asking about this $6 million that's not, you know, previously not authorized. I just wanted to know, I know this is not enough because when the evacuation happened it created a lot of chaos, especially for Indigenous government, because a lot of our people went out and I know a lot of them spent their own money because they were -- because there was no plan in place. GNWT did not have an appropriate plan in place to help these evacuees. So I just wanted to know from this or if any of the Indigenous government are going to be reimbursed for the money that they spent to their members living in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Okay. Just so I'm clear, it's in reference to the supplementary estimates of $2,241,000. So I guess she meant the $6 million. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, again, I -- what I have here in front of me is with requests -- the requests for a supplementary appropriation related explicitly and exclusively to the Northwest Territories Travel support program. I don't have in front of me an entire accounting or budgeting for all departments with respect to events related to the wildfire season, nor do I have in front of me, nor would I in the course of a supplementary appropriation, have full details that are expected to come out in the course of the independent third-party review that I know is already underway and has been the subject of much discussion here. So this program was opened up in response to a situation and a circumstance of evacuation that the territory had never seen before, was stood up very quickly. It was stood up very quickly when people were themselves already under evacuation knowing that there would have to be a supplementary appropriation to help support it but it was an effort to try to see that some funding could be made available in addition to having available supports for accommodation and flights and air and food at the evacuation centres. So this was a very limited specific benefit paid to all eligible residents regardless of the community that they were in, and that is really the parameters of what we are requesting to have here. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.

I know this is a fourth supplementary. We're still doing budget, you know. So I just wanted to ask the Minister can the Minister give us a rough estimate of how much money was spent to forest fire and to evacuation? It must be over $300 million, or close to $400 million? That's the question. Give us a rough estimate. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't -- I'm happy to come back perhaps tomorrow if there's questions on the floor regarding the total estimated or projected costs related to both the emergency response as well as to the fire response. I'm hesitant to give rough estimates when I don't have that information before me. I don't want to contribute to the conversation in a way that won't advance it with accurate numbers. So, again, I hear the Member asking. As I said, I'll go back and make sure that we have those numbers put together. Numbers can -- values do still continue to come in. There's still work being done to put that together on the part of all departments that were involved. We do certainly have those preliminary estimates but, again, I'm here only with respect to the items that are in the supplementary estimates. So one of the prior items, we did discuss the fire suppression budgets. We have that number available. Again, the $121 million on which we were seeking an additional 24, but with respect to the full evacuation costs that is something much bigger. We had to wait for Red Cross to provide their invoices, the Government of Alberta to provide their invoices. So, again, I want to contribute to the conversation publicly in a way that is accurate, and that's not information I have here. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Before I go back to Member from Monfwi, on page 6 of your document under directorate, that's the line item we're talking about. So if we could stick to that, and we'll continue on. So I'm going to go back to the Member from Monfwi.

The reason I ask is that because we are still approving budget, and this is the fourth supplementary estimate that we're doing. So is this ever going to stop? Are we still going to be continuing onto the next fiscal year too? Or, like, I don't know. That's why I'm asking. Like, because this is our fourth supplementary budget, and we're still approving it. So it's just more of a comment. So thank you.

Thank you. Maybe that was a comment, I'll just continue on. Did you want to respond to it, Minister of Finance?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did want to respond because I can appreciate the frustration of seeing sups come back. Four sups in a budget cycle actually is pretty standard. And what I was going to suggest is perhaps I can -- and if it's of interest to the public we could certainly table it, but we could give the budget cycle showing roughly when the sups happen. You know, there's department cutoffs of when they have to put those requests in but then to get the four in is actually very common. This would be the cutoff time for the fourth one prior to the end of the fiscal year. So, again, you know, to the extent that that might help understanding the budgeting process, I'd actually be quite happy to put that out, as I said, as a tabled document or as a letter that can be part of our responses here. Thanks.

Okay, thank you. Continuing on, does the Member from Monfwi have any more comments? Okay.

Any more further questions? I'm going to continue on. Is there -- I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would the Minister be able to give me a breakdown by community how this money is spent for them by community for...

Thank you. I'm going to go to Minister of Finance for the question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can give the dates and approximate durations for each community that -- over the course of the summer and when they were evacuated. Now, whether that correlates to who applied, I don't know. So let me take that back and I'll -- I can provide this document. I mean, I can't really read out the chart here in an easy way, but I can provide that to committee and see if we do have a breakdown. I expect that that probably has been tracked to the extent that we could. I just want to go back and confirm what kind of data I do have. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be information that's just for community how much was spent in each community? thank you.

Go to Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I mean, again, if it's with respect to the $6 million that's before committee here, I believe under the evacuation travel support, one of the eligibility requirements did involve listing your place of residence and so in that sense we will be able to, I believe, break down this $6 million by residence on that basis. If it's with respect to the total fire suppression and total evacuation costs by community, that may be a bit more challenged in that I don't know to what extent there will be -- you know, some fire suppression efforts that would involve by fire as opposed to by affected community and similarly evacuation supports that would be involving, you know, bigger costs for Health and Social Services moving patients which, again, I don't know that it would break down by the community of the patient. So depending on the nature of this ask, that may be a really big one but -- that I'll have to take back and see where I can get and provide that. Again, it may be the kind of thing that comes out over the course of some of the review efforts that are happening. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Deh Cho.