Thank you very much. And given that expenses have increased so dramatically over the past seven, eight years from the $19.5 million to, you know, more than double that today, so just a note that I think it's worth this government revisiting some analysis around the cost and benefits of providing more in-territory supportive living services for adults, both given costs but also the benefits of keeping families together, keeping people living in NWT. So just wanted to flag that as a note related to that item.

But moving on to facility-based addictions treatment, I have a question about how does HSS enter into contracts with certain facilities. Are these multiyear contracts? Are they renegotiated every year? And, like, what criteria do we use to decide which southern facilities for addictions treatment we have contracts with on any given year?

Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so a majority of the facilities that the department's in contact with do go through the request for proposal process, so part of the public procurement process. There's certainly a mix of different types of contracts for different types of services with different agencies across the Department of Health and Social Services, but it does go through a public procurement process in general. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are these RFPs issued every single year, or how often?

Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so, I mean, there's -- certainly there's the specific items that are here on the supplementary appropriation request. But, yes, there's different contracts that come due at different times. So, for instance, facility-based addictions treatment, we'll be having -- we'll see an RFP go out in 2024 and then for -- that would be expected to begin for the following fiscal year. But I know that there's a fairly lengthy list of contracts that are administered by Health and Social Services and could perhaps convey to my colleague that that information could be provided as part of an information or a bring forward request. Thank you.

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

That would be great. And that is something that I will follow up with the department.

Just finally, is part of the increase in costs that have led to this supplementary request just due to -- is it due to increased number of people going for out-of-territory facility-based addictions treatment or just increase in the cost of sending the same number of people to those facilities?

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I happen to know that the Health and Social Services has actually done a fair bit of work on this of late, and while I again not necessarily -- I don't have it in front of me here but I would suggest we could give that information -- there's a high number of first-time users and a reducing number of repeat users. So, you know, different factors are coming in here in terms of what might be causing this particular -- these particular increases. There certainly is also an increase in the rates being charged for the time spent at the facilities. So between an increase in patient use and that, those are driving the costs. But, again, there's also been an analysis to show that it's not necessarily repeats. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to the Member of YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that. So I'll leave that for now. I think these are good areas to follow up in -- to follow up on both to make sure that we have appropriate contracts with the facilities in the south, that we're getting good value for money, that, you know, there's appropriate oversight, and that people are getting the services they need, and to look more into these patterns of do we have more people signing up for -- than before and why. Anyway, I found this useful for now and will definitely follow up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Members, before he move on to the next Speaker, I just wanted to remind everybody to wait for their mic lights before speaking and to end your statement with a thank you. This will have -- this will make things much easier for the technical staff and those watching on -- our proceedings on television.

Next I got up is the Member from the Sahtu region.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2023-2024, the department had contracts with five southern facilities - three in Calgary, one in Naniamo, and one in Toronto. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Sahtu.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2023-2024, Department of Health and Social Services, out-of-territory services, not previously authorized $16,085,000. Does the committee agree?

Moving on. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2023-2024, Department of Health and Social Services, supplementary health benefits, and not previously authorized $5,616,000. Is there any questions? Seeing none. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Supplementary estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2023-2024, Department of Health and Social Services total department, not previously authorized $54,385,000. Is there questions? None. Does the committee agree?

Committee, we will now consider the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment on page 10.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2023-2024, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized $1,308,000. Is there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.