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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's a fairly, I think, lengthy area of things that fall under this. So some of this is the GHG grant program, the commercial industrial greenhouse gas grant program are included within. Arctic Energy Alliance gets a significant amount of funding from the department through this allocation. Active carbon -- active forestry carbon sequestration is under this, which is something administered by the Department of Environment and Climate Change. And energy retrofits on ferries comes under this one as well. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister just kind of describe the low carbon economy leadership fund itself kind of holistically; what it is, the time period that it extends through, and -- yeah, I'll start with that. Thank you.

To the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this comes in under the framework of -- from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change is meant to support different regions across Canada meeting GHG reduction targets, the 2016 Paris Agreement reduction targets. So these different funds are negotiated with all jurisdictions to provide funding towards that goal and specifically towards the goal of having projects that will help either generate economic growth that is under a clean growth envelope and/or projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member of Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the fund have time constraints on it? Is it something that we receive money for every year, or is it coming to an end at some point? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the original agreement came into effect in August of 2018 under which there was expected $31.2 million over the course of four years. There was a brief extension of that agreement which took us into 2023-2024, and that's being reflected here. I can say that the Department of Infrastructure is currently engaged with Environment and Climate Change Canada towards determining what the next form of funding might look like. And to my latest estimate, or my latest information up to today -- or up to a couple of days ago anyways, was that we had not yet finalized an agreement for 2024-2025 but nor had any other jurisdictions in Canada. Thank you.

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

So, you know, it's kind of stating the obvious, I suppose, that the next fiscal year is really just a month away. Does the Minister expect that this funding is going to be secured before that time?

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

That was an excellent question, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that certainly obviously doesn't relate to the sup, and I'm speaking at this point really with the Department of Infrastructure hat on. It's been brought to my attention that it's a concern at this point. This is an area where we provide a significant amount of funding to the -- you know, exactly as was asked earlier, Arctic Energy Alliance for instance, as well as other initiatives. So, you know, at this point we are still expecting that some new tranche of funding will be negotiated but, again, at this moment in time I don't have that. So, yes, am I worried? I will certainly be following up. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I know there's lots of people in our community who access the programs that Arctic Energy Alliance has put in place under this funding and would be concerned to hear that it might be -- that there's difficulties obtaining funding to keep it going. So I would appreciate if the Minister would keep us in the loop about that.

Just back to the funding itself, the total was -- I believe the Minister said $31.2 million. So have we managed to spend the entirety of that amount within the required time under the funding agreement?

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So some of these programs are application-based which -- so it depends on the amount of applications received and also can depend upon when work is done, which would then affect when the money is disbursed. So as far as -- just to ensure -- and also I'm sorry, I should also note that some of the individual areas where the funding is allocated are -- do permit to have carryovers. So I will need to just double check to see if, in fact, it is all expended. It looks that it has been, Mr. Chair. And if I am incorrect in that, I will certainly correct that at the earliest opportunity. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would appreciate hearing back from the Minister. And just I guess the clarification I'd like is if it hasn't been fully spent, the question of course is are we going to have the opportunity to spend it, or does the funding simply lapse on April 1st? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's going to be a question for the future. It's probably not one the Minister can answer now. Thank you.

Thank you. Take that as a comment. I'm going to move on to Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister's offer and/or commitment to meet with committee around Marine Transportation Services. Quickly, can she speak to, since this isn't her portfolio, if whether the department is working with ECC on water level monitoring and projections for the coming year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.