That is on the total, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. Member of Range Lake.

Thank you, much. Yeah, I think we just go back to, like it's much like the medical travel discussion we've had. Like, there's an issue here we need to solve because this is just going to end up costing the taxpayer more and more as time goes on, not less and less. And there's an additional cost to staff morale and productivity within the health care system that needs to be looked at as well. And I know the health Minister is here listening, finance Minister's here. I am confident we are going to move forward as an Assembly on this and look at health care sustainability as we move into budgets that are not primarily in term of supply and are actually operational budgets. So I look forward to what's coming in May and June when we get a real picture of what measures are being put in place to control the use of agency nurses and hopefully to ban them in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Your time is up. I'm going to move on. Is there any further questions? Don't see any, I'm going to continue on now. Supplementary estimates -- oh sorry, I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I will start with just one question about the agency nurse budget. And so was anything allocated for agency nurse contracts in the main budget for 2023-2024, or is this all coming forward in supplementary requests?

Go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's this component here, and then the remainder of that 5.5 that I had mentioned is coming from a reallocation. The Stanton Legacy Building hasn't come online as anticipated, and so some of what had been allocated to that was able to be moved for -- to put towards this. Thank you.

Thank you. YK North Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess what I'm getting at is did we not budget for any agency nurses in the 2023-2024 budget? And if so, was there an assumption that we would not need any? Leading to the question, how could we have been so far off in our assumption or prediction that we expected we would need none, and we ended up needing $5.5 million worth. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, as of right now, or at least as of February 20th, I understand there were only seven agency nurses employed. So the number can vary fairly significantly. And obviously it's certainly hoped for reasons already described to not require any. In order to offset the need for agency nurses with vacancies within the department, those staffing dollars, when a position is vacant, can then be utilized to deal with the vacancy, namely, by bringing in an agency nurse. It's not supposed to be a long-term solution. So obviously if they're fully staff or more fully staffed, then you don't need to have an agency nurse. But it's not a budget item. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So moving on to child and family supports, which we see an increase in $1.187 million over expected budget this year. What is the source of some of the increased costs more than was anticipated for 2023-2024?

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I will just need a moment here to see -- well, one of the sources for the increases, Mr. Chair, is an increase to the foster care rates that's being implemented. There's also -- actually, I think that's probably it. That's probably it, Mr. Chair. If I'm incorrect, I will -- oh, and then, of course, there's an increased number of placements as well, which is then driving that further given the increase to the rates. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to go to the Member for YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So that is disheartening to hear that there are increased rates of children in foster care. I just want to confirm -- and this is sort of a running theme of my mine throughout these deliberations, but confirm that going forward budgets will be adjusted accordingly based on the new foster care rates so that we don't have to keep coming back for supplementary estimates?

Thank you. I want to go to the Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, I first just wanted to note I was misreading the change and the increase to the rates is coming in in March of the -- well, of this year, but this is really just attributable to the fact of there being an increase in overall costs in the program and the increase in individuals who are relying on that. But, you know, as far as how the budgeting process works, when -- if there are -- for example, when there's an increase in the contracted rate, that is the kind of item that a department may bring through the forced growth process because it's an unavoidable increased cost. So that would then find the change in the ongoing budget of the department would be affected through that process if approved at the financial management board as opposed to a discretionary change. Or if there's a demonstrated or proven increase in numbers and usage, one that can't be mitigated, one that can't be resolved otherwise through some other change in the system or process, then, again, that too may be an instance where a department might bring that request forward into the forced growth process and then we would see the change in the main estimates. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So moving on to the Yellowknife shelter and sobering program, so there's a request for almost $2 million in supplementary funds. Can the Minister tell us what was the total cost of operating these facilities this past fiscal year, so whatever the budgeted amount was plus this supplementary almost $2 million?

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The annual operation funding requirements with this are looked at at around $2.5 million for -- and, yes -- sorry, for 2022-2023 projected for 2023-2024 to be -- I'm sorry, I think I said my numbers backward, Mr. Chair. $5.2 million for 2022-2023 and projected $5.1 million for 2023-2024. Thank you.

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