Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't -- I do believe that NTHSSA is likely to be running the program for 2024-2025 and then obviously the beginning of that business planning has only begun, we're only at the point of a mandate, and then developing the budget to support it, but this would then be one of those items that, with a commitment to continue to run it knowing that the last two years' budgeting is as I've described, that would be the kind of circumstance where the department would be expected to bring forward an adjustment to their budget to accommodate this cost. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And a quick note on -- so the upcoming YK Wellness and Recovery Centre that we talked about yesterday in our capital expenditures that is scheduled to be opened around 2026 I believe we established yesterday, I just wanted to note that if the government is hoping that we would be able to get an non-profit or a non-government agency to run this kind of facility, I would strongly advise that we start now in planning and finding those partnerships because I fear we'll be unsuccessful if we leave it up to, you know, even within a year of planning to open the centre and then start looking around for someone to run it. As we've seen, it's challenging, and so I would urge us, if we're looking to save costs and have effective partnerships going forward in running those facilities, to start early, start now.

Finally, on this section, so the costs around the Inuvik Hospital provision of security, dietary, laundry, etcetera, service contracts, how -- what are the reasons why -- it looks like they were at least a million dollar over budget. Was there monitoring of these expenses to control costs, or what were the reasons why these contracts came in so much over budget?

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So these are contract-specific up to the Inuvik Regional Hospital and the Arctic Family Centre and the Inuvik Public Health Office, so all Beaufort Delta related. And there are two specific contracts at issue. In both cases, those contracts saw increases as a result of some inflationary pressures that were being experienced. So, you know, again, not perhaps dissimilar to some of the challenges being felt in other areas of both the government and the private sector that just with -- whether between labour market shortages, increased inflation, increased expenses for insurance, or increased, you know, fuel costs, so on and so forth, all of that came in significantly higher and that is what has led to this item. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I realize my time is almost up. So just wanted to emphasize how important it is to me anyway that going forward we do our best to be realistic about what we think things are actually going to cost. I know there's some things we can't anticipate, but especially looking at past patterns, if things are consistently coming in over budget I would much rather see us have a realistic main budget than be sort of pressured or have this -- see these things come forward later in sup estimates because it definitely skews our idea of what things actually cost. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We're going to -- any further questions? Okay.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2023-2024, Department of Health and Social Services, Health and Social Services programs, not previously authorized $25,525,000. Okay, I see Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for allowing me a second time to speak. So I -- apologies if I missed anything, but the $1.187 million for in-territory child and family supports, can the Minister just explain that a bit more? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't think I did do a very good job of explaining that one earlier, if I may.

So there's variability here coming in in part with the Child and Family Services Act that was revised as well as the federal Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children, youth and families, and with that there's been changes that result to the associated costs. So that has impacted where this is at. Some elements of this line item or this activity area are experiencing a surplus, but others are looking at the increases in foster care rates that are changing. Even before we get to the March 1st date that I had mentioned, there are some increases, and there's an increased costs to the amount that's being spent in this -- in that for that regard, thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this represents an increase to kind of program commitments, not an increase in children in care? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm inclined to get back to the Members. I'm looking at the material I have in front of me and this is not -- I don't obviously have the programming area specifics, and I don't want to misstate what exactly is being increased so I don't want to also conflate the fact that bound up in here is the fact that there's an end coming change on March 1st. So I'd like to take that one back and just make sure I can get a better explanation than what I have done so far of exactly what this is for. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, again, forgive me if I've missed -- overlooked this or have misheard this, but the change to March 1st -- in March 1st, what is that change? Thank you.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On March 1st there will be increased foster care rates coming in determined after historically similar to looking at CPI. So with CPI being high, the rates go up. Thank you.

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

Minister of Finance.

It's not reflected in these numbers, which I think -- or it will be a number that we have to come up with going forward. But, again, this is -- the information I'm looking at, Mr. Chair, just to be clear, I just am not entirely sure that I'm explaining it very well, and I'd like to just make sure that I have that accurately. But there is a change that's coming on March 1st. Thank you.