Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the second stab at this.

So in wrapping up my statements on the Department of Finance, I think it's really important that we put a macroeconomic policy lens on our decisions. What I was trying to say is that the Department of Finance also is asking departments to put a fiscal sustainability lens on things. And some of that can be in conflict in that if I was asked, I could either consider a rigorous macroeconomic policy framework or just find a few things to cut that will be noticed by the least number of people, I would definitely choose the second option.

But moving on to health and social services. There are a lot of important actions in here that I support. In particular, I appreciate the commitment to clarify and redefine roles and responsibilities for Health and Social Services corporate support and program and service delivery between the department and the health authorities. That's a really important step. I would note that the actions listed under recruitment and retention strategies mostly focus on recruitment. Retention still seems to be this black box. So that's where the health care task force that I mentioned yesterday could fit in nicely.

Also, in accordance with another of the NWT Medical Association's recommendations in that March 1st letter that I tabled today, the business plan should include the objective of establishing a health care workforce plan. So that would build on the physician workforce plan that was completed in 2020 but that has not actually been implemented yet.

To put things in perspective, we currently have 310 unfunded positions within NTHSSA and 52 unfunded positions within the TCSA. And that's not certainly the fault of the health authorities because we don't have a clear idea if we're allocating funds for the services we want or we need to provide, whether our staffing models actually meet those needs, and where medical travel would be cost effective and where it would be better to provide those services locally. That is a real in-depth analysis that I'm not sure anyone within the health authorities have had the time or resources to do. And I think it's important we set ourselves on that path.

On to ITI, so in contrast to the macroeconomic policy framework being proposed by finance, I see the ITI business plan committing to basically increase the number of people and organizations funded in every sector imaginable when you look at the targets and measures. And yet we're not increasing the funding pots. So that leads me to conclude that we're proposing to just reduce funding amounts and sprinkle it around more thinly to more people and businesses and organizations. To me, that doesn't seem wise or sound according to economic principles. And I'm not sure that we always want to simply increase the number of, for example, artists or filmmakers that we're funding. I would argue that we need to increase the value of the income, the employment, and look at increasing value as opposed to just the number of people we're funding.

And finally, with ITI, again, we have a goal of a certain number of lower emission infrastructure projects or climate resilient projects in NWT parks. They picked a number of ten. So, I, again, would focus on the value for investment GHG reductions, not simply on the number of projects.

Moving on to infrastructure. My first main point here is that I don't think we can continue to advance all three of our major infrastructure projects that we've had on the books for a long time. We just need to pick one. It just hasn't worked to keep our fingers in all these pies and kind of play coy with the federal government on stating which one's our favorite. I think we need to come up with clear criteria on how we're going to evaluate what's most important and urgent based on this Assembly's priorities and just pick one. Sound simple? And no, it's not.

The business plan for infrastructure is strangely very silent on energy policy, which worries me, and specifically the role of the GNWT in directing energy with clear energy policies that will lead us through an energy transition to keep up with the rest of the world. I do appreciate that there's a policy initiative to issue some policy direction to the Public Utilities Board. So that's a good step. But we also need to extend policy direction to NT Energy and NTPC.

I would note that the renewed energy strategy is due to be released by the fourth quarter of 2025-2026. I would argue we need it sooner. We've already had consultation complete and a draft What We Heard document. I think we need to move forward on some of the recommendations in there, including developing a short, medium, and long-term roadmap for our electricity system.

Justice. Just a few comments here. I note that the measures -- so despite the fact that our mandate really emphasizes crime prevention and addressing social issues and addictions and things that would lead to crime, the measures and targets we've got in this business plan focus heavily on RCMP-related actions. So I don't see much that's going towards the crime prevention and social issues. So I think we need to add an action that basically states that in cooperation with law enforcement officials, we're going to build better, on-the-ground outreach services and integrate teams of social and health support workers to ensure that noncriminal social issues are addressed appropriately.

And I do understand from numerous statements by the Premier that that is his intention as to the approach that he wants to take. So let's just state it straight out in the business plans and hold ourselves accountable to it.

MACA. So there's some really weak targets in here. For example, in terms of supporting communities in developing or updating emergency plans, the measure is how many MACA is able to contact. So we need to strengthen the accountability in terms of making sure that our communities have emergency plans in place. And I think we need to rethink the value of -- I think the go-to move in MACA is to run workshops for communities, and that's not always the most helpful thing. I think we need to expand our toolbox there.

Okay, finally, I'm going to move on to housing, the last department. I have to say I very much appreciate the new transitional housing program for those who are returning from, say, addictions programs, so aftercare. That's a really important step. I think we also need to set some goals and targets around other kinds of supportive living facilities, including those that are focused on harm reduction, that are getting people off the street, and stabilizing them. I don't see mention right now in our plan, and I think that's a really important aspect for this Assembly.

I notice one of the goals is around -- talking about investing in Housing NWT infrastructure, including new construction and repairs, and it's mentioned that the goal is to spend $120 million over four years, but there's no context provided in here in terms of what are we actually trying to accomplish with that money, what are the goals of what's going to -- what we're going to be left with at the end of this Assembly. And it's also not clear where this money is coming from. So I would like that spelled out more in the business plans.

I actually really appreciated this section under housing that talks about the risks in terms of the challenges that are faced in accomplishing the goals under this business plan. And it articulates those risks really well. But there's not much in the way of identifying solutions or what we're going to do to confront those risks. So that stood out to me. And it's okay, but I think we need to be honest about this is going to be really challenging and we need to lay out some kind of path on how we're going to start identifying solutions or ways to mitigate those risks.

So that brings me to the end before the end of the time. I appreciate your patience. I really just wanted to get all this out now before we go line by line into the main estimates. But I very much appreciate you listening. And I know this is not a voteable item, but I hope this has been useful and that we can move forward with the discussions in a productive way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.