Okay, we'll continue on. We've got that issued resolved. We'll continue on with the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we were just in the middle of an explanation as to possible impacts to public services of the reductions to the line of community clinics in health centres for primary care.

I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So going back to the COVID endemic funding. So when that sunseted, we also -- and I announced -- remember, I did that long list of all of the different funding pots that we just recently -- so the shared health priorities that we got funding from Health Canada for activities under the new bilateral agreement and the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians, which includes family health services, health workforce and mental wellness, substance abuse, that was an increase of $4.382 million to this budget. There was an increase with the collective agreement. So that offsetted -- so those positions that we had -- that long list of positions that ended with the sunset funding of COVID, we tried to mitigate that with a lot of the new positions that -- and it also covered some of the positions that were -- you know, where we were keeping with that funding. So it's kind of more of a math thing in here. We've sunsetted this much, and then there was an increase of the $4.382 million to offset some of those costs in that area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. The time has ended on the ten-minute mark. I could put your name back down if you wanted to go further. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad to see that the -- there's an increase of 6 percent. Hopefully it's going into the right programs, being as efficient as it could be. And when we hear a lot of the news on lack of nurses, so we got to rely on agency nurses, and we hear the ongoing delivery problems with medical travel, pre-assessments, so when I hear that and I look at the business plan and the supported financial documents to that plan and I look at the list of programs and -- or health and social programs that this department's offering and services and so on, so taking a real wholistic approach to this, knowing there is some weaknesses out there, is the department going to entertain or going to pursue an outside management evaluation of this department? Is it part of that goal to see -- to seek an outside opinion on where can we improve, what policies need to be changed, what funding has to be moved to be more efficient because of the demand? So I just ask that question, if there's going to be an outside evaluation to help improve our system of delivery, including staff retention? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there has been a number of reviews within this department, and one of the most recent -- you know, we have the governance review. And I have mentioned it in this House, and we're finalizing reviewing that. It was an outside independent review of the governing structure of the NTHSSA. And within programs and policies, I think that's one of the things where when I look at with programs and policies, this is where the direction of the mandate, the direction of the business plans, you know, this is our job as the -- as the Legislative Assembly and, you know, the direction of our priorities to put the -- put that focus on where we want to see this department going. And I think when we look at our business plans as one of the areas that -- you know, when we talk about putting those high level in the business plans to our departments to give that direction, that is where that -- you know, that leads what policy work and things that are going to be reviewed and followed up and held by this House to make sure that that's what's happening. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member of Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, it was more of a suggestion on how to improve our management system. The management system is really the governing organization of this department, and if we have collectively identified various weaknesses how do we fix that. So it was just a suggestion. We do have a co-management structure in place called our territorial wellness and regional wellness councils. So I've been telling some leaders back at the Sahtu, we have this joint venture, or whatever you want to call it -- in this case co-management system -- to deliver and improve our services because our people are coming to us for assistance to mitigate through that. So that vehicle or that wellness council could be used in our headquarters to see how we can improve out there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Did the Minister want to respond to that?

Yes. No, I appreciate the Members, you know, putting the word out there on the regional wellness councils because one of the things that I do as the Minister is I work closely with the leadership council, and they are the governing body of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority and they are -- you know, they get the direction on, you know, what our priorities are as well, and they are the ones that are the administrators of all of the health programs. So it's really important that the Northwest Territories realize that those regional wellness councils are the voice of the regions, and those issues that they bring forward to the territorial leadership is what guides the governing council, which is made up of all the chairs, to direct the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority as well as direction from, you know, myself with, you know, with the chair. And coming from this House, you know, like, the priorities of this government, you know, that's what directs. And so I appreciate the -- this is a collaboration between -- and that model was very supported by Indigenous governments as it is the voice of the regions. And so it's very important that regions know that when people are being appointed to there how important their role is in the voice of the regions of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all I had at this point in time. Mahsi.

Thank you. Is there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.

I see in here community clinics and health centre, there's a decrease. So what programs and services are affected by this decrease?

Thank you. I'm going to go over to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is where the sunsetting is, so the labour market supplements and the COVID endemic funding. That is what is the decrease within this department. Thank you.

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

Thank you. And the community mental wellness and addiction recovery, I think this is where that -- the transitional programs or for housing, for addiction recovery, I think you said it's under this community wellness. I just wanted to ask, I know that we've been talking for last two days the impacts of drugs that it has on our communities, on our people. And in Behchoko alone, you know, like, I mean, we have huge problems. And when our residents, they go for treatment, some of them they go back to the same old, everything's still the same, there's no change to the place that they're returning to, and there's nothing. There's no aftercare. So some of these people that we're talking about, they last a day after spending like two months. And I know that it's greatly needed. I'm glad that you guys identified that. But it's going to Inuvik and Yellowknife. But some of the people don't want to leave our community. So I know there's a great need for one in Tlicho region because we still have issues with -- because of there's no aftercare, some of these residents are going back to a place where, you know, all the activities is still happening and they're still homelessness, you know. We really do need a program similar to the one that's going to be in -- that's going to be allocated in -- or going into Inuvik and Yellowknife. We need that service in Tlicho region, probably in other regions as well, because for the last two days we've been talking about the impacts of drugs and alcohol, especially drugs, you know, that it has on our people. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- I know it's not in here in this budget but if they can -- I'm just wondering is that a pilot project?

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what we -- I guess where to start is that the department, you know, working with -- as I mentioned, with housing and Infrastructure, did kind of a callout to and got some interest from different NGOs, and so we were able to come to an agreement with two within the funding agreements -- like, within the funding and the resources that we do currently have to be able to move forward on two. However, I hear the Member. I know this is a -- you know, we don't know how it's going to work but we know it's better than what we have. You know, there's nothing, right, for aftercare. So I think this is a great initiative, and I look forward to this initiative being able to support people in those two communities. And, you know, I've always -- you know, I will -- any Indigenous government, any NGO that, you know, I think would benefit from these in most of our communities but as right now, we're -- you know, our resources are tied into these two programs. That's what we have enough for. If there are Indigenous governments that want to work together and, you know, and they have idea of things like this, this is where I think we want to do things differently. We want to work with Indigenous governments. You know, if they can access funds -- like, there's new -- like within the 2024-2025 federal budget, there are different pots of funding that are specific for Indigenous governments under mental wellness, and I think that we will find out what those details are. We have stressed from the Northwest Territories to the federal Minister of health on what the needs are of the North. And so we're hoping that will help form their decisions and policy to be able to support us in the Northwest Territories for more programs like this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you. Thank you for that. And I'm sure our leaders are listening, so I guess, you know, I am glad that, you know, that you said -- well, that this government is working really hard to maintain a good working relationship with the Indigenous, which is good. So I know that something -- this kind of program, it's good for other regions as well. So hopefully we will keep it in mind for the next fiscal year, you know, because due to the resources we have.

So this program for -- the transition program that's going to Yellowknife and going to Inuvik, is that going to be operated -- the service provided by the health and social services or NGO? Thank you.