Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I understand that. But is that not the touch point? Is that not the issue that seems to be what's causing grief? Or is that someone -- for example, I've heard stories that are on income support and then -- I know this doesn't qualify for a higher income but then would take a -- I won't say menial, but a small part-time job on the weekends, then lose the income support benefits, then left with no benefits at all. So -- and then same applies for someone who's making that -- you know, what is a living wage? I mean, there's way more and you can't really compare us obviously to the southern provinces because if you live in Inuvik and pay your $40 gigajoule for gas or if you're paying for the price of groceries and so on and so forth. So I'm just saying would that not alleviate some of the concern if we were to, and I understand that it's -- it ties in with other programs that have an income threshold but why do they all need to be the same? Why can't we look at this separately and increase that income threshold?

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

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying is that what's low income? You have two people that don't qualify for the other benefits that you just mentioned. They're making 80 grand a year. You have a couple making 80 grand a year each, or a couple making that living in Inuvik. Not a lot of money left over at the end of the month, believe it or not. If you look at the bills and you know yourself what you have to pay up there. And if you had a couple of kids in that household as well -- and, again, what I understand -- and I get it. And when I've talked to people in the department and I've talked to other people, you know, this affects likely more residents in Yellowknife than it does outside of Yellowknife, but there are some. And so my -- and I'm trying -- listen, we need to get to a solution here because I hear what my colleagues are saying as well. But if we did -- if we looked at increasing that, would that not alleviate some of our problems, is all I'm saying. And the Minister doesn't have to answer that because I know she's just answered it but, you know, that's the issue. What is considered too much to make or too little to make, I guess is the question. And I get it. It's online. And I know there's a calculator and I know you can look at it. But are those numbers realistic I guess is what I'm saying. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you. And I hear the Member. And, you know, and this is why I've said I've -- I've even raised it with my own department to make sure that we're committing to reviewing and taking feedback. And, you know, and if we're going to look as a government as to what we're going to use, that doesn't just fall on my department. And, you know, that's the thing is I don't want to be using something that's different than what housing is using, than what income support is using, and all of our programs that we provide services. And so if there's -- that's a bigger discussion than this and so at this time, you know, I -- I hear what the Member's saying but that is a bigger discussion that -- you know, that we decide, like, where and what we're going to use. And I think those discussions are already starting to happen. So thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, again, I apologize. I wasn't supposed to take this long. But, yeah, listen, our country is ran on the fact that if you make more, you pay more, and that's how our country's run, and I don't have an issue with that at all. Look at our tax brackets, and you can see that, Mr. Chair. But, again, I -- my only comment -- and I don't expect an answer -- is that I don't know why we have to be across the board with these things. We can look at individual programs and income testing differently as far as I'm concerned. But thank you.

Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions from Members before I continue on? I don't see any hands up, thank you.

There are additional information on item pages 217 to 222. Are there any questions? Thank you. Again, I'll read out -- I didn't hear, was there a question?

There are additional information items on pages 217 to 222 in your booklet. Is there any questions?

Don't see any questions -- sorry. Mr. Premier.

Thanks, and maybe I missed it. Did we call the vote for the supplementary health benefits? Because I recall we called it and then there was about three more people who spoke afterwards. So I'm not sure if it was official, or. Thanks.

We're just going to continue the next page here. We'll continue on. Thank you. There are, again -- on your booklets, page 217 to 222, are there any questions? Thank you. Members, please return now to the department summary found on page 185 with information items on pages 186 to 194. Are there any questions? Okay.

We started at 4:46. We'll just take a -- we'll just take a supper break now. We'll take a -- hang on a second.

Thank ou. I'll have to back up here from what I'm told. Anyway, I'll continue on here on pages -- no further questions. We had said that -- health and social services, supplementary health and benefit, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates $35,321,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. There are additional items on page 217, 222. Committee, thank you. Are there any questions on pages 217, 222?

Don't see none, moving on. Thank you, Members. Please return now to the department summary found on pages 185 with information items on page 186 to 194. Are there any questions? Pages 185 with informational items on page 186 to 194.

I don't see no further questions. Seeing no further questions, committee -- sorry, I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to wave a blue page or a white page or something to gain your attention.

Yeah, on this one I wanted to follow up on a line of questioning I brought to the justice Minister when he was before us, and it was just related to programming we have in place related to addictions, social programming, things like that related to the drug and gang problem that we have. The question that I was putting to him was, you know, whether policing is the best option for this, and I would purport that it is a part of it and fully open to that. But the question for the health Minister is, I guess, is do we feel that we have the appropriate level of supports in place for fully addressing these issues, those being addictions, those being mental health, in her section of the budget to make some progress on these issues? It's a pretty general question. I'm just interested to hear from the Minister on the level of attention that's been paid to that.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure where in the budget -- and if it's just the overall question on the entire budget, then I mean -- the budget that I have, I know that we have a business plan. We will be working within that to come up with, you know -- to, you know -- we're getting -- we've got the mandate now. You know, the mandate letters will come to the Ministers. We'll be looking into with our departments to look at where and how we move the business plan and the priorities of this government along. As to what -- you know, what those estimates might be, this budget here is -- you know, it's got some of the stuff that we have in there that's going to move things along. But I guess what I can say is, Mr. Chair, that there are many issues in the Northwest Territories. I mean, there's many issues that are plaguing our country nationally that, you know, that we all want to try and stress to fix. How we get there, I mean, we have dedicated staff that are -- you know, we have a Cabinet who's willing to work in collaboration with Indigenous governments to access funds and work together to try and provide the best programs and services that we can to the residents of the Northwest Territories. I've heard all my colleagues, you know, and their issues in their communities and their concerns, how -- you know, and I guess that's -- we'll do -- you know, we'll strive to be able to achieve the things that we need to do in our business plan and within our priorities in this government and if there are funds, you know, that's the -- that's the area that we work together to try and ensure that, you know, this is where a lot of the things that people are concerned about is how are we going to move forward with these priorities and, you know, we have to look at ways that we're going to generate money, we have to look at ways that we're going to work with Indigenous partners to leverage money from the feds, we have to look at the federal budget to leverage those dollars for the territories. And those don't all happen in the first six months of a government. And it's ongoing. And I look forward to continue to work with my colleagues on this side of the House and as well as my Cabinet colleagues and the leadership, and Indigenous leadership in these territories to make sure that our priorities are moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, and I do -- I do recognize that was a very general and high level question, but I guess the point I was getting at is that we do seem to have quite a focused plan for dealing with crime on the policing side and was just kind of hoping to hear from the Minister what we're doing on the social side. And a lot of that falls under her department. And to the point -- I mean, I was asked the question myself the other day and had a difficult time kind of coming up with an answer like are we doing enough? I think if we look outside and look to what Members are saying is going on in their communities and I look to the streets of my community, the answer is no. And I think that we need to, you know, keep up the pressure and continue to look at ways that we can address some of these issues. But I'll leave that as a comment, Mr. Chair. And that's it for me for now. Thanks.

Thank you. Any other Members that want to speak to this line item on page 186 to 194? Okay, I'll continue on. Seeing no further questions -- oh, sorry. Member from Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am looking at -- we could bring up, like in my riding, there's long-term and continuing care services. There's lots of my constituents or the older people that have to move to Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Simpson, or even in some cases, to Behchoko. It's tough on them. So I wanted to look at possibly looking at having long-term care in one of my communities. Because the riding is -- I know Deh Cho is a big place but the riding the Deh Cho is, again Fort Providence, Kakisa, Hay River Reserve, and Enterprise. And there are people that, you know, want to stay home. They want to stay home because of the language, because of the food, the culture, the participating. And so eventually looking at having a long-term care facility in my -- in one of my communities. One of the communities that I represent would be ideally -- I know we have the closest one is Hay River but, again, people want to stay home. I have people in Yellowknife -- we have people in Yellowknife and Hay River right now and if they could, they would rather be at home. And right now I have a seniors home there that's not -- it's not a long-term care facility. It's a seniors home where they house seniors anywheres from 50 years and older. There's 13 units there. But it's not a long-term care facility. So that's what I wanted to bring up is just having a long-term care place in my community, even in Fort Providence where people can be -- can stay home. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, right now we have long-term care facilities. And I know that the Member is aware of the one in Hay River. We have Yellowknife. We have new beds opening up in Yellowknife. We have a long-term care in the Beaufort Delta region, Fort Smith, and the Deh Cho, the Sahtu. Currently, there are expansions going on into some of those facilities. And I hear the Member that, you know, the people want to stay home. I know I hear it that, you know, closer to home, closer to the language, closer to their loved ones, closer to -- but, you know, at this time, like, the capacity to be able to care for seniors in some of the communities, you know, we try to -- when we look at housing, for instance, if we were to -- you know, in our small communities, you know, we have issues with trying to house nurses already. We have issues with trying to house teachers in those communities. We have -- you know, we have -- if we were to open a long-term care in every one of our small communities, I mean -- we do a needs assessment based on the territory and where the needs are. People can, you know, access those services to be on an application. And the needs right now, you know, are greater than what we have in our facilities and so that's why there's expansions in some of the regional areas where we have the staff that could take care of those clients. What we are doing is we're trying to expand into the small communities in home support and home care in the evenings and on weekends, you know, so that way seniors can stay at home longer, longer than they could before when we only had minimal long-term care -- home care and home support in the communities that we're basically running through Monday to Friday work hours. So thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.