Thank you. Moving on to human resources beginning on page 160, with information items on page 162. Are there any questions? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in the department's business plans on page 97 -- I'll give the Minister and staff, to flip to that, a moment -- one of the -- oh, gosh, what are we calling them -- actions under the mandate commitment of engaging the public service to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, coordinate processes, to support long-term fiscal sustainability is the development and implementation of a Employee Satisfaction Action Plan. That includes information gathering and policy initiatives.

So I can see kind of why that was slotted under there. I guess my question to the Minister is, is a more satisfied workforce a more efficient workforce? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm not sort of a technical expert, but I don't think it's going to take technical expertise to say yes. More satisfied is more efficient, more productive, you know, easier to recruit, because you want people who will want to go and work at a place that reflects those kind of values. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll see what the next question is.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member of Great Slave.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. And I don't necessarily disagree with the Minister on that answer. I'm very keen to see what this action plan will look like once it's developed. I think the Minister is quite frank in her assessments and I'm certainly am quite frank in what I experienced in the public service since the pandemic, and what I hear from former colleagues across the GNWT, the morale is not good. And I guess how does the Minister envision an action plan that will really truly address morale? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yeah, this is something that I thought a lot about in the last few years, had a lot of hope that there would be an improvement in morale over the last Assembly, and then somewhere between multiple waves of emergency events and lockdowns and evacuations, that became very challenging and folks became even more stretched. And we wind up in the last while with employees either unable to do their jobs because they can't go into their workplaces, then, you know, publicly getting maligned for that, and then in other cases being asked to do even more even when they are in their normal work environments. So it's -- you know, and then being told they're not doing enough. So it has been a challenging few years. I am live to that. There's even, you know, survey fatigue. Although I am -- I want to say I'm very grateful people do continue to fill out the surveys. I had asked why we had to do a second employee engagement and satisfaction survey when we had still not really rolled out a response to the first -- the first one was delayed because of COVID, so here we are.

There are things that can be done. We did start to do the town halls. I've had town hall again since being in this role of this Assembly. You know, I want to do more of them. I think the Member, in fact, has had suggested to me that we should do some in person. I think that's a great idea. Yeah, there has to be, you know, across the board a number of things that can happen but, you know, engagement and hearing from folks at the frontlines, showing them that when we hear from them that we actually act on what they say. If I were to pick a few things as top choices, those would be them. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member for the Great Slave.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And, you know, I do appreciate the push and pull that I have had with the Minister of Finance on this prior to my even being an MLA. I do know that she genuinely cares about the public service and I do want to, you know, remark on that publicly because it's really refreshing to see, honestly. What I would suggest is more initiatives where you're seeking employee input. Like, the 1800, 1900 suggestions I think that you got is a good place to start. And, really, you know, having the direction that you're giving filtering down through to line positions that are frontlines, that are middle management, just it's -- it means a lot when people see you and they know that you're genuine. And I hope the Minister does do those in person pieces with staff. Thank you. That's more of a comment.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Any further questions? No further questions. Please turn to page 161.

Financial, human resources, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $22,134,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to management board secretariat beginning on page 163, with information items on page 167. Are there any questions? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and just getting my time back. This is my favorite department, apparently.

So a real quick question for the Minister. The item for the bureau of statistics, I understand it's static since the last fiscal year, but prior to that there was quite a significant reduction. Can the Minister speak to why that might be. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was a temporary increase as a result of the need to do some survey work and therefore there was some unfunded positions that were being -- that was what resulted in that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And kind of continuing along those lines but on a different line item, the management board secretariat itself is seeing a reduction, and I believe it may be due to a position reduction. But can the Minister please confirm.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, let me put that to the deputy minister, please.

Deputy minister McKay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The decrease is due to, as the Member mentioned, sustainability reductions, and that included P3 projects. So there was a person in MBS that was responsible for P3 projects, and that position has been eliminated. Thank you.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.