Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just to reassure the Members, so the two items here related to the barren-ground caribou and the Peary caribou are -- the supplementary appropriations are only for additional money that is coming from ECCC, which is Environment and Climate Change Canada. There are some new funding opportunities or renewed funding opportunities with the federal government in that these supplementary appropriations bring that money in and make it available to ECC here, but it is not the sum total of all the work that ECC does in the space of wildlife management. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Yeah, well, that's good. Then maybe we can identify and include woodland caribou in there as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I made sure that the Minister of ECC was nodding along. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $41,059,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Environment and Climate Change, total department, not previously authorized, $46,847,000. Does the committee agree?

Committee, we will now consider the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs on page 5.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, governance and service integration, not previously authorized, $373,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, total department, not previously authorized, $373,000. Does the committee agree?

Committee, we will now consider the Department of Finance on page 6.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Finance, directorate, not previously authorized, $12 million. Does the committee agree? Member for Frame Lake.

That's okay, Madam Chair. As I said before, there's a lot of lakes in Yellowknife.

The first question I have on this one is, is any percentage of this $12 million needed to be required because of the acquisition of infrastructure associated with the takeover of Hay River infrastructure by NTPC from Atco? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

No, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake.

Okay, thank you. That's a fairly simple answer. Can the Minister help us understand the need for this additional funding, why it came about, and just the basis for it. Thanks.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so this is to do with the low water events of the last couple of years. So there's a couple of different tools that are used to manage low water. One is the rate stabilization fund that people would contribute to in small portions over the course of time and to which the GNWT at times has to contribute to maintain that fund, but -- and this is the second year of funding where in order to maintain the fund to the level required by the public utilities board, the GNWT has stepped in to support because the drawdown has been more significant than what was available in the fund. It certainly would be the hope that -- it is expected this is the last year that this would happen but that longer term having the rider there would allow us to mitigate those costs over a longer period in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Is the Minister aware of any data that the department -- I know that the department of ECC collects data on changes in water levels throughout the NWT. Is there anything indicating that the current low water levels have any chance of changing over time? What I'm asking is should we be expecting that this problem is going to continue?

Thank you. Minister of Finance.