Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 388-20(1), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026; and, Tabled Document 385-20(1), 2026-2027 Capital Estimates, Legislative Assembly and Housing Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will proceed with the first item. We will resume our consideration from where we were when we reported progress yesterday.

Minister of Finance, does the Minister of Finance wish to bring witnesses into the chamber?

Yes, please, Madam Chair.

Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Would the Sergeant-at-Arms please escort the witnesses into the chamber. Committee, please turn to page 3 with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We were considering the first activity in the department when we reported progress yesterday, so I'll call that activity again.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, education, not previously authorized, $15,697,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, languages and culture, not previously authorized, $110,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, total department not previously authorized, $15,807,000. Does the committee agree?

Committee, we will now consider the Department of Environment and Climate Change on page 4.

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Environment and Climate Change, environmental management, monitoring and climate change, not previously authorized, $363,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Environment and Climate Change, policy and strategic plan, not previously authorized, $5,425,000. Does the committee agree?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, Department of Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $41,059,000. Mr. Morse.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just noting the shortfall in fire suppression activities. I guess the question I would ask, and I have some comments about it, is just the idea that this was a shortfall, and this wasn't predictable. I think that we are beyond the point where additional resources towards wildfire management are any kind of a surprise or outside of what's normal. It's been a couple of seasons, and I think that this is ongoing, and we just simply need to be budgeting for these activities considering that we're going to be seeing increased wildfire activity for the foreseeable future. Could change, and we could end up having to reduce the budget over time. But I guess I would just ask what's the justification for coming to the Assembly for a supp related to something like this? Because, I mean, I think that the department had staffed up and gotten more equipment in place and everything that they needed to respond to wildfire appropriately in anticipation of the fire season, so that tells me it was something that could have been budgeted for. So could the Minister help us understand why this is being done through a supplementary estimate as opposed to simply budgeting? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the amount available to ECC in terms of wildfire suppression has grown in its base budget. So the base budget in the main -- which is what's in the main estimates that we see in the winter session, from 2022-2023 was $18.7 million; 2023-2024 almost $21 million; and 2024-2025, $24.3 million. Then on top of which we have the supplementary appropriations in each of those years. But my point simply being that there have been adjustments over the years as well as some support that's come in through Enercan over that period of time. But at the end of the day, the actual amounts each year was then different at the end of the actuals that we saw. Actuals in 2022-2023 were only just shy of $25 million, then it jumps to $127 million, but then it goes back down to $61 million. If we over budget, then what we're doing is creating a situation where the budget has an appropriation in it that may lead to inaccuracy in the wrong direction. Obviously if we under budget, then we come back to the Assembly for supplementary appropriation, but we'd be coming back for supplementary appropriation with a more specific and exact number knowing what the costs were over the course of the year. So the base budget does need to be one that allows the department to, as the Member pointed out, staff up, enter into contracts, and so on. And then, you know, obviously, by -- you know, if, for example, in the 2023-2024 wildfire season when things -- which was, you know, obviously quite record-breaking -- we wound up in a situation of having to come back in the fall but -- or early, but it may well be that most -- in most cases, we can come back with a sense of the actuals during this setting, and then we are approving a budget based on what may or may not be happening in any particular given year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And that all sounds quite practical and makes sense to me. I guess one of the questions I would ask, I mean, it seems like our need for added capacity for fire management is growing. What are we doing to, you know, look at our base amount of funding that we get from the federal government and whether that is adequate to cover this cost? I guess I would just say it seems like we're playing catch-up on every given year. And, you know, it's very clear what the territory is facing. You know, I just saw a report come out recently showing that effectively the prediction and the modeling is starting to show that the territory is going to be facing these kinds of events more regularly for the foreseeable future without change. So we have data telling us what's coming. I think we need to be preparing for it financially, and we need to be preparing for it, you know, with our human resources and with our equipment and with all our planning.

So I guess I would just ask the Minister, I mean, what kind of engagement are we having with the federal government just about the fact that, like, our current budget is very clearly not covering it and we can only do so many supps, we can only go into so much debt. So what are we doing to address this growing need and this new reality that we're facing? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.