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

to the deputy minister, please.

I'll go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when a position is -- well, it's just as the Member mentioned, we get a position that is unfunded but it doesn't come with the funding, so those three positions are unfunded positions. But in this case, the entire budget that was transferred included all of the -- both the funded and unfunded positions that came from Infrastructure. So to go to your specific question, when a position's unfunded, if position is established in the org chart but isn't an approved position by MBS so then it doesn't have funding attached to that position, so the department has to find funding within its overall budget so for -- within vacancies, other vacancies, to fund that unfunded position. So I hope that answers the question.

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

Thanks. That does help to clarify but I just am still wanting clarity on the specific question of if it's unfunded, would it show up in the number in our budget of active positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.

No, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's good for us to know going forward.

Another question I have that's related to the Office of the Chief Information Officer, I think, so in the business plans there's multiple references to the CRTC and the importance of the CRTC or our relationship to it to support infrastructure advancement throughout the NWT, including needs coming from private industry. But can the Minister explain what is so important now about the CRTC in supporting infrastructure advancement or economic development or emergency management efforts? It's unclear in the business plans. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a fairly big question; I'll try to be mindful of time.

With respect to infrastructure investment and funding, Mr. Chair, there are funds that CRTC does either administer or have some ability to influence. So, for instance, universal broadband fund in the last government was one which helped support the extension of the fibre into Whati. Another example, Mr. Chair, is current discussions around whether or not redundancy opportunities would be able to be funded from some of these sources. To date, they haven't been, but certainly for the North where we lack a lot of redundancy, we would like to see the opportunity to have redundancy as being something that receives the opportunity to seek federal funding and build up the resiliency of the networks in the North.

With respect to emergency management, Mr. Chair, again, this is -- you know, again looking -- well, also looking at what kind of funding is available under what circumstances for, for example, increasing cellular coverage over long distance highways, which is often an issue not only here but over large stretches of the northern parts of provinces, but in an emergency that could impact territorial evacuees in some circumstances. And, Mr. Chair, also creating accessibility of telecommunications both in terms of the affordability. There's recently been announcements that we are now participating in the Connecting Families program which we hadn't been, but we've been advocating for that for a long time. But also that there may be some form of subsidy coming in the hopefully not too distant future, again through CRTC. So quite a lot happens in this space with them.

Now, that said, Mr. Chair, they are an arm's length body. They are an entity that does also -- is a decision-making body. So it's not a Minister to Minister relationships, although there is a Minister responsible. I will stop there. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so just to clarify on that, does the CRTC offer any funding to us, or they're simply -- it's the way they regulate or their policies that impacts us and that's what we're engaging with them on? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, there's both. They do have funds that they are -- that they administer that can be accessed by project proponents but there's also significant policies that they have been working on over the last several years, namely, to have a new regulatory or policy approach for the North and that scenario where we have remained active in terms of ensuring our view of wanting to have a competitive industry but also one that provides reliability and affordability and trying to find that balance here in the North where we are -- obviously have comparably limited access to infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Okay, that's helpful to know. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

All right, thank you. Are there any further questions from Members? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 175.

Finance, Office of the Chief Information Officer, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $30,906,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to the Office of the Comptroller General beginning on page 177 with information items on page 180. Are there any questions? Okay, I'm going to go to Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wish to direct my questions under the medical travel assistance program. It may not be solely in there so -- but I'm sure it's a good place to start.

I'm hearing from several GNWT employees about their medical travel and how their claims are not processed in a timely way. Does the department have a standard outlined whereby it says, you know, within two weeks, you will be paid your submitted and obviously approved travel claim? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is a standard that we do try to meet. There are thousands of claims that are -- and requests for support that are processed every year. I do certainly get some BFs on this item that come through the office, particularly when there's been a challenge where someone has an appointment and they haven't received their information about where they might be going, a flight or hotel, so we do then try to very quickly make those connections. But overall, Mr. Chair, again, it's -- there's thousands that do get processed and that where folks are able to access their medical assistance. So, again, I wouldn't say that it's a -- that I'm being told it's a chronic problem at this point. Again, we do have service standards, and we are doing our best to meet them. Thank you.