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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, there is, again, a very, very high volume of requests for medical travel support over the course of a year, and fortunately, most do not come to a political level. I do get a handful of BFs or inquiries from colleagues in this room through the course of the year. It's certainly -- but it is not -- it's not hundreds that I'm receiving. The vast thousands do go through a usual process and/or -- and even if there are problems -- and I'm not saying there's not problems that don't come to all of us, but that they are able to go through the usual processes. It's pretty operational, so I'm going to suggest this go to the deputy for kind of a step by step description that can hopefully help. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, it's pretty straightforward. So the person that contacts you to arrange for the travel is your point of contact. So that's the person you should contact first. You can also escalate that to the director of FESS, so that's financial employee shared services, and, you know -- and then I guess you could take it to your MLA, but -- I agree with the Member that that shouldn't be the -- that shouldn't be the case, well, ever, but it should be very rare. So we will take -- we are aware of those concerns, and we will ensure through internal communications, that GNWT employees know how they can contact the government to get an update on the status of their repayment. So we'll take that back and think of a way of communicating that a little better. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go -- I got one small, quick question from the Member from YK Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate my colleagues as well for this extra second. What would it take to bring it down to a -- say, a two-week standard as opposed to a 30-day standard? Again, recognizing that some of this is a lot of money, is there a way to practically do that just because of how much money can be outstanding for some people given -- well, I don't have to go at length, Mr. Chairman. That's only my question is, what would it take for the department to do that? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Mr. Chair, I -- I mean, I guess I'd have to start with the first question which was around getting the data of how far we are behind, if when we're behind, and what that sort of level of being behind is. I will put a plug in, Mr. Chair, that -- because, again, we want to make sure we're meeting our 30 days before we start to look at 14 days. If individuals, if staff know that they've gone for medical that they're going to have a particularly large incurrence, a particularly large impact from whether it's the nature -- length of travel, nature of treatment, whatever it might be, it is possible to do cash advances. And I've seen that certainly come through at times where, again, a person would go to their benefits officer and have a discussion around what the circumstances are and whether an advance is required or necessary and would certainly want to include or encourage people to consider that. Generally, it is paid upfront, but if -- again, if there's circumstances that are changing in their life or changing in the course of treatment, it is possible to get it in upfront and to have something advanced. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I got three more speakers. What we'll do is we'll take a five-minute break to give the translators a short break and then resume in about five minutes. Thank you.

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Order. We'll continue on. Next on my list I have is the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And pardon me, I have a little cough drop in my mouth.

I want to -- he's not here at the moment, but I want to thank the Member from Yellowknife Centre for raising all those questions just now. I would also like to talk about the GNWT medical travel assistance. I was hoping that finance could provide more details about the $7.4 million increase, especially noting that last year's was a reduction from the 2023-2024 of approximately the same amount. So I'm just wondering why it's going back up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me send that first to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I might have to refer this to the director. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the director.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Certainly, not a problem. So in this year -- I'm looking at main estimate, page 178 -- the total estimate for medical travel assistance is $20,232,000. In the main estimates of 2024-2025, it was at $13,088,000. And then in the fiscal year prior to that, we have an amount of $20,295,000. So it's kind of like a bouncing ball. It was high, it went back to -- it went down, and now it's back up again, and I was just wondering what the rationale for all of that was. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to clarify, the numbers that I have before me in 2024-2025 for main and revised estimates are no longer accurate? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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