Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it is formally in -- we are currently in year 3 of 4. There are some stages that certainly will continue on. So where we are expecting this year is to be in a -- to have the formal contract to a contractor completed and a solution in full design over the coming year. That will be implemented in the -- in sort of late or mid-2026, and then there's -- thereafter in the project, there's training of our own staff to ensure that they can utilize this new system but that is different from the construction, if you will, of the IT system. So for the construction of the IT system, it's our expectation that that will be fully implemented in, say, mid 2026, so just into the next fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions on that.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Any further questions?

Seeing none, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. Department of Finance, capital investments expenditures, Office of the Chief Information Officer, not previously authorized, $2,903,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Total department, not previously authorized, $3,381,000. Are there any questions?

Seeing none, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. Department of Finance, capital investments expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $3,381,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will now consider the Department of Health and Social Services on page number 12. Administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $4,761,000. Are there any questions? Okay, to the Member of Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I certainly wouldn't dispute the need for health information system improvements and charting tools and -- can the Minister explain why these were not completed in 2024-2025 when they were budgeted for and why they've had to be bumped forward another year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me start, if I might, with the health information systems charting tool. There's a couple of items all listed here so just so I'm talking about the right item. But this is the electronic health record project. This is a multi-year project. It is underway; I can say that much. But there was -- let me just see if I can -- sorry, Mr. Chair. There's been some changes to the project timeline, and specifically, here we do have -- sorry, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure I'm on the right project.

Let me see if the deputy minister has it, the right one in front of him, Mr. Chair. If I could send it to him, please, to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this project, as the Minister noted, involves a number of steps and initiatives that are interlinked, and all of them start with the -- in 2023-2024, when the diagnostic imaging replacement was completed. So once that was done, they were able to move on to the next portion of the project so that was -- so that kind of delayed everything else, so that's why this amount has been carried over for all of these projects, so it's delayed the projects that are integrated. Thank you.

Thank you, deputy minister McKay. To the Member, Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister know whether these projects can actually be completed in the coming year, or do we have estimate times for when each of these three projects will actually be completed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can, at least, share what the revised timelines are anticipated to be at this time. So right now, there's -- the charting tool is expected to be underway for procurement in this current fiscal year with implementation expected then the year after. As we've said, there are a number of components here that are making it a bit difficult to say exactly the specific dates of one or the other, as they are interrelated. But laboratory information system upgrade, that work is underway. It was begun, and it is proceeding we're expecting this fiscal year, 2025-2026. Similarly, sharing of information to and from Alberta, that too has already had its basic planning as being -- is already underway as of last fiscal year and continuing this -- the current year, although I don't have an update as to what the latest status or expectation would be on an implementation date. Health information -- sorry, health information data repository, that too entered its planning phase in 2024-2025 but they are expecting to begin at least initial implementation of a project this current fiscal. Last but not least, Mr. Chair, integration engine platform replacement, that too got underway in terms of its planning last fiscal, and we are expecting to be in procurement for that replacement this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I didn't hear anything in that list about professional licensing modernization. I may be looking at a different list than you, but do you have an estimate for when that professional licensing modernization will be complete? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just bear with me for one moment, Mr. Chair. This project has now been underway since 2022-2023 and the solution, as it does sometimes prove to be the case with a number of different IT projects, what was initially expected to be the final solution has proven to, in fact, be more difficult in terms of it not aligning to the needs of this -- of the office. So at this time, Mr. Chair, yeah, so that did delay the project that we didn't have -- it wasn't -- the suitability of the originally anticipated solution. So instead, what we are looking to do is it's called the one-touch solution so it's -- that is now being moved in. Yeah, Mr. Chair, as sort of the dates here, I don't have a date in front of me, unfortunately. But I could certainly get back to the Member with an anticipated date. Thank you.

Member of Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have further questions at this time, but it does sort of concern me that these big multi-year health information system type projects, which are so critical and foundational to our system, if we're -- if we're sort of fumbling or choosing the wrong system and then it takes us years to sort of pivot and find a different one, I guess I'm concerned about the process internally for ensuring that we have the right choice or the right direction to begin with so we don't waste a number of years pursuing the wrong types of solutions, but I will follow up on that through other channels. Thank you, Mr. Chair.