Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been waiting patiently for this Cabinet to present its post-COVID economic recovery plan, and I'm starting to think they are at a bit of a loss. If they're looking for ideas, they have to look no further than the great constituency of Yellowknife North where $947 million will be spent over the next 18 years remediating the Giant Mine site. However, the GNWT seems to have absolved itself of any of the responsibility to capture the economic potential of the Giant Mine remediation project. This is to say nothing against the project team and ENR, who are doing an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that this is the unit that is kind of responsible for updating our long-term care projections. I know, in the capital budget, we passed a number, but the department is looking at adjusting some of the numbers. Also, I believe there are some lessons, perhaps, to be learned from COVID-19.

Every time we bring on a long-term care bed, obviously, there is more funding needed within the operations budget. Do we have increased funding for long-term care in this? Sorry if I'm wrong about where we would find that. Due to the capital budget requirements to build...

Thank you. I would encourage the department to get a firm date. I know there are more and more people looking to do their residencies in the North. We actually offer quite a great practice experience for doctors. There are more and more benefits, such as student loan remissions available for doctors willing to come north. Another area in the department's business plan in this section is to increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Part of that work was to do staff surveys of all of the people in the department. Can I get an update on whether that was work we were already doing or when we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of the department's business plan under this section, one of our goals was to increase local residency and implement our residency full-time. I always support increasing residency, and I believe the goal is to go from two residencies a year to four. Can I just get an update on when we expect to accomplish that, or whether we already have? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I have some clarification? My understanding is that, when we passed the initial COVID secretariat supplemental, about half of the money was isolation costs. I understand we have been getting those variance reports; we are $800,000 under budget, meaning we have a surplus. When I look at the numbers here, I assume fees and payments $15 million is mostly the isolation centres. However, now, this fiscal, we are being asked to pass $12 million in fees and payments. Can I get clarification of whether that fees and payments line is the isolation centres? If it is, why is it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a lot of work that needs to be done there, and if the department has been providing it in kind or through contract services or just leading the support, perhaps an internal reallocation to actually give them another staff person is long overdue, especially if we are going to meet the business plan goal of lowering that wait list. I wanted to move on to the FASD diagnostic clinic that MLA Cleveland started on. This is another one of those areas. Can I get the total budget of the FASD diagnostic clinic and whether there has been any increase to that? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are budgeting for a full year and hoping that we do not need a full year. It would be nice if COVID was wrapped up, but a lot of that is beyond our control. Can I just get a sense of what's going to happen, say, if we wrap this up in September, use half a year's fiscal? How do we plan to make sure that the 150-or-so staff in the COVID secretariat do not simply lose their jobs? Will they be transferred back to other positions, or are they on short-term contracts? Can I just get a little update on that, how we are staffing the COVID secretariat in light of it having to...

Thank, Mr. Chair. Yes. I guess that makes sense to me. We are not going to cut off core services anytime, but we have a yearly fund of fires to supplementary appropriation, which can range from $4- to $50 million and have large fluctuations. I think probably there is some room to have that conversation later. However, I wanted to switch to, I believe this is the funding for the Office of the Public Guardian. Can I get a clarification of whether there has been an increase to the Office of the Public Guardian? I note the department has a goal of decreasing the wait list for the number of people...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just looking at the 2020-2021 revised estimates, $31 million. We passed this in a supplementary appropriation, but I know, since that time, a number of cost-saving measures have gone on. Do we have a forecast of how much we will actually spend on the COVID secretariat this fiscal? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand there are some plans to run a deficit-reduction plan. Are we expecting that this main estimates that we are looking it for 2021-2022 will actually add to the deficit, or are we now budgeting enough that the deficit will essentially stop? I am not expecting us to pay off the $120 million, but is it going to get bigger this fiscal, as well? Thank you.