Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, and I'll just point that, you know, this $15 million here going, $10 million of it was from COVID secretariat, so clearly the department did a bit of an assessment of what is needed to increase that capacity for the endemic going forward and needed an extra $5 million. But we also know the Department of Health and Social Services, even with its budget, runs a deficit consistently.

I'm just trying to understand if there is still a gap, we think, of increased COVID costs on the healthcare system going forward or whether we think you know, I know we're not going to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question about the reduction in contract services here in the management board secretariat. It's rather significant. And I'm just wondering how what contracts we expect to lose from this? I don't really understand what the management board secretariat does to be honest.

And if we don't actually expect to lose any contracts, just if someone could colour how we end up, you know, with about $700,000 of surplus in a specific accounting line for this group. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see there's $6,200,000 increased to the Housing Corporation which shows up in the Department of Finance as a transfer. My understanding of this money was that it was going to be a permanent increase to the Housing Corporation so that their grant from the government, or the GNWT, has been rather consistent for almost a decade or so.

So I'm just wondering if this is a permanent increase to what we give the Housing Corporation, and if so, is there anything that kind of reflects that in the main estimate or in the supplementary appropriations? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that there's $5,470,000 for the transformation to a polytechnic university. I'm very happy to see that this is 100 percent federal money. But I believe there was a couple million in the capital budget previously for some upgrades to the college as well. But I'm just hoping the Minister could give an explanation of what we are spending this $5 million on. Thank you.

For.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware that alcohol is of a primary concern and issue to our substance abuse issues. But I think absent action now, we will find ourselves in a similar situation to the Yukon in the years to come. We have seen increasing drug use and many people on the front lines speak to that regularly.

But my question for the Minister of Health is BC in granting this or in receiving this application, the federal Minister of Health said this is really a template for how to respond to substance abuse issues. So I'm wondering if the Minister of Health will commit to looking at...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I have asked these questions of Justice before. Today I directed them to Health because the decision ultimately made was by the BC public health asking for an exemption to the federal Minister of Health.

And so my question for our Minister of Health is does she agree with the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, 60 percent of the Canadian public, the overwhelming amount of public health officials, the federal Minister of Health, the BC Minister of Health, and really anyone who has worked on the front lines, that decriminalization is a step that saves lives and...

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to substance abuse, two principles must inform our decision. That is evidencebased decision making and harm reduction. If these are the driving principles, Mr. Speaker, we will ultimately lower the number of people addicted to drugs and alcohol in this territory.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Health spoke today in her statement, I truly believe that she believes these principles are essential to informing our decisions. However, Mr. Speaker, if we believe this, that substance abuse is a health issue, we must remove the criminal law from the picture.

Yesterday, the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've got a rather specific question about the Active Carbon Sequestration and Forestry Fund.

My understanding is this was initially a 2019 election promise by the prime minister to plant two billion trees, that's where it started I believe, and then we, for a number of years, couldn't spend it because there's a long standing kind of policy in ENR that we don't actually do tree planting and reforestation. It's a we wait for the forest to naturally regrow itself. But now it appears we are spending that money and replanting some trees. So if someone could just tell me the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think we should maybe talk about this. It's $15 million new dollars to the health authority and, you know, $10 million of that is coming from what was previously budgeted for the COVID secretariat. So I think we are in the final days of winding down the COVID secretariat. I guess I was just hoping the Minister could perhaps give us an update a few months ago when we approved the total COVID secretariat budget. There was some talk of keeping some staff on going forward as we switch to endemic status. There was some talk about perhaps keeping 811, just a bit of an...