Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Since 20192020, the consolidated Government of the Northwest Territories public sector grew by 1,391 positions, or 27.3 percent for a total employee complement of 6,482. As the Minister of Finance noted in Restoring Balance: A Fiscal Sustainability Plan for the 20th Legislative Assembly, "when the public sector grows, associate costs such as employee benefits, pension, dental, health insurance, other ancillary supports like IT hardware and maintenance, office space, etc. also increase."

My questions to the Minister of Finance are:

Can the Minister provide the total money...

Much appreciated. No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I do feel for the Minister because she's not responsible for Health and Social Services so perhaps when these substantiations are coming forward, Members are going to are bound to have more programspecific questions, that the responsible departments can provide a bit more detail to the Minister at the table. So they can answer these questions directly before we vote on the financial item. That's just a general comment. Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course there's other forms of clean energy but often they aren't good enough for the Northwest Territories given our high need for quality energy. Is nuclear on the table and has I'll just ask the Minister that. Is nuclear energy on the table? Thank you.

So, again, I don't want to jump too far ahead, and I note the time, but I'm just the difference between the benefit provided to the public service and the benefit provided to the public is significant. Oh, I see I have more time now. So what if you'll indulge me, like what is the I can only imagine there's more members of the general public accessing medical travel than public servants. So why do we have a difference in the numbers? Thank you.

Which is reflected thank you, Mr. Chair. And is that reflected in these numbers, or is that an additional cost that will have to come up? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, mining is fundamental, and I want to ask the Minister of Infrastructure how we are changing our policy environment to better support the mining sector and get exploration back on track. Can the Minister give an update on the Taltson project as it is crucial to providing cheap, affordable, clean power to the Slave Geological Province. Thank you.

My colleague from Boot Lake just said we could build a very nice dental clinic for $8 million. So there's clearly a problem here. How it's not this Minister's job to solve it but when you're assessing these kind of applications in terms of an overall fiscal sustainability, does the department have a perspective that we need to solve this at a fundamental level rather than just throw more money into the medical travel program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this represents an increase to kind of program commitments, not an increase in children in care? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's good news. I'd like to ask the Minister if she'll join my mission to MARS and get online map staking done by 2026 or earlier? Thank you.