Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the vast bulk of the airline funding is coming from the federal government and I'm not sure they are prepared to fund us to take an equity stake in our local airline. And, again, the conversation hasn't been had, Madam Chair, to be quite clear.
As far as adding route, the funding that is being made available is to support the existing and really the essential services routes in terms of moving supplies and moving people within the territory and south. Right now, this is our only route to the south so all supplies, any travel, particularly medical travel, is reliant on this. A new route would certainly, you know I don't know what kind of analysis Canadian North would need to do to determine the costs of adding that new route. And I anticipate that for them to do that may well change the financial information that they are providing to us, which would then change the determination of what they would be entitled to under the approach we've taken with the entirety of the system. So as much as anyone else, I would love to get on an airline and go just about anywhere right now, I'm sure some conversations can be had about what that would look like and whether it would be possible but it certainly hasn't happened to date because to date, it was a matter of getting the funding to flow to maintain the routes that we have. You know, and I think it's easy to commit them to say that we can try and look into that between now and hopefully there's a I think there should be a fourth round of funding. We'll see how that unfolds with the federal government. And if that's the case, then before we get there, let's, you know, we can at least look into it at that point and see what that particular might be.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I appreciate that. I think, you know, there's probably some goodwill after you give the airlines millions of dollars to and I'm not asking for a new route, I'm asking for the return of the sorry, too many noise. The Air North and the Canada North code share route, Yellowknife to Whitehorse. And, you know, I've heard some rumors that if the travel bubble gets going, that they may be willing to do that themselves. So just a commitment that the Minister of Finance will reach out to those airlines about the possibility of that happening. I think it could be a win for us. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to make that commitment. Again, I'm not sure if it will qualify as an essential route unless we can describe our mental health as an essential service to Whitehorse, Madam Chair. But there's certainly no harm in asking what it would entail to bring it back and if there's anything to be done, I'll bring it back to the House to let people know. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North, anything further? No? Okay.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Finance, management board secretariat, not previously authorized, $15,882,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Finance, office of the Comptroller General, not previously authorized, negative $233,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Finance, total department, not previously authorized, $15,350,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Health and Social Services on page 9. It's a good page.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $279,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary estimates (operations expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Health and Social Services, health and social programs, not previously authorized, $4,548,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There's $100,000 to the Child and Family Services contribution here. I believe the word "contribution" clarifies this, but this is not you know, the $40million budget of Child and Family Services, this will be given to the Foster Family Coalition to support foster families through their contribution agreement, is that correct?
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm just very excited to see this $750,000 towards the antipoverty fund. I think we all support, you know, helping NGOs through this time and trying to, you know, ultimately end poverty in the Northwest Territories. But I know there's been some concerns in the past about the antipoverty fund doesn't necessarily address the systemic issues of poverty. Can I just get an update on I believe there's a review underway or whether there will be any changes to how we disburse the money under the antipoverty fund, seeing this $750,000 added. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Madam Chair, if I could direct this to the Minister of Health and Social Services, please.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yeah, thank you. We're not talking about systemic level funding here. We're talking about bandaids. They're important but they are temporarily solutions primarily for foodrelated wants. To end poverty meaning adequate housing, food, and every other kind of indicator would require hundreds of millions of dollars. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps I'll save debate on the cost of ending poverty for another time. I just hope that the funds had some clear aims to be used for that.
There's $591,000 here for the phase 2 of the NWT's midwifery program. Can I just get a confirmation on when we expect those positions to actually be hired. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, for that question. I do not have a time that I can relay to you. It is difficult to recruit midwifes and recruitment efforts will begin shortly but there's no guarantee that that will result in having someone here in a time that I can provide to you right now. I can just say we have the money, we're going to go and recruit. We recognize this is a difficult area to recruit in. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further questions, comments? Oh, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want I guess clarification on the funding for the Hay River shelter. Can you confirm with us where there's two shelters there. There's a day shelter and a night shelter, and can I just confirm which one this is targeted? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yeah, thank you, for that question. The answer is it's for the day shelter. The Health and Social Services department does not provide overnight shelter funding. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you Madam Chair. And that funding, is that going to be for our fiscal year? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that's my understanding but I do know that we have subsequently received a proposal from the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre around sheltering services. So that was the intention when this was negotiated in March, but things may change yet.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
It's confirmed to me that the 75,000 is expected to be in fact ongoing.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm just wondering if it was I guess for 12months, because you know, there's approximately 10 to 12 people, or maybe a few more, that use that day shelter. So that works out to about $17 per person per day. So thank you.
Thank you. I'll leave that as a comment. Any further questions, comments under the Health and Social Services programs? Okay. I'll call that one. Supplementary estimates (Operations expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, not previously authorized, $4,548,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we are going to take a short recess.
Short recess
I will call this meeting back to order. We are going to continue with under the Department of Health and Social Services. Okay. So we are at Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, not previously authorized, negative $13,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022, Department of Health and Social Services, total department, not previously authorized, $4,814,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment on page 12.
Supplementary Estimates (Operation Expenditures), No. 1, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, corporate management, not previously authorized, negative $76,000. Does committee agree?
