Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, like, I know it's a coming page but with the medical travel increases in the health department, it's $13,616,000. So this is a inclusive of both of those numbers, is this driven by that 450 percent in dental, like the majority of this funding? And before I turn it over to the Minister, I just want to point out that I think the clock started late for me. So I might be owed a few minutes, but I'm happy to go on the list again if I run out of time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, I'm going to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is certainly some nuances that are different as between the two. I mean, we also look at the number of public servants and if there's obviously an increase in public servants, that can also drive it. There's cost of airfares that have increased. Again, some expectations of getting back to having more regular dental clinics and clinicians in communities and just things that are not unfolding as we would have predicted or hoped. But, you know, yes, to some degree the dental costs are driving both with those nuances considered. So, again, that's where I say I think that's it's the good news is that with two years of this now, we can certainly look at it and say we need to find a better solution, and that might be some low hanging fruit. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
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.
Thank you. Go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, there's again, this portion is really an obligation under the collective agreement. Other companies and businesses, corporations, you know, the mineral resource sector, a lot of those companies, a whole host of companies in town, other levels of government, in general also provide benefits to their employees. The degree to which they're getting benefits, the type of benefits, I'm not privy to. Whether those individuals might have partial payment through public medical travel and then offset by others, again there's going to be some complex differences. But to kind of compare it simply to the general public, I would shy away from that. This is an obligation under the collective agreement to ensure that we have a public service that's getting benefits that align with other employers to make sure that we are a competitive employer, to make sure that we can recruit and retain employees. That's what this one is. And I have no doubt that I'll get some more questions when we hit the health and social services sector. Thank you.
Thank you. Just to the Member, I added two minutes and 30 seconds. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
And I'm eternally grateful, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, does the Minister anticipate the total costs for medical travel to decrease after September 1st when the extended health benefits are changed? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Wawzonek.
Mr. Chair, that is not an analysis that I necessarily have in front of me with respect to this supplementary appropriation. I'm happy to take that question away and have our folks in Finance give it some thought. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Much appreciated. No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the Member from YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I wanted to start first with just noting that this overall request of $26 million for this item is the highest second only to wildfirerelated expenses, so I think it's significant. The $18 million supplementary that's requested for payment on our debt, I appreciate the explanation given earlier by the Minister as to why costs have gone up. Can the Minister give some perspective as to how much of an increase this is over what we had budgeted to be spent on paying interest on debt or paying off debt? So how much is the $18 million adding to in terms of how much we're paying on our debtrelated expenditures this fiscal year?
Thank you. I'm going to go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I can certainly say the budgeted amount, first under the Deh Cho Bridge, was $9,021,000. The bond we have it's projected predicted to be $2 million. And shortterm debt is $6.141 million. So that's the budget. And, of course, we're now asking for $18 million more so you can do probably some fairly simple math on that one. The biggest single impact here is coming from shortterm debt where we're now projecting that that's going to hit a $20 million interest rate or a level of interest required. So, again, that's the one where there's been some significant number of items that are being carried by shortterm debt. And I went through a number of them before, so I won't repeat them. I'll pause and see if there's another question on it. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate that I'm putting the Minister on the spot here, but would the Minister be able to comment on like, is this the most that we've been spending on debt historically? You know, like, just to put this in historical perspective, is this significant that the amount that we've paid on debtrelated expenditures over the past year?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can say, you know, probably, but that's again, as I said, not really the kind of answer I would like to give to the House or to inform the public. Our debt levels certainly are high. When we capped the capital estimates two fiscals ago, that significantly impacted the growth on the debt but then the sheer volume of impacts over this last summer has sort of undercut that otherwise positive story in that our shortterm that was capping the total anticipated or projections of what we would need in terms of debt to fund capital, but then we had these huge increases unexpectedly over the summer increases the shortterm. That's kind of like having like a you know yes, it's the short term that's really showing the significant growth. So I can quite easily, I think, go back and confirm that this is the single biggest number, but I just want to go back and confirm that. I know sorry, and I should also just remember that whenever interest rates have gone up and they've been high now longer than, again, the economists seem to be saying they will be. That obviously impacts us as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I just wanted us to sort of have that in our minds and have that in perspective. But I'll just go on briefly to the second item in there about the medical travel benefits.
I thank the Member for Range Lake for asking many of these questions but I just wanted to follow up with one question about what are we what steps are we taking to actually reestablish dental services in the regions so that hopefully some of these medical travel costs could go down going forward?
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that is going to be a key question in order to resolve this both for ourselves and the department of health. I don't have a detail of that operational plan in front of me but I, again, will certainly ensure that between myself and my colleague that we will have that ready and start to communicate that to Members and to the public. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from YK North.
Thank you. That's everything for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Any further questions? Okay, I'll continue on here.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Finance, Office of the Comptroller General, not previously authorized $26 million. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Moving on, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Finance, total department, not previously authorized $32 million. Is there any questions? Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we'll now consider the Department of Health and Social Services on page 7 to 9.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, not previously authorized $1,499,000. Is there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first item, providing funding for HRHSSA collective agreement, I recognize we're speaking to about one of these items, but perhaps with the chair's indulgence, I'll ask my question, which is this line item shows up in or sorry, this line item shows up in multiple functions within Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please clarify why that is?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you. I believe, Mr. Chair and as I'm speaking, I'm sure a lot of people are going to start typing at me, but that it's reflective of where different employees this is correct. It is reflective of where the different employees provide their function within Health and Social Services or Hay River Health and Social Services. So whatever activity the individuals fall under is where the salaries get attached. So that's why you're seeing it pop up because it's a it was a collective agreement for the entirety of Hay River Health and Social Services but, again, it gets broken down by the divisions in which the individual employees find themselves.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I expected that would be the answer, but I just wanted to make sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Is there any further questions?
I'll go to the Member again from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I note under the agreements, some of these contributions seem very low. $4,000, Canadian chronic disease surveillance system agreement. $4,000 for epidemiology support for substance use agreements. I'm not sure what you can do with that. So I'm assuming this is multiyear agreements that are just kind of paying out. It just seems quite or a very limited amount of contributions. So could the Minister just explain how this money is flowing and if there's a larger pot that we're not seeing. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll move to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Chair, that is something that is worth highlighting as we're going through this. So this is administrative and support services. And so, yes, the agreements themselves are much larger and they include a larger sum, you know, for you know, for example, to actually go and do a frontline operation. But under the administrative part, it is just the portion that is allowed to be used for administrative functions. But yet, for instance, the northern wellness agreement sees a small amount here, but you will see it come back under a much larger portion under the programming function. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Nothing further.
Any further comments questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North, YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, first, about the collective agreement with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, can the Minister confirm whether all additional salary and benefits that were negotiated as part of this agreement, the new agreement, have been costed out or whether there are elements in these agreements that are yet to be costed?
Thank you. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me put that one over to the deputy minister, please.
Thank you. I'll go to Minister MacKay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this agreement is retroactive pay, so it pays out the retroactive salary at 1.5 percent per year for those two years. And then the department is going to come forward with costing for those other elements because those are all forward looking. So they'll have an idea of how much those other benefits will cost when they come back for the term of the collective agreement as a whole. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to the Member for YK North.
