Committee, we will now consider the Department of Education, Culture and Employment starting at page 4. Are there any questions? Seeing none, moving on.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, corporate management, not previously authorized, $643,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, early learning, not previously authorized $8,685,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, education, not previously authorized, $13,993,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, income security, not previously authorized, $729,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $1,743,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, language and culture, not previously authorized, $885,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, total department not previously authorized, $25,778,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now consider the table Department of Environment and Climate Change starting on page 6. Are there any questions? Seeing none.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Environment and Climate Change, corporate management, not previously authorized, $1,426,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Environment and Climate Change, environment management monitoring and climate change, not previously authorized, $2,816,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Environment and Climate Change, policies strategic planning, not previously authorized, $3,286,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Environment and Climate Change, not change -- regulatory assessment and authorization of not previously authorized, $907,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $43,287,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Environment and Climate Change, total department not previously authorized, $51,722,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we will now consider the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs starting on page 9. Are there any questions? Seeing none, continue on.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Cabinet support, not previously authorized, $172,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, corporate communications, not previously authorized, $105,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, directorate, not previously authorized, $4,981,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Before we move on here, I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So a couple questions on this one. The first is to clarify whether or not the funding for activities to support a strategic approach to homelessness in Yellowknife, is that covered by federal funds or not? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it's not, Mr. Chair. I think there's some discussions underway to see if there's somewhere we might find some funding, but this is currently fully funded by the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister give clarification on what this $2.28 million is allocated for? What does it mean to support a strategic approach to Yellowknife -- to homelessness in Yellowknife? Or give us a sense of what's happening here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, happy to do so. Mr. Chair, obviously this summer there was a situation in Yellowknife where a number of folks who are underhoused were living in tents and the numbers surrounding homelessness and underhoused individuals in Yellowknife seemed to take a rather significant increase as a result of which one of the positives that came from that experience was that the Departments of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Health and Social Services, were able to work with the non-government sector that provides a number of services, work with this community to determine what some of the different needs of this population were. Some folks prefer to be not in a formalized situation and others were in a position to look for the opportunity to be in transitional housing. Having done that work, there was a quick effort to determine that the Salvation Army would be capable of undertaking another eight beds with some increased capacity. There was an opportunity with another non-profit here in the city to work with them to establish an on-the-land camp outside of the city for individuals who would like a more stable location with sobriety at the core. And those are solutions -- the eight beds in the Salvation Army stands, but being outside of the city for some 30 or so people, that is only going to be an option until the weather becomes particularly severe. And so a remainder amount, $1.8 million of what's remaining, is to develop a supportive living situation or a supportive living arrangement in the Kam Lake area so that people would have something that's more long-term that again though takes them away to -- from being in the downtown area into what would hopefully be a situation of greater sobriety for them. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to the Minister for that explanation. My understanding was that the federal government had announced that they had special funding for dealing with encampments and trying to find solutions across the country and that that might be a potential for the NWT to be able to tap into that federal funding envelope. Is that something that is being pursued and might have the potential to help offset some of the costs here? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, it is being pursued. However, the circumstance that we found ourselves in, as the weather was starting to turn and as the location where some individuals were had been using as an encampment had another purpose assigned to it, namely, for public housing, a situation -- or a solution had to be found more quickly. So, again, another shout-out, really, to the non-profit sector for working very closely with the GNWT. A very lengthy and thorough review was done of every possible location in the city from hotels to available units and that's where these solutions were put forward. The encampment funds could get us up to about million dollars. That's certainly our hope. So, you know, it may well be that because of this creative and, you know -- again, creative solution and a solution that was really in partnership, hopefully then the federal government looks positively on that kind of circumstance and will, indeed, put forward the $1 million. For the moment, Mr. Chair, this a must to move forward given the change in weather here. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I certainly commend the government for taking quick action in this case and moving forward and allocating our own dollars to address a problem and taking bold action that way, and certainly I do hope we can recoup some of it through federal funding but I think it's a good -- it's a good way to operate to be able to take action that is needed and urgent.
Another question in this section: To clarify, the funding for the health care system sustainability unit, first, just a clarification, are we using money from the territorial health investment fund to offset that unit, or is there some other federal funding arrangement? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Chair, this is, I believe, fully funded by the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister give some indication if it's funded by the federal government, is there a set time period where this funding will stop? Like, are we being given funding for a set period of time, or are we committed to funding this unit for a number of years? Are there time limits set on the existence of this unit given that it's fully coming through federal funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
