Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we are looking at total projected expenditures for the year will be at just over $121 million. And that's anticipated expenditures. So in terms of the base budget, that comes in at around just 21.7, just over $21.7 million. In August, you may recall there was a request for a supplementary appropriation at $75 million. So that leaves with the projected expenditures of 121, that leaves the projected shortfall of 24.3, which brings us here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me put that one over to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this funding helps support the next five years of the Film and Media Strategy Action Plan from 2021 through until 2026. That action plan has a number of different initiatives designed to support both short and longterm advancement of the film and media sector, and this component I mean, it includes everything from advertising and promotion to contract and salaries, travel, and training. This is a portion that was submitted as an expression of interest to CanNor back in November of 2022, and an agreement was signed with CanNor. This is the portion for the current...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's probably an excellent question to raise during the business planning process when you'd have the Department of Justice in front of you there defending their decisions in terms of their annual appropriations and annual business plans. And I'll certainly convey to the Minister that that may be a question that they should be anticipating. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did want to respond because I can appreciate the frustration of seeing sups come back. Four sups in a budget cycle actually is pretty standard. And what I was going to suggest is perhaps I can and if it's of interest to the public we could certainly table it, but we could give the budget cycle showing roughly when the sups happen. You know, there's department cutoffs of when they have to put those requests in but then to get the four in is actually very common. This would be the cutoff time for the fourth one prior to the end of the fiscal year. So, again...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I will just need a moment here to see well, one of the sources for the increases, Mr. Chair, is an increase to the foster care rates that's being implemented. There's also actually, I think that's probably it. That's probably it, Mr. Chair. If I'm incorrect, I will oh, and then, of course, there's an increased number of placements as well, which is then driving that further given the increase to the rates. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the original agreement came into effect in August of 2018 under which there was expected $31.2 million over the course of four years. There was a brief extension of that agreement which took us into 20232024, and that's being reflected here. I can say that the Department of Infrastructure is currently engaged with Environment and Climate Change Canada towards determining what the next form of funding might look like. And to my latest estimate, or my latest information up to today or up to a couple of days ago anyways, was that we had not yet finalized an agreement for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm able to say that as of December 31st, 2023, we had 517 vacancies across the total GNWT. So that's approximately 8.6 or so of all of the funded positions, which is a total of just over 6,000. Thank you.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I happen to know that the Health and Social Services has actually done a fair bit of work on this of late, and while I again not necessarily I don't have it in front of me here but I would suggest we could give that information there's a high number of firsttime users and a reducing number of repeat users. So, you know, different factors are coming in here in terms of what might be causing this particular these particular increases. There certainly is also an increase in the rates being charged for the time spent at the facilities. So between an increase in...