Denny Rodgers

Thank you again, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, the Department of Health and Social Services and, time permitting, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you. I'll just pivot to specialty services, Madam Chair. And I note in the comments what we know what specialty services refer to, and there's a lot of ologies in there that I likely can't pronounce, but that's great. And I note that it says treatment provided in the NWT. So does this mean going from $29 million to $36 million and now to $43 million that we are now providing more of these specialty services in the territory than we have previously where we had to pay that through -- likely through Alberta care or in other provinces; is that what we're doing? Are we ramping up all those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have to ask it now, so I'll start with the compensation and benefits on this side as well. So I note that in 2023-2024, 14,904, 14,690 in the main estimates, 904 in the actuals. Then, as been explained to me, 16,494 in the revised estimates likely due to the retro pay, but then I note again it's down to 14,668 in the main estimates for 2026 which is, again, a little less than it was in 2023-2024. Again, I'm just wondering if there is -- if I'm missing something here or if there were any positions decreased or if this is just -- or positions that were...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I did note in some of them, we're not to those activities but I did note in some it's still -- the compensation and benefits main estimates for 2025-2026 are still, in some cases, lower than they were in 2023-2024 as well as lower obviously than they are in the revised estimates, and that's what's kind of -- kind of caught my attention as I went through. So just wondering. So then to be clear, I guess, it wasn't -- it was the result of retro pay for the revised estimates, but was there any positions or unfilled positions that were...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Health and Social Services. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Members have heard me speak of this topic several times in this House. I know the previous MLA for Inuvik has brought it up as well, and that's the state of the Inuvik Bypass Road, Mr. Speaker.

In Inuvik, this is the final extension of the Dempster Highway used by trucks, but not only used by heavy equipment and vehicles coming into the community, Mr. Speaker, it's also used -- people use it for walks, they use it for recreation, the schools use it for their running clubs, it's used by -- for a lot of different things in the community, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for those answers, and I'm good for right now. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm super happy that we have all these ologies that we provide to our residents.

I'm not sure if you have this number, but can you kind of out of that -- you know, it's a fairly significant increase obviously to that line item, and you mentioned forced growth and you mentioned the medical association new contract. Does the Minister have kind of a breakdown of what kind of made up the majority of that increase? Thank you, Madam Chair.