Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to refer this question to Mr. Elkin.

Thank you. I don't have an end date for the COVID secretariat, so I am not sure that it will be wrapped up this fall. In terms of whether this lease has to be paid through until the end of March, I will ask Ms. Mathison to answer that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for highlighting this area. The department is very supportive of the federal bill, and we are working to ensure that it is rolled out successfully in the NWT. When the act came into force in January of 2020, my predecessor sent a letter offering briefing and discussion to all Indigenous governments. When I became the Minister, I repeated that offer, and I have raised it at every bilateral conversation that I've attended since I became Minister. The key to this piece of legislation is that the conversation has to be initiated by the Indigenous...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is no indication that the federal government is ready to pay. Thank you.

That's an interesting budget question. I'm going to ask the assistant deputy minister to provide an answer. Thank you.

Thank you. I will ask Ms. Mathison to answer this question, please.

No, that's not a factor. The reprocessing of endoscopy instruments is in a different machine than that which was giving us trouble through the fall.

Yes. When that question was asked about two minutes ago, it was 1,500, so I am going to say it's still 1,500.

Thank you. The biggest driver is medical travel. That involves both the costs and the volumes of scheduled air travel and inflation on the ambulance contract. That's what I am aware of. I am going to ask the assistant deputy minister if he would like to add more detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my understanding that the health authorities do do their own budgets, and they present them to us. We get a level of detail there about what their planned spending is. For more information, I will ask Ms. Mathison if she wants to add anything. Thank you.