Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just looking at the 2020-2021 revised estimates, $31 million. We passed this in a supplementary appropriation, but I know, since that time, a number of cost-saving measures have gone on. Do we have a forecast of how much we will actually spend on the COVID secretariat this fiscal? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand there are some plans to run a deficit-reduction plan. Are we expecting that this main estimates that we are looking it for 2021-2022 will actually add to the deficit, or are we now budgeting enough that the deficit will essentially stop? I am not expecting us to pay off the $120 million, but is it going to get bigger this fiscal, as well? Thank you.

I am sorry to hear that the Minister has lost her individual identity. I quite like her as a person, and I was looking forward to seeing that signature. I am glad the Minister mentioned procurement because I think what has happened is that, due to the federal government being in charge of procurement on this, the GNWT has kind of stepped back on the economic recovery role, but despite numerous requests from the Giant Mine Oversight Board to have the federal government kind of understand the North and understand our labour needs, the federal government has also kind of stepped away from...

I'll try again. When I look at the department's business plan in here, there are service level metrics to be devolved. There are employee engagement and satisfaction to be devolved. There is employee turnover to measure. There is long-term care to be measured. There is employment engagement service. Fifty percent of the department is supposed to be surveyed. I have no sense of whether that work has been done or is done. I have no sense of whether this is the adequate money to do it. Perhaps, as a start, if I could get the Minister to commit to what is being done by the Department of Finance in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that ENR is the project lead on the Giant Mine and is leading much of our remediation work. There is a bit of a conflict of interest when the arm of government that is responsible for oversight and regulating contaminated sites, if I also ask them to advocate on behalf of the companies to capture benefits that they are regulating, so I'd like to understand what our Indigenous ministry is doing to build a remediation economy. My first question for the Minister of ITI is: in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our post-COVID economic recovery plan, is the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard the deputy minister say that we are just starting to conduct some of that staff survey work, and we are starting to roll out staff satisfaction. Do we have current staff satisfaction measures right now for the department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the human resources function for the health authority actually lies within the Department of Finance, and there is a goal to kind of create a few units that work together. I am looking at the $6 million a year we plan to pay to human resources. I see last year that it has gone down $400,000, and it was gone down $700,000 from the actuals. To me, if one of our mandate items is to work on recruitment and retention, there are quite a lot of priorities under the human resourcing of health for this department. Why has that budget decreased? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The medical residency pilot, I believe, is about allowing doctors to do their residency in the North. Right now, we do two placements, I believe, a year, and the department's goal is to have four doctors completing their residency. That's my understanding of what the pilot program initially was and its intentions. Thank you.

No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there a formal kind of wrap-up plan being created for the COVID secretariat, and when would we be able to see that? I think that some of the things that I would like to see is a bit of evaluation of why the COVID secretariat was needed, whether its role was actually worked when we said this is going to combine all the things; it's going to stop things being done off the side of its desk -- it took a lot of authority out of the emergency management organization, so I think a wind-up plan, and will that be done and a review of how well the COVID secretariat actually did...