Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is the low carbon economy leadership fund, and there has been a renewal of that agreement now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I share this dream. Mr. Speaker, and I believe a lot of people in this territory share this dream. Mr. Speaker, I want to first emphasize we will be complying very much as proponents with the guidance of the board, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Board. They are the arbiters right now of making sure we go through an environmental process that provides mitigation steps as necessary for the road project right now to Norman Wells. We will continue to work with them on phase 2, which is that section that gets us all the rest of the way up to Inuvik...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this was an occasion that will connect in to the proposed 24/7 lab staffing. This would bridge where things were at through to what is hoped to be the change that will take place as of April 1st if the main estimates are approved. It provided for early hiring of eight outpatient laboratory diagnostic imaging positions at Stanton. That addressed some of the immediate wait times and returned the same-day appointments back to the position -- or to the frequency with which they were previously, so -- and it is certainly expected that with a 24/7 staffing model that that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are the costs projected to the end of this fiscal year given that this is a supplementary estimate that takes us -- this is the last supplementary estimate to the end of the 2026 -- like March 31st, 2026, fiscal year, and then obviously going into the new fiscal year, there's a new budget that comes in and we will determine whether or not additional funding would be needed after that point in time. Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. So not specific to any of the one items but just in general? (audio) or the ADM, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had to practice to get it right myself. So, Mr. Speaker, I am happy to have the chance to speak to this. There's been a lot of engagements over 30 years on this particular stretch of highway, but we are at a different stage now. Over the last few years now, we've heard communities say they wanted to have community readiness. They don't want to just have the road get built. They want to be ready, they want to participate, they want to be ready when it is built. So we are accelerating the work for community readiness. The team is there all week. They had two days in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it did meet the cutoff in terms of, you know, having it in main estimates, but it also -- if I am not -- if I understand correctly. Mr. Chair, I certainly will come back to the Members if there's an incorrect -- if this is not accurate. But the challenge here is knowing what the anticipated amount of doses would be to meet what the recommendations were. And in this case, that wasn't known with finality until later in the fiscal year. So it -- again, because there's a -- can be a change -- in this case there was a change in the eligibility recommendations and...

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in 2025-2026, there was a shortfall of $4.2 million. 2026-2027, a shortfall of 4.7. And then going forward, the shortfall would have been just over 5. So what we are looking to do now is adjust the budget to reflect the fact that we now have a contract to -- that makes up that total, that total amount. The total contract costs expected for the coming year -- or sorry, for the -- that is in front of the committee right now is just over $6.9 million for 2025-2026. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase in the 24/7 servicing improves services, improves the timeliness of service, and likely will, but I can't say that with certainty, only because one of the other cost drivers has been an increase in demand. So without knowing whether or not the testing volumes continues to outweigh perhaps with more availability of services, hard to say. And also inflationary pressure. So this is a service that when sent outside of the territory is driven by a contract. And if the contract costs change, then that also can increase the costs. So, yeah, again, hopefully yes, but...