Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, they are sometimes quite stable but last year and this year as well, but last year in particular was the first year where knowing of the low water levels and knowing also that there had been reductions even at that point in the amount of barging that came up and the year previous, the department expected and was correct in expecting that there it would need to do some additional work. So some of the things that led to much higher than usual budgeting was that there was additional flooding being used on the portages, additional flooding on all crossings in order...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure that they would have their salaries entirely costed to this, Mr. Chair. I mean, I can certainly -- would expect that it's more to do with additional costing and not necessarily exclusive costing. I can double check. I'd have to go back and look at, you know, what their base salaries are or whether there was overtime incurred, and I don't have that breakdown here.

Mr. Chair, I can say it is my understanding that the others may also be in some process right now. Obviously, that's not mine to speak to or to confirm one way or the other, but I gather there may be other requests being made. And as a broad brushstroke, you know, again, there's differences on a number of different fronts, whether it's the connectivity issues in the Yukon being less pronounced compared to here, both in terms of transportation as well as energy infrastructures, and what that often does to cost overages that we see here or whether it's, you know, in relation to, you know, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, it was certainly helpful to have lines of communication open when the event was ongoing, so I do thank the Member for being a part of that.

Mr. Speaker, the events that led to this outage were actually routine operations, so it was not related to any maintenance that as a result of the Taltson being offline. It was to switch over one of the units that was overheating. There was a backup unit there available, there were technicians available, and so they really were not anticipating circumstances to become what they were on that day and, certainly, as it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is $600,000, and it is being fully offset from revenues from CanNor, and what they are doing with this is a geophysical survey that will help enhance some of the quality of our existing geological, geophysical data, and with that, in turn, when you increase the available knowledge and information, it helps anyone that's looking around at what is in the ground to identify where there is likely to be critical mineral or other mineral deposits based on this data, and then they can go on and use that as a beginning point to hopefully come and do their own exploration...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it -- there is both, in terms of it being the cost of the contracts which would be the salary benefits to the nurses that are providing services, as well as some travel costs and accommodation costs if there's folks who are coming in from outside and require such additional costs. Thank you.

It would go to the treasury board, Mr. Chair, and it requires an Order in Council and it's that process that I gather we're now waiting for. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I'm not sure -- I'm not sure, Mr. Chair, and I don't want to presume.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so seeking $586,000 for added expenses as a result of this outbreak. This was -- some might recall that the CPHO declared a TB outbreak in Yellowknife July 2nd of 2024, and that resulted in incremental costs. Some of the things that occurred, there was -- there were some 532 contact points relating to just a few cases, and as a result of which a fair bit of effort that was undertaken to identify those contacts, locate them, some additional supports from the public health nurses to do the contact tracing of all those individuals, then of course supported an additional...

$3.1 billion, Mr. Chair.