Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The projected shortfalls from this one, Mr. Chair -- sorry, we do have the base funding here built in. There is -- yes, I don't actually have great detail as to what has led to that, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure if the deputy minister can speak to it, but it may well be -- yes, sorry, I'll just pass it to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that is required to do -- to deal with the projected shortfall in contracted services in Beaufort Delta. So obviously NTHSSA is responsible for health and social services in the Beaufort Delta region, particularly with respect to the Inuvik Regional Hospital. The kinds of things that fall under contract services would include security, dietary provisions, catering, laundry, housekeeping, switchboard and reception services, and as well as some on-site -- any kind of on-site management support not health care related, that tends to be through service...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. $3.6 million.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I cannot see into the crystal ball of the federal government. I would be fascinated to know why they are not taking this on similar to, by way of comparison, the non-insured health benefits which is a benefit that is provided to Indigenous persons, or at least First Nations persons, and this program administered by the GNWT is meant to extend a similar level of coverage. I do not know why the federal government doesn't seem to undertake this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I certainly have looked back at data and charts going all the way to 2005, and there's a few years which is right around the time when the mines were being built that things were relatively flat, but the increase over the 16th Assembly, the 17th Assembly, the 18th Assembly show a steady -- in fact, 16th has a particularly strong spike up, and then a sort of steady increase in debt levels through the 17th and 18th. 19th, again, sort of steady the first couple of years, spikes up a little over the wildfire year, not surprisingly, and now we are, as of this moment...

Thank you, madam -- sorry, not Madam Chair; I'm so used to the last government. Sorry, Mr. Chair. No, I mean those of us sitting here haven't necessarily occupied these positions, any of us, for, you know, ten years of history, but to the best of all of our knowledge, it does -- we do tend to typically go over. Again, I will be frank, Mr. Chair, I have often asked why we put it at 35, and I'm promptly reminded that raising it doesn't necessarily create the kind of fiscal barriers that we are discussing now. So I'm happy to go back and ask the department if they can look back in time. But...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The urgency of this was due to the timing of the required generate applications, so the deadline for that was the end of October and so there was a desire to get this in as quickly as possible to reflect that timing, and so there's a supplementary estimate here now. This is the earliest time we could put it before the House but wanted to see that it's part of the process of the public utilities board which is underway right now. That was the timing issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's early days to know what may or may not be in the review of a piece of legislation and, of course, always happy to consider amendments. I can say that we are members of the Canadian insurance services regulatory organization, meaning the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators and the General Insurance Statistical Agency. I mention all of those because as this process moves forward, I'll certainly look for the opportunity to see if there's any best practices happening. Again, cost increases are happening everywhere, and it's an issue that's coming up...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we do have a supplementary reserve that we set at $35 million and, obviously, this one alone would certainly put us over that. We do -- sorry, Mr. Chair, I'm just trying to see where -- anyways, it is obviously going to put us over that we -- oh, there we are. Thank you.

So, Mr. Chair, the net impact here, we are going to end up at a total impact of $64,717 million in this case, obviously significantly beyond a $35 million target that we would have set. And, yes, I guess that's the answer to start, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't know if I have that level of detail. Let me see if the deputy minister maybe can, and if not, we will look to pull up -- sorry, it's where the $12 million came from or where it's being applied? It's going to be applied on to -- to the costs -- the ratepayers' costs but it's where it's coming from, I'll see if the deputy minister may have that handy.