Debates of October 5, 2023 (day 167)

Date
October
5
2023
Session
19th Assembly, 2nd Session
Day
167
Members Present
Hon. Diane Archie, Hon. Frederick Blake Jr., Mr. Bonnetrouge, Hon. Paulie Chinna, Ms. Cleveland, Hon. Caroline Cochrane, Mr. Edjericon, Hon. Julie Green, Mr. Jacobson, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Martselos, Ms. Nokleby, Mr. O’Reilly, Ms. Semmler, Hon. R.J. Simpson, Mr. Rocky Simpson, Hon. Shane Thompson, Hon. Caroline Wawzonek, Ms. Weyallon Armstrong
Topics
Statements

Committee Motion 512-19(2): Bill 80, Dental Hygienists Profession Statutes Amendment Act – amend Clause One, Defeated

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill 80 be amended in subsection in

(a) in subclause 1(2), by striking out "December 1st, 2025" in proposed subsection 5(2) and substituting "August 1st, 2027"; and

(b) in subclause 1(3), by striking out "November 30th, 2025" in proposed subsection 67.1(1) and substituting "July 31st, 2027."

The motion is in order. To the motion. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The timing set out in Bill 80 now provides the department with just over two years to develop professional regulations. The department remains concerned that they may not be able to meet this deadline. The timing set out in the bill leaves little room for delays that are frequently encountered during the regulatory development. It does not reflect the challenges that the department anticipates when engaging the dental hygiene profession.

Dental hygienists in the NWT do not have a territorial association or organization representing the profession, nor has the department received any explicit indication from members of the dental hygiene profession regarding what changes they would like to see in the regulatory framework. This makes it difficult to know whom to engage in the development of the regulations, the content, and the estimated time required to draft them.

The current regulatory framework for dental hygienists is significantly outdated and silent on many of the elements found in modern professional regulatory frameworks, such as standards of practice, continuing competency requirements, and complaints considerations. We know significant work will be required to move the regulation of dental hygienists from the Dental Auxiliaries Act to the Health and Social Services Professions Act. This work cannot be done without thorough engagement with the profession.

While the department is committed to advancing these regulations as quickly as possible, these external variables pose risk that legislated timings for regulatory development will be missed. Missing these legislated timelines poses risks to both the dental hygiene profession and to the public as I mentioned in my opening remarks.

If Bill 80 came into force prior to finalizing with the regulations, there would be no legislation governing the regulation of dental hygienists in the NWT. During this gap, dental hygienists could not be licensed to practice in the NWT. This means that the public could not make a complaint about the professional's conduct and existing professional license would not be valid and no new licenses could be issued and nonlicensed professionals could provide services without a license. It's also likely that professional insurance for dental hygienists practicing during this time would be difficult to obtain.

While this gap could be addressed through an amending bill in the next Assembly, such an approach would take away from the work to develop the regulations. For these reasons, I'm proposing that Bill 80 be amended to allow the department additional time, which they may or may not need, to 2027, to work with the dental hygiene profession to develop a comprehensive and modern regulatory framework for dental hygienists in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. To the motion. MLA Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just don't accept these reasons that are being provided as to why this date needs to be pushed back even further. There's no reason that this could not be done with a professional association somewhere else. We have seen that in numerous other professions where because we don't have the people or the bodies to populate our own, we often will use others. For example, NAPEG uses the board of examiners for engineers in Alberta because we can't maintain that here on our own. So I do think that there was there is a method and a way that this could have been done by using, say, Alberta's association or others.

The people that did come and present to us told us that this is not going to be anything that's going to be rocket science as far as development of standard operating procedures. They're very general across the board. They what works in the south works up here. Really, I think that this could be done and, really, the want to move to back to even further to be four years I think really just speaks to the will to ensure the wellbeing of people outside of the capital. I don't think the will is there. I think that oftentimes communities are suffering as a result of a focus and a narrow mindedness about what we can do and what really is, you know, within the latitudes of this Assembly. This sound like it's going to be like we're regulating the profession of medicine itself, four years to develop. No. This is a standard piece of work that the government itself has already carved out exceptions for itself. The IRC's already got people working. So this has been done. There are people dental hygienists working in this manner already. But it seems like it's okay to make those exceptions for GNWT when they want to but when it comes time to do that for everybody else, that's no longer the case. The will and the want is not there.

And I find that, you know, it really does go against the true nature of the consensus government that we came to a compromise. We heard the concerns from the department. And yet we still now in the 11th hour are having amendments made to push this back even further, four years so kids can just get a cleaning. It's shameful, Mr. Chair. And I will not be supporting this motion. Thank you.

Mahsi. To the motion. MLA Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I listened to what concerns the health Minister raised, and I think that they're very valid concerns. And I wanted to address some of them here before I move on.

I think one thing that is very valid in the Minister's concerns identifying that there is a small number of dental hygienists that live in the territory. And most of them live here in Yellowknife. They're serving Northerners. There's a very small number of them serving over half of the population of the Northwest Territories. And so I agree that it's not fair to put all of this on them to draft these regulations. They're very busy people. They're cleaning a lot of teeth right now, and I very much appreciate it and thank them for that. And that's why where I think that some of the conversation about bringing in some additional supports, both to support the work that would be required of the department in order to draft these regulations and also bringing in some additional supports from elsewhere in order to kind of gain some insight into some of the challenges of other jurisdictions.

I'm not a health care professional at all, Mr. Speaker. And so when I was working on this bill, I actually reached out to some other associations across Canada to help me learn about oral health care and about some of the challenges that have presented within legislation in other jurisdictions and in regulation in other jurisdictions, things they wished they did different and things that worked really well for them.

Yesterday I tabled these letters here in the House, and they were very supportive and helpful letters from three associations across Canada. There was the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association, the Ontario Dental Hygienists Association, and the British Columbia Dental Hygienists Association.

The president and executive director of the Ontario Hygienists Association shared a fourpage letter of valuable suggestions about what to include in this work and concluded the letter with, quote, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions as you move forward, end quote. So very supportive and willing to help.

The executive director of the British Columbia Dental Hygienists Association wrote in a threepage letter stating, quote, over the years, BC dental therapists and certified dental assistants have reached out to the BCDHA for professional support. In recent months, BCDHA has expanded membership for dental therapists and has developed a pilot membership program for CDAs through the CDA Alliance. Thus, we speak not only for dental hygienists in BC, we also carry the voices of both dental therapists and dental assistants. We invite you to speak with us so that our parties can both connect and discuss our perspectives in greater detail. And so not only that, but an organization looking at supporting additional health care or oral health workers and also operating in licensing additional folks too and willing to help out and lend their experience.

Lastly, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association and a sixpage letter of support and suggestions, including CDHA is very pleased to hear that you're working to improve access to preventative oral health care. Please do not hesitate to contact our director of dental hygiene practice if you require more information or guidance in your quest to draft a proposed amendment to the Dental Auxiliaries Act to broaden the scope of practice of dental hygienists in the Northwest Territories.

So while there's limited dental hygienists here in the territory, there's an abundance of need to improve access, Mr. Chair, and to do the work. And I think that the big key for me that I think shows that and while the Minister said that they support this work, but the thing that shows to me that I think they can get it done in this timeline is in the 20182019 to 20202021 oral health action plan, which is the twoyear action plan, the objective to establish systemic supports for improved oral health services has the number activity, which is to which speaks to the regulatory environment. And the deliverable there is revised legislation regulations to support the oral health professional role by 20202021. And so to me, health has already acknowledged that they can get this work done in this action plan. They weren't able to meet it for 20202021. We're now three years later. And so I believe in their original action plan and their original goal to do this work and believe that they will find the support out there to get it done. Thank you.

Mahsi. To the motion. MLA Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question about the amendment, and I want to ask the law clerk.

I'm just the Minister said that the if this motion is not passed that dental hygienists would be completely unregulated. And I believe that the motion actually is to the first part of the bill, not the second part, which is where you would remove the Dental Auxiliaries Act application. But thanks.

Member for Frame Lake, we can't entertain any questions while the motion is on the floor. To the motion. MLA Frame Lake.

All right. So I don't know, Mr. Chair. I would like to get some clarification of this. But my reading and I'm only a lowly Regular MLA that doesn't have access to the law clerk right now. My reading of this is that it's the next part of the bill that actually would remove dental hygienists under the Dental Auxiliaries Act. And the Minister, in moving, the motion talked about how the profession would be completely unregulated if this amendment is not accepted. And I don't think that that's the case. So I think if there's something the Minister wants to do about the next clause, that might be the place where that is dealt with. But I don't my reading of this is that I don't think that this is the case. But I can't ask anybody about it. So thank you.

Mahsi. To the motion. MLA Yellowknife north.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't try to answer that. Maybe I will. I think what the Minister said is that if this bill is passed and the date is not met, then you are all of a sudden under a new Act requiring regulation but they don't have regulation, so then you're just in this noman'sland. But anyway, it had nothing to do with the specific motion or my understanding the whole bill as a whole.

My only comment was going to be, you know the GNWT is full of action plans and commitments to finish regulatory work and then we blow by them, and we don't get them done. We all know there's limited capacity in policy shops to get work done. I'm actually pretty hesitant for the legislature to start prescribing dates in regulation to complete work. You know, I don't think we've done it anywhere else, and I'm not sure I would even start with the Hygienist Profession Statutes Amendment Act. There's probably a lot of bills I think need regulatory work done. But, you know, I think why not give it a shot, Mr. Chair. We've missed a lot of timelines, and the Member has shown that this has been an action plan for years and missed timelines. And, you know, if the department's sitting here in 2025 and isn't going to make it well, then the next Minister of health's problem is to bring a motion to amend the legislation, I guess. So thank you. I'll vote for it. Thank you.

Mahsi. To the motion. MLA Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, every child matters in NWT, especially those in small communities with limited services. These young children, they have the same rights as children living in larger regional centre with regular dental services. And I thank my colleague for introducing the Private Member's bill. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, we cannot wait four years for our young kids to have proper dental treatment. We have kids as young as like she said, as young as 12 years old needing dentures. That is unacceptable. That is unacceptable. And it is the year 2023. We should have all these services available in small communities, especially with preventative work. Thank you.

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion. MLA Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be quick. I just I don't support this motion. And, you know, I hear what the Minister has stated. I hear, but we don't need to recreate the wheel. We have this stuff. We are a small territory. We don't and she's mentioned we don't have a lot of dental hygienists now. And the thing is all this is going to do, you know, is it prolongs the inevitable. We continue to prolong it. This has been an issue. My colleague has mentioned, and I'm not going to repeat it, but, you know, like, the delay after delay of not doing this work and all that I've seen is this fall apart. The services fall apart. We cannot even create different types of programming that will service our small communities, our regional centres, to do health promotion. So, again, I will not support this motion. Thank you.

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is defeated.

Defeated

Clause 1, does committee agree?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Clause 2, does committee agree?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Clause 3, does committee agree?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 80, Dental Hygienists Profession Statutes Amendment Act, is now ready for third reading as amended? No, not as amended.

Okay, does committee agree that Bill 80, Dental Hygienists Profession Statutes Amendment Act, is now ready for third reading?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 80, Dental Hygienists Profession Statutes Amendment Act?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Mahsi to the sponsoring Member of the bill. Can the sergeantatarms escort the witness from the Chamber. Mahsi. And we're just going to have a quick recess to change out chairs here.

SHORT RECESS

I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we've agreed to consider Tabled Document 97319(2), the 20242025 Capital Estimates. I will remind the Members that we concluded consideration of all the detail within the document on September 29th. Does the Minister of Finance have any remarks?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm obviously in support of the capital estimates for 20242025. I am. I'd like to give you some details as to why and to the process by which we've arrived here today. These estimates, Madam Chair, propose a total investment, as you know, of more than $361 million for infrastructure in the Northwest Territories and to continue the work that's already being completed on a number of key infrastructure projects across the territory. This includes some large-scale infrastructure needs like the replacement of the Frank Channel bridge, the extension of the Inuvik runway, and the construction of a territorial fire centre, while also still supporting smaller capital projects in communities across the Northwest Territories.

I want to reiterate how much of the planned infrastructure expenditures are supported by federal infrastructure funding programs, with almost 53 percent of this capital budget being eligible for reimbursement under federal programs. We know that capital investment, such as capital roadwork, provides ongoing work for small and mediumsized businesses across the territory. On the topic of roads, Madam Chair, I would note in looking back over the last three capital budgets, the percentage of the capital budget that's being spent on roads, roads that resupply and maintain our transportation connectivity across the territory that is larger than many European countries, that percentage has, in fact, decreased every year including to this year.

I am pleased that, once again, these capital estimates continue to address capital work that is realistic and achievable, within a departmental cap of $260 million, while addressing the priorities and needs of residents through established funding streams on top of that, such as biomedical and information technology, as well as preserving funding available for planning to ensure that our future capital budgets are built on well planned and carefully vetted projects. This also provides better accountability for the projects that are moving forward because a stronger review process that involves and engages all departments is better equipped to ensure that the needs of the territory as a whole are considered. There is also less room for one person or one interest to move something forward that does not reflect a fair assessment of the risks and needs affecting the whole territory.

Madam Chair, this is the eighth budget that I have put forward in my role as the Minister of Finance, the fourth capital budget. The process for both capital and mains is similar. It includes an incamera briefing with committees followed by ongoing incamera discussions between the chair, deputy chair of Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, and myself, all aimed at finding consensus towards the passing of the budget, be it the mains or capital.

This process is one that I believe reflects the values of consensus government. We share significant information with Members of the House and discuss collectively what changes should be made to better reflect or advance priorities on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories.

In our recent discussions, many people’s attentions are quite reasonably still on the impacts of the wildfire season and resulting evacuations. However, I will note I am not able at capital budget to increase operations budgets. In some past years, I made commitments during the capital process to bring forward an operational supplementary appropriation but being at the end of the 19th Legislative Assembly, there will not be any further operations supplementary budgets done or by the 19th Legislative Assembly.

That said, I can commit or redirect resources that are already available in department budgets. And I am pleased to announce that the GNWT is committing a total of $200,000 to support food banks and organizations that support food security in communities that were affected by evacuations this summer. We understand the impacts the wildfires and subsequent evacuations have had on residents and on communities who were hosting residents, many of which were already food insecure.

The response to the GNWT wildfires and evacuations was comprehensive and substantial. We ensured there was accommodations, food, basic amenities, and travel supports, and we have also put $550,000 towards nonprofit organizations who are often better placed to help individual residents with specific or personal needs, may have made them less able to rely on the supports that were otherwise available to all residents. Hopefully, these additional funds now to assist with food security will also help local organizations assist with individual needs.

Madam Chair, I am also very pleased to share with this House that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is expanding its support for businesses impacted by the wildfires and evacuations by increasing the amount of funding available under its Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development Program up to $2 million. The maximum amounts available to businesses will double for Yellowknife businesses, go to $15,000 for Fort Smith, and up to $20,000 for Hay River and K'atlodeeche First Nation, reflective of the lengths of times that each were under evacuation orders over this summer. Further, the period of eligible expenses will extend two weeks past the end of an evacuation order. A formal announcement with these details will be out as soon as possible, and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will work directly with businesses who may want or need to see a revision of any previous applications or amounts received.

These additions are yet another result of consensus government. Earlier in the life of the 19th Legislative Assembly through the process, the consensus process of discussing and negotiating every one of our budgets, we have collectively advanced other important initiatives, such as the early childhood infrastructure fund, increases to Housing NWT's operations and maintenance programs, and some of the initial funding for the homelessness strategy, just to name a few.

What is common throughout all of this, we are able to act collectively to increase funding strategically. We all have residents that we represent with needs that are not uniform across the whole of the Northwest Territories. And there are communities, and we all represent communities, in some cases we represent several communities, with needs that, again, are often different from one to the next. But we are collectively able, when we work together, to find areas of sufficiently common concern or agree on areas where the need is greater. I am proud to have been part of the consensus government of the Northwest Territories that has been so consistently represented throughout budget discussions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Did the Minister wish to bring witnesses?

No, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Do any Members have comments? Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I just a few things I guess I want to say that having sat eight years on this side of the House, one of the few points of leverage that Regular MLAs have is in budgets and both on the capital and O and M side. And, you know, I think Regular MLAs can and should and do use that leverage to negotiate what we believe sometimes should be priorities for our residents as well. Sometimes we maybe have a slightly different take than our colleagues on the other side, but that's how consensus government is supposed to work. People don't elect us here to agree with each other. They elect us here to get work done and try to find ways to work together.

I do want to say that it's been a privilege to represent the Regular MLAs for at least probably two two years in the budget negotiations with the Minister of Finance. It was definitely a lot more collegial in this Assembly than it was in the last, and dare I say, and sometimes even fun if you can believe it. So no, you know, very seriously, I think it's been a good collaborative process on the budgets that I've been engaged and involved on in this Assembly. We have a responsive finance Minister who's prepared to go out and do work and work with her colleagues on the Cabinet side. And likewise, on my side, I bring, you know, reports back to colleagues on my side of the House and, you know, we manage to reach agreement on a bunch of additions to budgets. We even manage to agree on cuts in one case. I think it was the travel during the COVID pandemic as well. So we you know, it's not that we're always asking. Sometimes we try to find ways to save some money to pay for some of the things that we would like to add into the budget. And I would say that the things that we tend to try to add into the budget are for the residents of all of the Northwest Territories because we that's why we're here. We do represent our constituencies, but when we try to secure improvements in programs and services, it's for all of our residents.

So I want to thank the Minister for the commitments that she's made in terms of the you know, it's no secret, Members on this side of the House have raised a number of situations and experiences of our residents. You know, over half of our residents were evacuated. And I think it's fair to say that most people are quite thankful that we got evacuated. They're thankful for the work that people did to stay here and save our communities. But in some cases, residents didn't always get the supports that they needed when they were away. And in the cases of businesses, they've come back and they need our help now to try to recover. Some of them had not quite even recovered from COVID. So I do want to express my personal appreciation and thanks for the work that the Minister has done, certainly within her own department, with ITI on expanding the SEED program, increasing the amount of assistance that's available to communities, making it a tiered approach so that the communities that are more affected for a longer period of time, those businesses can access more money. I think the increase in food security's helpful. Perhaps it could have been more but it's a help. But I think it did highlight the need for some more work, perhaps in the next Assembly, on food security. The expansion of the period that can be covered, the eligible expenses that might be considered, those are all good things. And I would encourage the Minister to and I know that she would do this, is to encourage her staff to actually reach out to applicants that are already in the system to work with them proactively to ensure that they can maximize the funding that they can receive under this expanded program.

So the one area that I guess I would have appreciated some more from my Cabinet colleagues is in making for a more adequate and equitable set of assistance for individual evacuees and their families. I know that the Evacuation Travel Support Program, $750 per vehicle, that was a good start. And as the Minister, I think has said, we can never make everybody whole again but I think there's problems with the equity of that program not addressing some people that flew out, and those people that were on government charters, or drove out and could not receive assistance because of a whole variety of situations, not able to access evacuation centres or the programs and services there and so on. So a number of us have raised these issues. So I would encourage our Cabinet colleagues to continue to do some work on those areas. And, of course, all of this is rather unusual because we are talking about O and M expenses in relation to a capital budget. But that's, I think, something that this Assembly has that the Regular MLAs have had successes not just in capital and O and M budgets and, maybe getting some leeway in other area sorry, in a capital versus an O and M, but also in policy issues. I think that's something that's been a significant development in this Assembly. And I would encourage the colleagues that come after us, as Regular MLAs, to continue to use the leverage that they have to get policy changes that will improve life for all of our residents.

So, Madam Chair, I think that's all the comments I have. Again, my appreciation to the finance Minister and her Cabinet colleagues for trying to meet some of our interests and the collaborative approach that we've had in place for much of the budgeting in this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If someone over there, who knew, would just tell me the price of the estimated building the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project, I would vote for this capital budget. I've been asking for four years. This House has approved tens of millions of dollars on that project never knowing how much it's going to cost. I think it's embarrassing for all of us that we're doing this. So one number, and I'll vote in favour of this. I don't even care if I like the project; I just want the number. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, Madam Chair, I know that the Members did receive the preliminary business case back in May of 2022. So I realize that that is a number. I don't know if that's a good enough number. But if the MLA wants to look back at his materials, he'd certainly find a number in there, add a little inflation, and maybe he'll vote for the capital budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Sorry, this is a question. I think that's a 2014 number, but well, now I'm talking about a confidential document and trying to get clarification on it in a public sitting as we vote, which we're not allowed to do according to our rules. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Did you have any further comments? Okay. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate, I guess, what the Minister had to say about the additional funding and the tiered approach for those that those communities that were impacted by flooding and fires over the past 16 months. You know, it's not going to it's not going to fix everything because, you know, when I look at it, you're probably looking at even if you look at a thousand dollars a day lost in revenue and, you know and in Hay River, people have been out for, you know, up to two and a half two and a half months. And then you take that you take the time into sort of go in and get your business back up and running and then you have to entice your clientele to come back. So you're looking at, you know, upwards of probably a loss of, you know, a hundred thousand dollars for some businesses. And, you know, it's going to vary. But it is a big chunk of change. So when we are talking the amounts that she noted, it's not a lot. It's something, though. And I'm hoping and, you know, I encourage the Minister as well, to go out there to the federal government and continue, you know, pounding the table and, you know, I'll do it from this side as well with our MP and see what we can do. Because right now, you know, we look at Hay River. We've had you know, we've had issues with well, with the fires and the flooding and now we've got issues with low water. So Hay River, I think, at the end of the day is going to have to reinvent itself. Manufacturing is a big thing. And right now our manufacturing sector has pretty well been decimated as well, so. But, you know, I'm glad that the, you know the department is going in the right direction, and Cabinet's going in the right direction. At least we're not going backwards. But, again, like my colleague said, you know, funds there for some of the people who did take the initiative to go out on their own and especially, you know, those in Hay River. You know, I talk about them because they're the ones that had to you know, that went through the fire. They're the ones that, you know, lost vehicles. They're the ones that lost almost lost their lives, lost pets, lost livestock. And, you know, it was a pretty scary ordeal. And, you know, I'm just lucky I didn't have to go through it. I was fortunate to be in the community, I guess, for that most of the evacuation I was on the list of, I guess, essential or nonessential essential workers for not only Hay River but for Enterprise as well. And I was able to, you know, use some of the skills that I had operating equipment, setting up camps. I even, you know, swept the floor in the airport and replaced some of the toilet paper and stuff like that so people had that in the morning. But, you know, so so everybody, you know any MLA could have done that. And, but it's you know, at the end of the day we got to we got to help people get back on their feet, and the only way to do it is usually money and other programs as well that whatever we can do. And that would be through, you know, ECE, DAP, and that, so. Yeah, so that's it. Thank you. It was just comments.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Are there any other comments? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make a comment, and I want to thank the Minister of Finance and the Cabinet for making sure that the fire centre is going to be constructed for the community and for the Northwest Territories. After this fire season, I think it's extremely important that we save all the data, and we support the people that work in that centre. We have some really incredible staff in that centre, and they work for the whole Northwest Territories and helped with the first with the first responders with especially with making sure that our communities were safe this summer, and we went back to our homes some of us. Some lost homes, and I'm very sorry that that happened to some of the communities.

Finance must be a tough job because I know how it is when things are, you know, not all in the in the black and you have to decide on what is important and what isn't. And I'm sure that people all when this budget was put together that people thought about it very carefully. And of course I like the budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Are there any further comments? Member for Nunakput.

Madam Chair, I just want to, again, thank the Finance Minister for this because I think this is the final payment for my school so I will be in support of my budget for Mangilaluk school in Tuk, and then there's other couple other few projects in the communities I represent. And, you know, just thank you for all the consideration and all the what we've been through with that project. And I just I really hope in the next go around, we get two trailers for the portables. I wanted four but there was supposed to they said they'll give me two, but I'm still waiting. But just for that for that in itself, I'm going to be supporting the budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Member for Great Slave.