Thank you. Moving on to the Office of the Chief Information Officer beginning on page 174 with information items on page 176. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the TSC sat in this program detail of the OCIO, and I know that TSC chargebacks affect the entire GNWT, and those chargebacks then turn around and fund the compensation for the people who work in the TSC. Could the Minister please clarify -- and if this is too granular, she can always get back to me -- the percentage that pays -- of the chargebacks that pays for compensation of staff, the percentage that pays for hard and software, etcetera, that we use in the government and what might be left over? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am definitely going to have to see if we can run that analysis. I suspect we can, but just breaking down, then, the number that you see here for this area and breaking it down in terms of technology services centre, how much of that is our staffing compensation and benefits versus others. So, again, certainly happy to provide that, and I think it does then get tabled to the House. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
That's all for now.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I see that there has been three positions added to the Office of the Chief Information Officer. And can the Minister confirm whether these are related to the transfer of the TSC from Infrastructure to Finance? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Sorry, Mr. Chair. Yes, they're for the transfer over. Thank you. They were previously -- yes, they were previously -- they were previously unfunded, showing as unfunded in Infrastructure, but they're being brought in and reflected for the fact that they were filled in or need to be filled. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. And so it sounds like -- well, maybe the Minister can confirm whether any new hires were done as a result of the transfer of TSC and whether there was any net increase in staff. It sounds like there were unfunded staff, so I'm not clear whether they were counted previously in our budget documents as official staff positions. So I guess the couple questions related there are were there any new hires and was there any net increase in staff positions related to that transfer of TSC from Infrastructure to Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, Mr. Chair, if I might send that one over to our director, please.
Thank you. I'll go to the director.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The ten positions funded in the mains are the transfer from the Department of Infrastructure, and we have -- we show three positions but essentially they are now funded because the money for those positions were also transferred from INF but for reporting purposes, we had to show them as new positions. But they're not. They're just a strict transfer, and now they are funded because the funds all transferred from INF. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister just confirm, then, when positions exist but they're unfunded, do they or do they not show up in our budget documents as, you know, under these lists of active positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
to the deputy minister, please.
I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when a position is -- well, it's just as the Member mentioned, we get a position that is unfunded but it doesn't come with the funding, so those three positions are unfunded positions. But in this case, the entire budget that was transferred included all of the -- both the funded and unfunded positions that came from Infrastructure. So to go to your specific question, when a position's unfunded, if position is established in the org chart but isn't an approved position by MBS so then it doesn't have funding attached to that position, so the department has to find funding within its overall budget so for -- within vacancies, other vacancies, to fund that unfunded position. So I hope that answers the question.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thanks. That does help to clarify but I just am still wanting clarity on the specific question of if it's unfunded, would it show up in the number in our budget of active positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
No, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's good for us to know going forward.
Another question I have that's related to the Office of the Chief Information Officer, I think, so in the business plans there's multiple references to the CRTC and the importance of the CRTC or our relationship to it to support infrastructure advancement throughout the NWT, including needs coming from private industry. But can the Minister explain what is so important now about the CRTC in supporting infrastructure advancement or economic development or emergency management efforts? It's unclear in the business plans. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a fairly big question; I'll try to be mindful of time.
With respect to infrastructure investment and funding, Mr. Chair, there are funds that CRTC does either administer or have some ability to influence. So, for instance, universal broadband fund in the last government was one which helped support the extension of the fibre into Whati. Another example, Mr. Chair, is current discussions around whether or not redundancy opportunities would be able to be funded from some of these sources. To date, they haven't been, but certainly for the North where we lack a lot of redundancy, we would like to see the opportunity to have redundancy as being something that receives the opportunity to seek federal funding and build up the resiliency of the networks in the North.
With respect to emergency management, Mr. Chair, again, this is -- you know, again looking -- well, also looking at what kind of funding is available under what circumstances for, for example, increasing cellular coverage over long distance highways, which is often an issue not only here but over large stretches of the northern parts of provinces, but in an emergency that could impact territorial evacuees in some circumstances. And, Mr. Chair, also creating accessibility of telecommunications both in terms of the affordability. There's recently been announcements that we are now participating in the Connecting Families program which we hadn't been, but we've been advocating for that for a long time. But also that there may be some form of subsidy coming in the hopefully not too distant future, again through CRTC. So quite a lot happens in this space with them.
Now, that said, Mr. Chair, they are an arm's length body. They are an entity that does also -- is a decision-making body. So it's not a Minister to Minister relationships, although there is a Minister responsible. I will stop there. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so just to clarify on that, does the CRTC offer any funding to us, or they're simply -- it's the way they regulate or their policies that impacts us and that's what we're engaging with them on? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, there's both. They do have funds that they are -- that they administer that can be accessed by project proponents but there's also significant policies that they have been working on over the last several years, namely, to have a new regulatory or policy approach for the North and that scenario where we have remained active in terms of ensuring our view of wanting to have a competitive industry but also one that provides reliability and affordability and trying to find that balance here in the North where we are -- obviously have comparably limited access to infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, that's helpful to know. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
All right, thank you. Are there any further questions from Members? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 175.
Finance, Office of the Chief Information Officer, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $30,906,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to the Office of the Comptroller General beginning on page 177 with information items on page 180. Are there any questions? Okay, I'm going to go to Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wish to direct my questions under the medical travel assistance program. It may not be solely in there so -- but I'm sure it's a good place to start.
I'm hearing from several GNWT employees about their medical travel and how their claims are not processed in a timely way. Does the department have a standard outlined whereby it says, you know, within two weeks, you will be paid your submitted and obviously approved travel claim? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is a standard that we do try to meet. There are thousands of claims that are -- and requests for support that are processed every year. I do certainly get some BFs on this item that come through the office, particularly when there's been a challenge where someone has an appointment and they haven't received their information about where they might be going, a flight or hotel, so we do then try to very quickly make those connections. But overall, Mr. Chair, again, it's -- there's thousands that do get processed and that where folks are able to access their medical assistance. So, again, I wouldn't say that it's a -- that I'm being told it's a chronic problem at this point. Again, we do have service standards, and we are doing our best to meet them. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
So what is the standard? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Minister.
I'll direct it to the deputy minister, please.
I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the standard for repayment is about 30 days -- is 30 days. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. So that's the answer I was looking for, is 30 days.
Are you able to tell me through some type of analysis -- first, my anecdote, obviously, unless you brought it -- I doubt it, but I'd be pleased if you did -- how often is that 30-day threshold of the standard is run over; in other words more than 30 days? Thank you.
