And are these increases at all driven by increased fees at academic institutions, or is this merely driven by the number of students who are enrolling in the program? So I guess is it more expensive to go to university and that's why the rates are going up, or is it just because we have more students applying? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't know that I can 100 percent give that analysis here. Happy to take that back to the department. The request really at this point is driven by the demand but then also some changes in benefit levels. It may well be that the need for changes in benefit levels has some connection to higher costs on the -- on the side of the universities and/or other institutions themselves, but at this point I don't have that kind of analysis here. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Range Lake.
Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Education, Culture and Employment, income security, not previously authorized, $3,335,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay, thank you. Department of Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $483,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $483,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, total department not previously authorized, $6,056,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Turn to page 4 for the Department of Environment and Climate Change.
The Department of Environment and Climate Change, operations expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $260,000. Are there any questions?
I am going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, not to put this all on the Department of Environment and Climate Change; this is a recurrent cost throughout many departments. I believe it's in the range of $3.5 million in TSC chargebacks across government in this supplementary estimate. Can the Minister tell me if this is representing good value for money, or what can be done to maintain and manage these costs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Firstly, yes, investments in having technology that is modern and secure is good value for money. Only in the last few years, really, we brought a lot of our systems up to speed with respect to cyber security from a place where they were, you know, really behind a lot of other jurisdictions in Canada to being at the front end of what's available for cyber security requirements. And given the impact on people's information, on data on the services they depend upon, I would suggest that is very important.
With respect to that said, some of the -- some of the drivers of the cost fees or the costs, Mr. Chair, there's much higher licensing costs that we are facing from a number of the different services that we rely upon, so everything from Microsoft to Adobe, and there's very limited ability, particularly for a small jurisdiction, to try to negotiate that down. That said, Mr. Chair, there's some, I think, very active conversations with larger jurisdictions in Canada, particularly the federal government, around ways to better provide some economies of scale for jurisdictions such as ours. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Environment and Climate Change, corporate management, not previously authorized, $260,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Environment and Climate Change, operations expenditures, environmental management and monitoring and climate change, not previously authorized, $36,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Environment and Climate Change, environmental management monitoring and climate change, not previously authorized, $36,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Environment and Climate Change, operations expenditures, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $18,191,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Environment and Climate Change -- oh sorry, my apologies. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I first wanted to ask if the Minister has any details on the Canadian biomass mapping initiative contribution program clean fuels funds agreement. I understand that this is fully offset by the federal government, but I wondered if the Minister had a quick description of what this is about. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is cost-shared. It does have some input from ECE, but that is through their existing work that they do. They're able to provide in kind to offset the funding requirement or funding proportion that is directed to them or expected from them. The program funds are for technical work such as high-resolution enhanced forest inventory, particularly in the area surrounding Fort Providence, as well as improving on modeling in the Taiga Plains ecozone. All of which is meant to help modernize some of our data that is now into the 10 to 30 years old range with respect to what is going on in these regions and the biodiversity and bioeconomy of those areas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thanks to the Minister for that. It's something that I will address hopefully later this week in some statement and questions about biomass economic opportunities.
I also just wanted to ask about -- so the shortfalls in fire suppression. We see $18 million coming in this supp. My understanding is that this is the second supplementary request that has come in this fiscal year for fire suppression. Can the Minister remind us, including this $18 million, what would be the total request for supplementary funds for fire suppression in the 2025-2026 year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we're anticipating just shy of $80.5 million. There's an original budget of $20.9 million, and there was a supplementary appropriation this past fall and some recoveries, but all of which together totals out, as I say, to about just shy of $80.5. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so given the previous patterns of the federal government paying us back essentially for fire suppression efforts, does the Minister have an estimate of how much of this we expect we might get repaid from the federal government in time? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So that work is actively underway right now to make the determination between both ECC, who are responsible for the fire suppression directly, but also MACA who would have a role in terms of emergency systems and emergency planning. It does take a bit of time. The federal system is fairly particular about what they expect and the reporting that they expect. And so I don't have that number right now but certainly would, of course, be reporting it in to the House when it is available, Mr. Chair. And certainly to temper expectations, it is not all of this money that would come in; it would be typically when a fire is -- and the fire suppression efforts are in relation to a community or somewhat -- or, like, assets. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, no further questions now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions from Members? Seeing none.
Department of Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $18,191,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay, thank you. Department of Environment and Climate Change, total department not previously authorized, $18,487,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Turn to page 5 for the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Department of the Executive and Indigenous Affairs, operations expenditures, gender equity, not previously authorized, $167,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, gender equity, not previously authorized, $167,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, operations expenditures, governance and service integration, not previously authorized, $254,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, governance and service integration, not previously authorized, $254,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, operations expenditures, Office of the Secretary to Cabinet, not previously authorized, $387,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Office of the Secretary to the Cabinet, not previously authorized, $387,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, total department not previously authorized, $808,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Turn to page 6, the Department of Finance.
Department of Finance, operations expenditures, directorate, not previously authorized, $8,318,000. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions.
Department of Finance, directorate, not previously authorized -- sorry, my apologies. I am going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North
