Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I don't have it done by a financial number. Again, certainly, if there's we do track, as I've said, as of December of last year there was 517. You certainly could go in and take all of those and figure out what each one is worth. What I can say is that late in the end of the last Assembly and also the beginning of this one, I certainly have asked the Department of Finance to go and figure out and ensure, rather, that we are looking at positions that have been vacant for a long time. There can be times where an individual may be off with a duty to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I mean, again, if it's with respect to the $6 million that's before committee here, I believe under the evacuation travel support, one of the eligibility requirements did involve listing your place of residence and so in that sense we will be able to, I believe, break down this $6 million by residence on that basis. If it's with respect to the total fire suppression and total evacuation costs by community, that may be a bit more challenged in that I don't know to what extent there will be you know, some fire suppression efforts that would involve by fire as opposed to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The annual operation funding requirements with this are looked at at around $2.5 million for and, yes sorry, for 20222023 projected for 20232024 to be I'm sorry, I think I said my numbers backward, Mr. Chair. $5.2 million for 20222023 and projected $5.1 million for 20232024. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So some of these programs are applicationbased which so it depends on the amount of applications received and also can depend upon when work is done, which would then affect when the money is disbursed. So as far as just to ensure and also I'm sorry, I should also note that some of the individual areas where the funding is allocated are do permit to have carryovers. So I will need to just double check to see if, in fact, it is all expended. It looks that it has been, Mr. Chair. And if I am incorrect in that, I will certainly correct that at the earliest opportunity...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we are looking at total projected expenditures for the year will be at just over $121 million. And that's anticipated expenditures. So in terms of the base budget, that comes in at around just 21.7, just over $21.7 million. In August, you may recall there was a request for a supplementary appropriation at $75 million. So that leaves with the projected expenditures of 121, that leaves the projected shortfall of 24.3, which brings us here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me put that one over to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this funding helps support the next five years of the Film and Media Strategy Action Plan from 2021 through until 2026. That action plan has a number of different initiatives designed to support both short and longterm advancement of the film and media sector, and this component I mean, it includes everything from advertising and promotion to contract and salaries, travel, and training. This is a portion that was submitted as an expression of interest to CanNor back in November of 2022, and an agreement was signed with CanNor. This is the portion for the current...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's probably an excellent question to raise during the business planning process when you'd have the Department of Justice in front of you there defending their decisions in terms of their annual appropriations and annual business plans. And I'll certainly convey to the Minister that that may be a question that they should be anticipating. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm able to say that as of December 31st, 2023, we had 517 vacancies across the total GNWT. So that's approximately 8.6 or so of all of the funded positions, which is a total of just over 6,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did want to respond because I can appreciate the frustration of seeing sups come back. Four sups in a budget cycle actually is pretty standard. And what I was going to suggest is perhaps I can and if it's of interest to the public we could certainly table it, but we could give the budget cycle showing roughly when the sups happen. You know, there's department cutoffs of when they have to put those requests in but then to get the four in is actually very common. This would be the cutoff time for the fourth one prior to the end of the fiscal year. So, again...