Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we are as a government working towards a position where right now the health authority does run a deficit budget, most -- well, all departments and agencies do not. So we are trying to put ourselves into a position where the health and social services authorities would be in the same position, namely, not running any form of deficit budget. But before we do that, we are wanting to do the work that's happening both within the authority of the public administrator to determine the appropriate complement of staffing, for one, but also work that's happening in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have that. The $58.6 million number that I had put forward is based on the current fiscal year and really for education authorities only. And when adding in 2025-2026 but then also considering that there would have been some elements, for example, if there's diagnostic services or treatment services or care, health care related services, I don't have that number. So the number certainly does start to grow when we add all of that in. I can see if we can put that together. It may be that it is -- I don't have in front of me right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So no, Madam Chair, this is not. And there's a couple of different line items that we see in the course of reviewing the Department of Health and Social Services broadly, including where they would put money to support the authority. But this is where if someone who has Northwest Territories health care and they go anywhere outside of Northwest Territories, we are billed back. So this is out of territory hospital medical services. It's not residents who are permanently in other facilities or who may be residing in other facilities, you know, sort of longer term for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the item that came forward from education, culture, employment in response to the federal government's decision to take away money from Indigenous students did not apply to Yellowknife exclusively. It does not apply to any individual community or education body exclusively. It is for school boards who are being denied their funding that they were receiving through Jordan's Principal. If a school board is being denied funding anywhere in the Northwest Territories, they can apply to this fund. It so happens that the two largest school boards in Yellowknife...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is indeed a difficult area. There certainly is some work being done in this respect. There's -- you know, obviously the volume of residents who may require this care is one of the areas of driver, but also the type of care that is being required. And then the costs of that care and the cost of specialized medical care, certainly in the last five years or so has gone up faster than what it had been previously, but also there's the costs that may be involved depending on, you know, again, some of the other parameters of just where they may be. Different facilities and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this came forward through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to support the fact that Indigenous children in schools across the Northwest Territories were going to be very directly impacted. 205 positions from across the Northwest Territories were being immediately affected with this first year of denials coming from the federal government. And there were certainly a large number of students affected here in Yellowknife because there's a great deal of Indigenous students here in Yellowknife. We have 50 percent of the population. So while it...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, on my left, deputy minister of finance Bill MacKay. And on my right Julie Mujcin, the comptroller general.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there is -- I would sort of direct, if you may, the Member and others interested to the Healthy Food for Learning foods program that is in the national school food program which has a one-year action plan here for 2024-2025. That is now being actioned and funded through this funding, and then the funding is allocated to different education bodies at different rates depending upon the I presume the size, although again I don't have the breakdown as to exactly whether it's entirely based on, you know, just pure numbers or some other qualitative assessment...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 32, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, No. 2, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, every dollar that we are speaking about, whether it's potentially the $14 million that we're requesting here now or every dollar that flows through education, culture and employment to the boards are public funds that are appropriated here for the purposes of delivering education. So I, you know, certainly would suggest that to the extent that a school board has some additional capacity, when there's a rainy day this may itself be the rainy day. So they would then potentially have more ability to draw a larger number of education assistants under the...