Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, there's not a full-time dedicated position per se but, Mr. Speaker, the interagency engagement between the Premier's office and the federal government, that is a large part of the core work that happens at executive and Indigenous affairs, certainly on the executive side, so if you're in that department, I'm quite confident in saying, and believe I'm well placed to say so with the information I do have, that this is not a concern to the department, that they're confident that they are able to actively engage, and I do happen to know from the role that I'm in, Mr. Speaker, having...

With respect to -- I did not have the opportunity to attend this briefing, Mr. Chair, so I don't know what may or may not have been said. But as far as reporting, Mr. Chair, maybe I'll turn that to the deputy minister to see if he can give that background, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we'll be able to provide that level of detail. I mean, I -- a little bit hesitant in that it's fairly specific numbers that were being proposed. But, again, we do track the 30-day mark. We do track how far behind we are on a 30-day mark of standard to provide refunds. And, yes, I believe we can break down what is owed individually, and I suppose -- let me leave it at that, Mr. Chair, and we'll see where we get. I also don't want to run into a situation where the breakdown results in it being identifiable if it's too particular and then we're identifying people who...

If I could direct it over to director of shared corporate services, Mr. Chair, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So with respect to the Department of Finance, Mr. Chair, we are increasing positions in the Beaufort Delta and in the Sahtu to help support the FESS, or Financial and Employee Shared Services. And, you know, again, with respect to the broader GNWT, Mr. Chair, I mean, there's -- that's not an item that necessarily is under the priorities of the Assembly other than obviously wanting to, of course, ensure broadly the opportunity for ongoing economic development and -- but, yes, so I don't have a new priority or a new mandate item that is relating to that.

From the perspective...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The GNWT only has a portion of the Canol Trail, actually in fact I think a fairly small portion of the Canol Trail. The majority is still sitting with the federal government. And the last time I was updated on this there was some ongoing conversations with the federal government seeking to have them bring their portions up to a level so that this could, frankly, be an area that may well have a future tourism opportunity. But at this point, the majority of the trail is still federal responsibility. We have our smaller, much smaller portion of it.

I would say, Mr. Chair...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is standard practice for utilities everywhere in the country that there's not any provisions whereby they would compensate customers who might find themselves in circumstances if they have some damages so there's no difference here with NTPC. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there's a couple of factors that can be -- that can result in the increase. First is there is -- well, primarily is that there was -- there was and continues to be a plan to reduce the overall lease footprint and to get to a place where we have less footprint and therefore less costs, and that was being built in. Unfortunately, some of that work is taking a little longer to get to, and as a result so while they have reduced the budget for leases, they ultimately found that there was base rent, then base rent escalations by landlords and also operations and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can tell you that with respect to the public health nurses, there were seven nurses involved. Community health had two staff involved. Public health practitioners had two folks involved. There was a physician -- one physician involved, lab technologists involved, two laboratory clerks involved, one medical radiation technologist involved. Obviously, some of those individuals, this is not necessarily full-time work and wouldn't -- would likely have required some additional efforts and additional time and staffing in order to manage the expanding workload. Thank you.

That is accurate, Mr. Chair. Thank you.