Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the most significant things that we get from that, having entered into the revenue, again, sharing agreement with them, it did bring down the overall cost to us of having access to a building that has been fully renovated for use. And when I say renovated, I also want to say remediated. Again, the costs of remediating a building of this size and scale are not insignificant. That would have been a significant cost to the GNWT to do that, to bring it up to a level that would then be actually useable again from the state that it was in. So we are --...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so there's the P3 partner who operates the Stanton Territorial Hospital and then there is a separate arrangement, commercial arrangement, with a leaseholder over the Liwego'ati Building. Again, two different entities that we are speaking about. And what I certainly can look again back to, and I believe was committed at the time, is that some further evidence can be provided, some further information can be provided with respect to the cost differentials. So specifically on the Liwego'ati Building, at that time it would have been -- at the time that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the auditor general, as I understand, was -- is looking at the two projects as one and our view continues to be that the two projects are not one. And so the way that we are looking at that value analysis continues to differ, Mr. Speaker. And we do now have a campus-based approach with health care with the two facilities operating side-by-side rather than a Stanton Territorial Hospital and what would have then been a separate building built somewhere else at some distance. So at this point, Mr. Speaker, we have two operating facilities and, again, looking...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge this is a unique situation. It was also a unique opportunity, Mr. Speaker. It's not one that was -- any Member of this Cabinet was in government at the time. What we had is a building that we owned that needed to be remediated, and we needed to remediate it at significant costs. This is a large building, a medical building, and the remediation would be significant. So that was included as part of the leasing arrangement.

Subsequent to that -- and I think this is where there starts to be some challenges. And subsequent to that, it was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work of implementing and respecting UNDRIP and treaties is part of the day-to-day work that happens across every department and is the responsibility of every single Minister at all times. Mr. Speaker, there doesn't need to be a new line item or new money to be reflective of the honour and the oath that we've all taken, nor of the role of every government or every department vis-a-vis each community and each Indigenous government.

And, Mr. Speaker, the example I'll give is, frankly, the work of the GNWT on the action committee in order to see that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is an action plan that is underway. I understand that there is a target date of the fall of 2025 to have that action plan published and that work towards that is, indeed, on track. Departments are all contributing to it, working with participating Indigenous governments toward that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 19, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2024-2025, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, this is not health care specific though certainly does have some significant numbers, I believe, in -- or some numbers within health care of the folks accessing this. It is generally for staff -- existing staff was the other question. So it is for existing GNWT employees and is an opportunity means by which to support employees as they are wanting to move up in the organization by providing them, if there's a gap in a certification or a gap in a particular area, that they can obtain that through this program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the previous amount of $13 million is what the budget amount would have been. So back 2023-2024, likely you would have seen -- and I don't have it here or recall, but in 2023-2024 the actual budgeted amount, I believe, was significantly lower than what the actuals wound up being. You would see a change to revised if we brought a sup. In past years, we were, I know certainly in some years, able to cover internally increased costs in medical travel within the department. The last few years have seen a number of cost increases, not the least of which is an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, again, Mr. Chair, the department does have folks who have been involved with the file and with the evolution of the federal carbon tax system for quite some time, since its early inception. They were able to respond when there were changes coming out from the federal government in the last couple of years, more than once, and those same individuals, Mr. Chair, continue to monitor what comments are being made. But until we know with some finality if we're dealing with no carbon tax, if we're dealing with a modified carbon tax, if we're dealing with only an industrial...