Kieron Testart

And I'm glad to see the Minister spring into action to support our mineral's industry.

Mr. Speaker, if the federal government's not going to fund it, what are we going to do? What tax credits and incentives can the Northwest Territories offer to our exploration industry to make it more -- to level the playing field with other jurisdictions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It does confuse it somewhat. So I mean, Premier Smith's been pretty clear that these changes are taking effect and, you know, these are transphobic and, you know, atrocious policies that no health system in Canada should have, so are they -- is the Alberta government making exception for NWT patients within this policy? I'm just -- want clarity on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure many are relieved to hear that; I certainly am. When these individuals are going for treatment, where are they going? If not Alberta, is it British Columbia? Is it Ontario? Saskatchewan's out of the picture. Alberta's out of the picture. So where are we sending these folks to get the care that they need? Thank you.

So just so the total expenditure's going to be just over $12 million, is that accurate? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So are there any lessons learned about how the GNWT approaches the supplementary reserve given the volatility related to spending due to increased instances of natural disaster? Do we know I mean, all the everything we're thinking about this upcoming fire season, and presumably flood and perhaps famine and plague, it is going to be bad, so yeah, it's positively biblical. So if we're we know this is coming, are we adjusting how we budget our supplementary reserves to take into account that so we're not in the situation where we're significantly depleting...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'd hazard a guess that the health Minister's probably only too happy to let the finance Minister sub in for questions here. But she's welcome to entertain this discussion as well; I'm sure we'd appreciate it.

So the issue, I think and I'm hearing this from nurses in my riding that, like so this is a morale issue in addition just because they're the prevalence of agency nurses. So can we get the Minister to commit to a very clear cost analysis of that $5.5 million that tells us exactly like, the equivalent position staff positions that it is. I appreciate they don...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know that this substantiation is to provide funding for the NWT Evacuation Travel Support Program. I have several it's becoming more than several constituents who have yet to be paid or reimbursed for their travel expenses.

Is this funding adequate to cover the I know the Minister's department is maintaining a list of those who have applied to the program. So is this is this fully funded now? Have we assessed everyone's needs and is this going to cover what we need to pay out? Thank you.

Thank you. That's good news. I look forward to that and will have more to say then. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I thank you for that explanation; that's satisfactory.

Okay, let's talk about agency nurses. So this is 2 million 2. just over $2.3 million. So what's the total amount that's going to be expended on agency nurse contracts? Thank you.

So thank you, Mr. Chair. The wastewater monitoring or Wastewater Surveillance Program is, I believe, related to COVID19 funding. So are we discontinuing this program after that funding sunsets? Thank you.