Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I've noticed in a couple of the health authorities -- well, specifically both NTHSSA and the Tlicho Community Services Agencies -- the amount allocated for administration, specifically, has really leapt dramatically this year as compared to last year and the year before. So with NTHSSA, we've gone from about $13 million to suddenly $18.5 million for administration. The TCSA, we've gone from -- well, two years ago, it was $783,000, and now we're up to $1.5 million. I know that we've talked earlier about cost increases related to the collective agreement.

Is that all this...

Okay, thank you for that. That is good to hear confirmation that those kinds of tangible outcomes to people's health and how outbreaks are contained, that that will be monitored and included.

I just want to turn my last little bit here to community mental wellness and addictions recovery. So does this line item include detox; you know, either detox beds in facilities or detox services offered in some other way? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask just about the medical travel review that is underway of the medical travel benefit policy. I understand that there's much bigger questions to be asked about what drives medical travel, and sometimes unnecessary medical travel, and that work is being done more by the health care system sustainability unit and maybe also the public administrator. I'm not sure. But this is an attempt to modernize the policy. So one thing that has been suggested to me could help save some costs is letting those who want to or are able to book their own medical travel, book...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there a way we can monitor whether or not we've done a good job at this? I know there's a lot of things around reforming health care and systems that it's hard to point to a specific tangible outcome but at some point, we have to know whether we've done it well or not, right, whether we've achieved our goal of transforming the system in a positive way. Are there indicators that you can point to, or is the plan to sort of survey stakeholders and staff, or how will we know whether we've done the job that we set out to do in this case? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is there a particular reason to think that the number for this coming fiscal year would be around $3 million if -- at least in the last two years, it's consistently been significantly higher than that. On what basis are we estimating this year will stay at around $3 million? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for that; that does make sense. Sometimes we are caught in between funding agreements here.

Okay. Under the population and public health services line -- well, it's more in the business plan. There's a note in the business plan that there will be some kind of a transformation of the public health system. Can the Minister explain what will be involved in transforming the public health system. I mean, not all the details but what's the idea behind it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, I can leave that for now. And just, finally, under the JK to 12 education system services, it's still hard to understand why there's such big fluctuations in that number. Like, 2023-2024 was over $10 million. Now we're looking at $4.8 million. It was $6.5 million last year. Is this due to changes in enrolments, like school funding formula, or can the Minister try to explain better why there's such big fluctuations in that line item. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That's fine. I can follow up with the Minister later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I -- yeah, to pick up where I left off yesterday, it feels like it's been years, following up on my question about programs for children and youth given the gap left by the closures of the residential treatment centres for children and youth. Can the Minister actually point to how much money in the budget is being allocated to support healing programs, treatment programs for children and youth. Is that a line that can be summarized?

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. It does seem like this is a common theme of switching, where possible, in-person programs and opportunities to online and, you know, there's a bigger debate to be had there. I know that we do need to save on travel costs, which are getting increasingly expensive, but that some things, they're -- it's hard to replace the value of face-to-face interactions, especially when people are just meeting each other for the first time.

So thanks for that information, though. I wanted to ask about the northern distance learning under grants and contributions. It looks like this...