Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that we are locked in to paying $78 million over 30 years to Ventura, can the Minister explain whether there is any benefit or value that Ventura is providing to the government over the next 30 years by holding the lease; what are we getting from that arrangement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister has just claimed that subsequent to the lease, we realized -- or the government realized that it needed more space for health care services but, in fact, it was as early as 2014 that the government had recognized that more space was needed for health care services. Can the Minister explain why that was not taken into account when this lease agreement was first arranged with Ventura? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Infrastructure.

So the Office of the Auditor General in its audit of the Stanton P3 project recommended the GNWT publicly report costs related to the Legacy Hospital Building leasing arrangement and to provide updates to total project costs when there are significant changes over the 30-year term. Now, the GNWT has disagreed and declined to publicly report those costs.

Can the Minister explain who or what the government is protecting by refusing to publicly report these costs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do hope to continue the conversation with the Minister and in this House about this really important topic because it does seem like a system that is perpetually, you know, struggling and in crisis, and we're talking about the -- probably the most vulnerable people in our communities which is children who are experiencing problems in their families.

So it also says in the business plan that part of the work in this area is to redesign the foster care and respite services delivery programs. Can the Minister explain what that is intended to do, what's the intention...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So in the business planning documents, it appears that HSS is promising or working on a new approach to child and family services programming. Can the Minister explain what direction that's going or what exactly we can expect to see from this new approach. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, I have a number of different questions under lots of different items here so I'm not sure if I'll get through it in ten minutes, but maybe I'll get a second chance.

I wanted to delve into child and family services to start. So it's my understanding from reviewing the annual reports from child and family services that about 25 percent of CFS staff positions are vacant and that number is even higher when we're looking at frontline staff. Can the Minister comment on whether there's a plan to try to address those vacancies which appear to be sort of a longstanding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

So the GNWT's multi-year funding agreement with Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning is set to expire in March 2025. So while most of Dechinta's funding has come from the federal level as well as private sources, GNWT funding is critical to show other donors and funders that the institution is critical to this territory, and a multi-year funding commitment is necessary to ensure Dechinta can actually secure its faculty staffing because professors would not agree to work on a month's notice year...

Thanks. That does help to clarify but I just am still wanting clarity on the specific question of if it's unfunded, would it show up in the number in our budget of active positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay. And so it sounds like -- well, maybe the Minister can confirm whether any new hires were done as a result of the transfer of TSC and whether there was any net increase in staff. It sounds like there were unfunded staff, so I'm not clear whether they were counted previously in our budget documents as official staff positions. So I guess the couple questions related there are were there any new hires and was there any net increase in staff positions related to that transfer of TSC from Infrastructure to Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, that helps clarify. It is in the business plan under access to health care but now I understand that it's a broader program, but there's -- it's just mentioned there as something that might help our health care recruitment efforts as well. And perhaps I'll follow up later with health and social services to see how well they're doing on health care recruitment. So that's all for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.