Shauna Morgan

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's it for this page.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm hopeful that funding can be identified to see if we can ensure the continued existence and thriving of the boreal caribou that so many of the communities in this territory rely on.

My next question has to do with -- so we talked a bit earlier about funding for caribou monitoring that's been sunsetting. There's two line items, one called caribou monitoring and the other monitoring and range planning, but it talks about supporting Indigenous governments, local communities in traditional knowledge studies and capacity building around caribou monitoring.

So has that work...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I want to talk a bit about boreal caribou, which have suffered tremendously with all of the forest fires. I don't think we talk about it enough in this House. But it looks like a couple years ago there was a bilateral funding agreement with the federal government to identify sites for boreal caribou habitat restoration and designing treatment trials. And I know that that expired in 2023, and I see that there's an item on this page around landscape level restoration in boreal caribou habitat for 2023-2024, but there's nothing in this year's budget. What are the plans to...

Okay. Can the Minister give any examples of what kinds of water research and monitoring work is being done this year versus things that were being done last year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's important people have the head's up and know what's coming there.

On another aspect of 9-1-1, I know there have been difficulties in terms of working out a collaboration with the city of Yellowknife that makes sure that resources overall are used most efficiently. Obviously, there's -- you know, there's a dispatch service that 9-1-1 provides, but the city of Yellowknife has always provided its own dispatch service. I wonder if the Minister can speak to whether those sort of disagreements and conflicts have been worked out with the city of Yellowknife and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on page 89, under the item water research and monitoring (aquatic quality and hydrology), it looks like the budget has gone from, in 2022-2023, from $483,000 and then last year's budget $370,000, and now we're down to $346,000.

Can the department explain why the amount of money for water research and monitoring has been going down over the last two fiscal years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sorry, go on to the next. My computer just died.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the territorial power subsidy program, that's $7.15 million for this coming year. It says it's a subsidy program for residential electricity consumers outside of Yellowknife. Is that a subsidy that's given directly to NTPC, or is it given directly to customers? Can you explain how that power subsidy program works.

Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And so I believe that we get a significant amount of money from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, the ICIP program. Is that all capital funding, or does any of that funding, which I believe is about $55.4 million, does that go into operations and maintenance of infrastructure?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do understand where the Minister's coming from. I would just also point out though that I mean, this project had a budget line of $190,000, which is not going to change the world, but it's also not going to break our budget if we stepped in to avoid that the feds are leaving, hopefully temporarily. I would also point out, you know, we're seeing an elimination of the rebate program for electric bicycles. And it's only $10,000. And you could say that okay, well, it wasn't creating a huge impact because it was only $10,000, but it's also a very small amount of money...