Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just some brief comments that I will address in more detail when we get to the activity. Public Works and Services is a department that has had a long and important history in the community I represent. Over the years, like a lot of other places, its presence has diminished substantially. There is basically no more tradesmen; work is done by "as and when" contracts.
It still plays a key role in terms of overseeing the significant government infrastructure and various contracts and projects in the region. The one concern I do have, and I have written to the Minister about, is the concern I had with the quiet erosion of the presence of Public Works in Fort Smith. One of the areas of concern is the project officer staff issue. It all focuses around how much work is in the capital plan, how much work is in the region and the workload that is there for the staff who are on the payroll.
One of the issues that has struck me as being of interest, and I wanted to raise in the House with the Minister, is the potential for a department like Public Works to play a role in housing projects. Fort Smith is scheduled in the next couple of years for a 15-unit or 12-unit seniors housing complex. We are going to be importing a project officer staff from Housing in Hay River to come over when we have a whole complement of project officer staff sitting in Public Works in Fort Smith who have, in my opinion, all of the expertise and capacity they need to do that kind of work.
I think the same situation will apply, maybe not in Hay River since they already have their own project officer staff as well as the Housing district office, but it is more of a question of trying to integrate the common functions within the government. Public Works has a certain critical mass of specially trained technical people for those kinds of capital projects. My interest, of course, is to see them all fully and gainfully occupied, and involved in Fort Smith and the communities they service as possible. That is the one area that I have a concern with.
The other broader issue is the whole fate of the POL, the Energy Strategy, the report that is done on electrical distribution and the tie-in with NTPC. This has been an issue that has been on the table now for a number of years. There is a significant deficit in the revolving fund.
The concern is, as has been evidenced in the report, that it has to be done carefully so the small communities are not left high and dry and the high cost centres are left to the government or Public Works to administer and the cream is siphoned off through a contract.
Mr. Chairman, when you look at the role of Public Works over the last five years, where they fit in the territorial strategy is a question. There has been talk of consolidation in the past. There are a lot of common functions, capital planning functions, that are there with Housing and Public Works, possibly some with capital projects with MACA. There has been talk of that kind of integration so you get the maximum value for our money.
Once again, when the Minister replies to general comments, I would be interested to hear his thoughts about where there are any plans to try to at least coordinate the capital planning functions of government, so they are as integrated as possible. Those are my general concerns and general comments on Public Works and Services, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.