Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These are the comments of the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development regarding Public Works and Services.
The committee met with the Minister and his officials on September 22, 2005, to review the draft business plan of the Department Public Works and Services.
Members also received a briefing from the Minister of Finance on January 17, 2006, outlining the changes to the budget of the Department of Public Works and Services since the committee reviewed the business plan in September.
Committee members made note that the department is proposing to spend $47 million in operations expense and $9.2 million on capital projects in fiscal year 2006-2007.
Committee members offer the following comment on issues arising out of the review of the 2006-2007 Draft Main Estimates and budget-planning cycle.
Consolidation Of Information Technology (IT) And Information Systems (IS) Within Public Works And Services
The Governance and Economic Development committee is always encouraging the departments within their envelope to realize cost savings and operate as efficiently as possible. For instance, the Governance and Economic Development committee has been working with Public Works and Services over the past year to see where more cost savings could be found by amalgamating all IT and IS staff under their department.
In the past, the committee had asked during their review of the department's 2005-2006 Main Estimates if there was a way to further amalgamate these applications in order to realize further efficiencies and savings. PWS replied that a number of departments have a large number of complex applications in house. The Informatics Policy Committee, a part of the Knowledge Management Strategy, was trying to come up with the best balance between resources that are dedicated to the departments and resources that are pooled corporately.
The committee then noted during their review of the PWS 2006-2009 Business Plan that although TSC and systems and communications were amalgamated, there are still department-specific applications and positions that remain decentralized.
The Governance and Economic Development committee recommended that PWS supply the committee with information about the IT and IS people who are still employed outside of the department, what applications these positions are supporting and if there is a plan to migrate these functions to the TSC.
Mr. Chairman, at this time, although it's not directly under Public Works and Services, I would like to ask our deputy chair of GED to bring the committee's general comments on the Cost of Living Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.