Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to empathize with some of my colleagues’ comments as they look for specific projects, at least in the longer term plans. I know this is general comments, but I have to say I’m still looking for the Dettah road reconstruction. I’m sure it’s there somewhere.
I do also, as many of us do, appreciate this new approach, which is an attempt to come up with appropriately designed infrastructure that will meet the needs of our residents and also the size of our pocketbook. We have a clear and dramatic pattern of annual increases in the cost of things and annual increases in the size of the carry-over. I think there is hope that this new approach will establish parameters that ensure we get the best value for our money and guard against these sorts of cost overruns and carry-overs. Basically, this is an attempt to get a grip on reality and to respond, and I am very supportive of that.
The process is also beginning to recognize the importance of identifying operations and
maintenance costs associated with facilities. I think we probably should go beyond that in some cases. Increasingly in jurisdictions around the world, with building infrastructure and other infrastructure, it’s being required and designed to generate the energy it will use and more. They will contribute energy to the grid, part of the distributed energy system. The latest technologies are out there. I think we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve got some good initiatives started. But we need to continue to learn about where the progressive thinking is on this and what the real opportunities are for getting ahead of this sort of thing. These costs are not going to go down, and we still have other opportunities that we can implement here.
I’m pleased to see that a value analysis on each major project will be done to provide some measure of accountability to ensure projects have met the conditions of their approval. This is an important tool for management and oversight and could be useful in my next concern, which we have heard about already, and that’s recognizing that this is a new process. It is important that we establish a way to evaluate this new approach, its capital planning, and to build that into the implementation plan. Certainly, now is the time, rather than later, to determine the key needs and areas for evaluation and to identify the date for an objective assessment. There is somewhat of a record of us undertaking an evaluation and belatedly finding out we haven’t collected the right information to be able to do a good evaluation of the processes.
This type of focused evaluation will help to identify gaps in the process, incorporate lessons learned and ensure we are meeting the intended outcomes established by the Ministerial Subcommittee for Infrastructure. I’m thinking quantitatively in some respects. I would like to see this plan. I know Members would be interested in reviewing this evaluation framework and having it become a bit of a formal process reported in the House, back to the Assembly here, in a way that the public can feel confidence in what our experience is. It brings an element of accountability that we should willingly assume.
On the environmental side, again with infrastructure, I would like to see a protocol developed that gives each infrastructure an objective environmental sustainability rating that will allow us to truly consider the environmental impacts and benefits of projects on a comparable basis. Again, this is just a progressive way at getting a grip on the realities that we are facing.
I have a general concern — and we’ve talked about this a little bit — about the level of expenditures on electronic data processing and records storage for our relatively modest population of 40 some thousand people. This seems to be like quicksand, basically. It’s time for us to step back and consider
how far and how fast we want to go down this road. I know there are some efficiencies; we need to be able to interact with the rest of the world. I recognize that the health records and systems interact, especially with Alberta, and have special needs. So I throw this comment out with those sorts of caveats on it.
But in the vast majority of cases these are not frontline delivery questions, and we have a lot of frontline delivery questions that are not getting the attention they need. We need a critical look here and a balance, recognizing that these are, to some extent, common to everybody. I suspect there is an opportunity here for some critical evaluation and perhaps some savings. I know we are also playing a little catch-up there in terms of storage and so on. So I want to leave it at that, and thank you for the opportunity to comment.