Mr. Chairman, we will get the information as we continue with this process, to ensure departments have adequate information available.

The other thing to this is, by law, we are required to keep our data and records in place, and that is part of the process as well. It is the Department of Public Works and Services that manages, for many departments, the overall data storage and media storage that we need and require for all departments.

We are on the

Department of Public Works and Services, page 6, appropriation authority required: $6 million. Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Chairman, just following up on my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions. If you look at the infrastructure upgrades and server replacements, currently the government has a policy whereby if the equipment is reaching the end of five years — an evergreen policy, I think, is how they refer to it — then that equipment is considered for replacement.

We haven't had that level of discussion yet. Maybe an exercise in looking at saving some money is extending the evergreen maybe six, maybe seven years before we look at replacement. Why would we go ahead with the upgrades without having made that determination on whether we want to look at an increase in the time that we require before things are to be upgraded?

Mr. Chairman, the area of evergreening…. In fact, when that program first was introduced to the government of the Northwest Territories a number of years ago, the time limit used to be three years. As Members of that Assembly had requested that it be extended, it was done to that limit.

Although we've got a time frame, it is not for every system we have available. Again, because of the resources, it is done department by department. They go around and do the system replacements. In some cases they're still catching up; they're still older than the five-year window that's there. They're still catching up with that program. But it is something that we can look at extending, to see if that is a viable option.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the Premier, and I look forward to those discussions whenever they happen.

Mr. Chairman, I also wanted to emphasize that point. I know that certainly a lot of our electronic equipment contributes quite significantly to our landfills throughout the North. It represents toxic waste in a lot of cases. Hopefully that might be addressed in some of the ongoing work through ENR. The degree to which we can reduce unnecessarily replacing electronic equipment will be a benefit to us all in many ways. I for one have never really met the capacity of any computer I’ve ever used, for example, and I seem to hear that a lot from my colleagues. Maybe there are some departments at least that could get by with less frequent replacement.

Mr.

Chairman, as a

government we do realize we need to reduce our footprint and the impact we have on the land and the environment around us and look for ways of reducing that. Yes, as it becomes more and more known, and as publications out there highlight the amount of computers that fall into landfills and the adverse impact they have, it is something we do have to consider.

A lot of this — some history here — goes back to, as Members may recall, Y2K. I believe that was the term used. When governments looked at the potential that major system failures could happen as a result of the design of these systems, many governments across not only Canada but the world had to review their situation and the backup that was needed. Through that exercise, it was realized that as the government of the Northwest Territories, we lacked…. So that if we had a major failure, whether it be one of our facilities that house our equipment or the equipment itself failed, we had little to no backup in those areas. In fact, the last government, as I highlighted earlier, ended up dealing with some of those system failures because we didn't have the appropriate backup.

Unfortunately, even though this is a new environment for doing business, a technical age, some redundancy is required as we proceed with keeping our information intact. We will look forward to working with departments to ensure we're looking at these areas. Extending the lifespan of these is an area we can look at.

Schedule 2, Capital

Investment Expenditures, Department of Public Works and Services, appropriation authority required: $6,534,000. Agreed?

Public Works and Services, $6,534,000

approved.

Department of Health and Social Services, appropriation authority required: $27,562,000.

Health and Social Services, $27,562,000

approved.

Mr. Chair, there are a number of projects related to offender facilities: the North Slave Correctional Centre, the North Slave Young Offenders Facility. They all seem to be new projects; they don't seem to be ongoing projects. I understand that the rationale is the work needs to be done during the spring and summer months. I can't debate that, but I can debate the merit of the projects.

Specifically, one that stands out is an aboriginal healing and spiritual program area. I question whether or not that's urgent enough that it needs to be included in this appropriation. If I could get an explanation from the Minister, please.

Mr. Chairman, the area of these projects is highlighted.. The timing of it is why it’s included in this area. There are existing structures in place that do require…. Although it says there is no new money, this is work for existing features of our facilities, and would require them to be done and dealt with so that there is no further deterioration, potentially, and looking at the asset itself of this piece.

That's all, thank you.

We were dealing with the Department of Justice. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that we report progress.

Motion carried.

We will rise and report progress.

Could I have the report of the Committee of the Whole, please.

Mr.

Speaker, your committee has

been considering Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009. I would like to report progress. I move

that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Do we have a seconder for the motion? The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Motion carried.

Before we go to Orders of the Day, I'd just like to acknowledge the Pages that have been working in the House this week. We have had two Pages from Weledeh, two from Yellowknife South, two from Hay River South and two from Mackenzie Delta.

Applause.

Mr. Clerk, item 23, Orders of the Day.

Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Monday, February 18, 2008, at 1:30 p.m.

The House adjourned at 1:29 p.m.