Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a couple topics I would like to touch on as well. I am very pleased with the Deferred Maintenance Program. I think that is something that is a positive thing to extend the life of the assets that we do have, the assets that we are not planning on replacing. In my communities there is very little infrastructure spending. Therefore, the deferred maintenance I think that is scheduled to go into the schools is very welcome. They have, like I said, aside from that, within the community boundaries there is very little activity except perhaps some of the work that the municipality is doing with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
I was pleased with the department on the costs of the fuel reduction. There is no question about that. If you buy a full tank of fuel, the costs would be astronomical to buy a full tank of fuel for a homeowner. If he wants to buy a full tank he would save himself almost $200. That is good. I think that people, especially the smaller volumes of gasoline that people were saying were right on the borderline of whether or not it was even feasible to hunt caribou, if it was just more feasible to just buy that amount of meat from the store than buy the gasoline to hunt the caribou, especially outside of Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution where there is quite a distance to travel to get to the caribou. In Lutselk’e this year they were four hours about. That is quite a bit of fuel to go get a few caribou. They would be able to get together and kill more caribou and make it more economically feasible for them to do the hunt. That small reduction in costs I think it is about at least 10 percent reduction in costs, which was welcome by communities I am sure. I haven’t talked to anybody about it, but I talked to them before you guys actually dropped the price, without thinking that you should drop the price. So people thought it was a good idea. I was pleased to be able to write to the chief in Lutselk’e to advise him that, after I got your letter, these were the new prices now. That was very good.
I continue to have an issue with the cost of TSC. I feel that the cost of TSC keeps growing and this is over a long period of time. It would be interesting to actually see what the original mandate or the original concept of TSC was. I think that one of the
objectives, I believe, was to save costs. I am not 100 percent sure, but I was thinking a mix back then and I thought that was one of the objectives was to save costs and also to improve services. I think that the Technology Services Centre has, over a period of time, improved the skills of the people working for the government, because you had to improve your skills in order to continue to run the computer because the server system is more readily available at your fingertips like you used to have when the technical services was in the departments. I think we have blown the idea that this is going to be more economical, for sure. I think we will find that the costs are very high. I think that one of the things the department should maybe look at is trying to find a way to control the cost. I think that just going to the departments and asking for a chunk of money from every department…I am not sure the departments are in a position to evaluate what they are paying for at this point. Or maybe changing the way you evergreen a computer, something so that it is just not…I’m not saying it is totally out of control, but it is just so that it doesn’t appear totally out of control, that there is some control to the cost and there is some idea that the cost is going to stop growing.
I agree that the service is improving. I don’t think there is better service if you have a good technical services team for computers in your own department. That is the ultimate. I think that saves all kinds of problems. I think that would have probably even helped with the whole HR systems that were introduced to the employees and so on. I look forward to maybe over the next couple of years seeing if there could be some more cost control over here on the Technology Services Centre; just to let the department know that we are watching the costs. I know that during the business plan review I think every department came up with the cost of TSC. It wasn’t like the MLAs are sitting there going this is a high cost. It was, like, the actual departments. It was fairly apparent, as the costs were coming out, that it was fairly substantial.
I, too, agree with my colleague Mr. Ramsay. I think the department is very responsive. I think that when we as MLAs have issues in the community that pertain to this department, they are fairly quick in responding and fairly positive as well. That is all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.