This is page numbers 5127 - 5158 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was communities.

Topics

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to continue with the consideration of the capital estimates and today we would like to proceed with Public Works and Services and, time permitting, we want to move on to Education, Culture and Employment.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. On that note, we’ll take a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have before us today Tabled Document 66-16(5), NWT Capital Estimates 2011-2012. We are starting together with the Department of Public Works and Services. Is committee agreed?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

I’d like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring in witnesses. Mr. McLeod

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to bring in witnesses.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I’d like to ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses into the House.

If I could call on the Minister to introduce his witnesses.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me to my right is Mr. Paul Guy, the deputy minister of Public Works and Services; and I also have on my left Laurie Gault, director of Technology Service Centre.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Welcome, Mr. Guy, Ms. Gault. Committee, we have before us Public Works and Services, which starts on page 5-4 with asset management. Sorry, it starts with the summary on page 5-2, but we’re going to defer that until we’re completed the detail and start with asset management, which goes from page 5-3 through page 5-5. Financial summary, Public Works and Services, activity summary, asset management, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $12.527 million. Committee, on page 5-4, questions? Page 5-4, committee agree?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Next we have Technology Service Centre, which is from page 5-6 through page 5-8. Public Works and Services, activity summary, Technology Service Centre, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $1.3 million. Questions, committee? Mr. Yakeleya.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask the Minister about support for our agencies in the department within the government. In terms of electronic support and infrastructure, I know that there is some interest in electronic infrastructure for our health care operations in our small communities and with the whole accessing more infrastructure for our health centres. I’m not too sure if this is the place where I can ask about this in this department, if this department is heading up looking at putting in stronger infrastructure into our communities that require them, especially for our health centres and education in the schools, also.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Ms. Gault.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Gault

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We currently have several projects underway that we are looking to address both the Internet needs as well as the wide area network needs of particularly health and education. We have several pilot projects. One is the Internet Redirect, whereby we’ll be looking at alternate facilities to provide more bandwidth to our schools, and the other is to improve transmission to the satellite communities for TeleSpeech initiatives.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

The specific phrase on bandwidth support, I’m looking more in the future of increasing that to our health centres in the small communities where they are now starting to have more technology that would have electronic medical records and being more transparent in the health centres to the larger centres where these records are available. Right now I know we still operate with the paper system and I think if there’s some indication from this department on areas they’re going to look at in the health centre on the specific issue of supporting our communities with implementing a health records system and the bandwidth that would support it. I know we’re also in competition with the schools. How do we start ensuring that our small community health centres will also receive some support in terms of medical records being instantly produced in the health centres so we can get greater access to health care to our people?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Mr. Chairman, the question is not in relationship to the capital and it’s not reflected in this plan. However, we are looking at going out for a new DCN contract very shortly

and we’re also looking at ways to increase our bandwidth. That, of course, will allow for more medical traffic in records. We are investing in this budget in server hardware and looking at network infrastructure and data storage infrastructure, and that will help to integrate some of the systems. There’s a budget of $1.2 million to deal with those changes, those improvements.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Good observation. I’ll ask the Members to try and remember to keep our questions to capital items and save programming questions for later. Moving on, we have Mr. Beaulieu next. Mr. Beaulieu.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With committee’s indulgence, I’d like to ask questions on page 5-4 and 5-7. I didn’t have an opportunity to. I can proceed with that. I just wanted to ask the Minister a question relating to asset management on the deferred maintenance. I was wondering if the department is able to maintain their budget that will allow them to catch up with serious deferred maintenance items that are apparent in government buildings across the Territories. First question.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I gather that we have gone back to page 5-4. Let me just seek committee approval to return to page 5-4. Is committee agreed?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you. The question stands. Mr. McLeod.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Mr. Chairman, the issue of infrastructure deficit and deferred maintenance is of concern right across Canada. We’ve worked with a number of jurisdictions to try to bring that to the attention of the federal government. Within our own budgets and our own initiatives, we’ve targeted deferred maintenance as a priority. Over the last few years we’ve managed to bring that number down by $145 million from a huge challenge with the infrastructure deficit. We’ll continue to do so over the next while. We have targeted some dollars for this coming year and we would expect the next governments to do the same as we work towards eliminating that infrastructure deficit or the deferred maintenance. However, it’s going to be long term. What is the number now? The number will be reduced down to $325 million by the end of this coming fiscal year.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. Just one more question on that. Does the Minister anticipate that the government or departments will ever be able to catch up with deferred maintenance items?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

That is our goal, as a government, to reduce the deficit on deferred maintenance. We have done quite well over the last few years and this is as a result of having a very good capital budget across the departments and

replacing a lot of the infrastructure that was very old and could not be upgraded. We’ve also done a lot of upgrades to buildings that needed it and we were able to address it. But there is still a fairly large deficit budget in the area of deferred maintenance, and I think that every government that comes on stream is going to have to tackle this issue and it will be around for some time. But the goal is to reduce it down to zero. I’m not sure how long that’s going to take, but it’s going to require continued investment over many years.