Page 7-9, information item, revenue summary.

Page 7-10, information item, Public Works and Services, active positions.

Page 7-13, activity summary, Public Works and Services, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $7.323 million.

Page 7-14, information item, Public Works and Services, directorate, active positions.

Page 7-17, activity summary. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on the asset management, just for the record, I just want to let the Minister know I said the facility in Tulita, it looks like it was built in the 1600s. I didn’t say it was built, I said it looked like. Perceptions. So

I just wanted to tell the Minister that I just wanted that to be for the record here and that I will certainly look forward to seeing if, when this facility could be put on the list for demolition, and seeing if they can consider building a new one for the workers there. This is quite an old building here.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, I had indicated that we were at the planning stage of looking at the replacement of the tank farm. That will include the facility that the Member is concerned about. Thank you.

I just wanted to be clear. I’m talking about DPW facility garage. I know you’re talking about the tank farm there. I just wanted to ask the Minister for clarification. I guess I’m talking about the DPW garage that’s there. There also is an old building that they’re using right now for storage in the tank farm right now. I know the Minister has written some correspondence and I appreciate it being put on the books for some work there.

Mr. Chairman, the response is the same. We are in the planning study of having a strategic plan for replacement, upgrades and retrofits of the facilities that are going to be required as we move forward with our building maintainers. So both the facility at the tank farm and the facility for Public Works in the community are at the planning stage and we’ll share the information as to the long-term plans for that as we move forward. Right now they’re currently not in this budget, but we are working on getting the information that’s required. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for his clarity and his consistent message to me here, so I can take it for what he is saying.

I want to ask the Minister on another subject here in regard to asset management. The Norman Wells Mackenzie Mountain School, I know they had an assessment done on the energy, and I want to know if there is going to be some work done because of the amount of use of energy that school is going through. It’s costing quite a lot. I know there are other schools that have been looked at in terms of putting together some energy initiatives for facilities such as schools, and I want to know if the Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells could be considered as a possible project they can use to have an energy-efficient operation, I guess.

Mr. Chairman, we are doing some work on the school in Norman Wells. We did an energy audit. It has come back with a report and we can share the information with the Member as to what we’re actually going to be doing in the school. Thank you.

Thank you. I look forward to the report there. I also want to say that I’m not too sure if the Minister did... I think they had some technology that they’re using around the communities in terms of radar in terms of energy reports or assessment. I’m not too sure if they use that in the Sahtu on some of the buildings that possibly could use some attention in terms of energy efficiency in the facilities that we use.

Thermo-scanning is I believe what the Member is referring to, and we have used it in the Sahtu and we have used it in Norman Wells and other communities. We’ve also done some thermo-scanning of municipal facilities. Thank you.

Thank you. I think that’s a real good thing the department is doing with the thermo-scan on buildings like that. So it’s a plus.

I want to ask the Minister on another subject in terms of the coordination of granular material planning for different departments. The Minister I think has taken the lead, or I’m making the presumption that this department is taking the lead, in terms of bringing together various departments to see what type of granular materials are going to be needed in the community that year for projects for the next year. Is this something that is working very well and that’s a standard practice now by this government?

We’ve done over 300 buildings across the North with the thermo-scanning and it’s provided us some pretty good information. We’ve also looked at doing energy audits and we’ve done a number of facilities in the Member’s riding.

In terms of the gravel supply and coordination from Public Works, we do upgrade our assessments twice a year and we have had some very good success in a lot of the communities in terms of acquiring gravel and savings through economies of scale, partnering up with government departments -- Housing Corporation and others -- and it’s also allowed the communities to provide stockpiles of different types of required gravel that they feel they would need over the years. So it’s working quite well. We still do have challenges, however, in some communities that have difficulty accessing sources of gravel, but we’ll continue to work on that.

Thank you, Minister. Any last comment, Mr. Yakeleya?

Yes, last comment, just on the technical support for Safe Drinking Water Initiative. Can the Minister just allude to the standards that we want to bring up in terms of the water for the Safe Drinking Water Initiative, the support for the municipalities that desperately do need the valuable support to make sure that our water is always at a standard, that we can assure our people that this is

an issue that is being monitored throughout the year?

Mr. Chairman, our government has a multi-tiered approach towards ensuring we have safe drinking water. Our department, Public Works and Services, is a part of that along with ENR, Municipal and Community Affairs and Health. We get involved during the planning study portion. Once there’s a source of water identified, we help with the engineering, we help with testing the source and things of that nature. There are also other departments involved as it goes up the line. Thank you.