Thank you, Madam Chair. In regard to the concern about deferred maintenance, what has happened over the years, at least that I’ve been in this Legislature and yourself, Madam Chair, is whenever there were fiscal pressures and reductions in the past, capital was cut, often because it was the least painful. It didn’t require layoffs and you could hit some of the targets and protect programs and services.
In addition, just a general financial condition that we operate in, for example, since 2008 with the recession, money has been a lot tighter. So will we ever get completely out of deferred maintenance? I would suggest it’s going to be a multi-year process to do that. It’s a large number and we will continue to work at it. In addition, to look at the other new infrastructure that is there. But it’s a commitment that we cannot give up on. Otherwise, deferred maintenance then becomes critical crisis intervention if it’s deferred too long. We need to approach all these different areas on an ongoing basis.
To speak to that issue, we are going to invest the money we can and we do our reviews and we prioritize and we try to keep all these processes going forward, and it will be enhanced once we start adding some money in ’14-15 going forward.
The Tuk-Inuvik highway, if I could just lay out the chronology and process as we know it and as we’ve agreed to. There is a current request coming to this House for the final $2 million to conclude the environmental engineering detailed work that we need to be able to pull together a package by this winter that we can put on the table to the federal government that will lay out the results of all the work in terms of the feasibility, the firmer estimate, the timelines, and to have the discussions with the federal government about the money that they do have and is there requirement for further federal money. The Premier has already raised the issue, as he’s indicated, with the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister is aware of the concern and indicated that he is waiting, as well, for that information and that we are engaged with him on the number.
The money we have booked is for all this preparatory work, this front-end work, so that we can have enough information to come back to this House, as we committed to last winter, that when we have that work then we will come back to the House and when we know what the number is, the amount of money, what our actual commitment is to the Tuk-Inuvik highway, then we have a project that we can put on the table with cost-shared dollars and make a final determination. That there would be no deal signed, there would be no commitments made except by going through that process to fully involve this Legislature. We have not reached that point yet. There is no approved project, and while we have put money aside in our fiscal framework, there is no formal approved Tuk-Inuvik project except for all the preliminary technical work, engineering work, environmental work that has to be done to determine the road design, route, costs, availability of granular material and those types of things.
The Members are aware that we’ve booked this money and once we have that decision in this House, then it will absolutely appear as a formally approved project with a dollar figure attached to it. That will be the decision of this Legislature to do that.
Madam Chair, as I quickly go through my list, there was one concern raised about population changes, and we know that there are migration patterns, there is a lot of migration from smaller communities to the larger centres and into Yellowknife. While we do not do all our budgeting on a per capita basis, we do try to track and recognize those pressures. Magnet communities, for example, as has been raised by some of the Members, in particular, the
largest one being Yellowknife. We are clearly factoring that criteria in as well.
The Member for Sahtu talked about partnerships. In his statement today he indicated, for example, of Colville Lake, the community wanted to get the government’s foot off their neck. As similar sentiment, I think, that every level of government has with the senior levels of government that they may have above them as we, for example, negotiate our way to devolution to take over decision-making. Are we interested in partnerships and what examples are there? Yes, we are interested in partnerships. I think what’s being proposed where there’s cost-shared dollars. The Tuk-Inuvik highway is an example. The fibre optic line that we are going to be building down the valley is going to be a classic example of a northern, hopefully, northern financed, owned and operated major piece of infrastructure that will involve all the Aboriginal governments and the territorial government in giving benefit to every man, woman and child almost without exception up and down the valley.
Another one, we talked about warehousing and partnering up in the community with Housing and Public Works and Services. I have had discussions with Deline, for example, interested in looking at all their infrastructure as well. In a smaller community it makes very good sense to have those discussions. Meet with band councils, community governments to see how we can put our scarce, small amounts of resources together and share 25, 10 cent, 50 cent dollars as opposed to doing it all ourselves. We believe that there are plenty of opportunities. In addition, the $28 million that we flow to communities, the new Ndilo that is going to be under review, will all provide an opportunity to enhance that type of relationship.
I am just quickly going through my list, if you will bear with me. There are many individual program concerns. The Minister of HR will be coming here right behind us, as well, followed by the Minister of MACA to have those discussions.
Mr. Bromley indicated a broad issue of the design and scheduling of projects for maximum community benefit. I agree. As we look at devolution, tight monies, self-government, the things we just talked about with Member Yakeleya, I think there is an opportunity for that type of policy discussion. We have been working for years; 17, going on 18 years I have been here, we have been trying to fine-tune and improve the capital process the whole time. It has been based on those types of discussions.
The other point I would like to make is in terms of the pressures, the red flag projects. While they are not all for 2014-15, as we go forward and start the planning, as soon as we conclude this process and the budget process for the main estimates, the work on the capital for 2014-15 is already underway,
predicated on the assumption of the additional funds and the red flag projects which are those projects that have gone through the rigorous scrutiny and are determined to be next in line will be there for consideration, including the projects like the women’s correctional centre. Stanton is basically a megaproject. They are all geared towards both the upgrades and renovations to end up at the end of the day of that cycle to have a fully refurbished acute care facility in the Northwest Territories. It has been in the works for many years, as Mr. Bromley has pointed out. There is going to be a considerable amount of dollars attached to that. We have, once again, money booked in anticipation of that to get this project well started. I believe we have an opportunity for that type of policy discussion.
The gas situation in Inuvik is a unique, critical issue that has drawn together the private sector, the community and the government. We have invested, and are going to continue to invest, considerable time and resources collectively to make sure we manage our way through this. There are the immediate pressures of the upcoming winter. There are the longer term pressures of a more guaranteed energy source, be it liquid natural gas, that gives the opportunity to tie into the potential of six or so megawatts of wind power as Diavik did. We can use it to offset some of our costs. That work has yet to be done.
In regard to a concern raised by the Member for Hay River North, the consultation with communities, we agree that next year we are going to make sure we do our timing in such a way that a number of things are improved on; three to be exact. There are some concerns about the information that the community members have raised that they would like more of. We will work out very clearly in advance with the MLAs to make sure that we do this in a way that MLAs are available to accompany us and to be part of the process. We are going to work earlier with the association, the communities, to make sure we get representatives from all the small communities to come into the regional centres so they are there to take advantage of that opportunity to discuss with us about the budget consultation.
That, I believe, covers broadly some of the government-wide issues. As I indicated, the Ministers and the deputies will be here to discuss in as much detail as committee likes, or requests the specific program areas. Thank you.