Does the committee agree that consideration for the Department of Human Resources is completed?

I would like to thank the Minister and his delegation for being here today. If I could get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses from the Chamber, please. Thank you. We’ll take just a quick five-minute break before we begin with Public Works and Services.

Welcome back, committee. I’d like to address everyone to turn to section seven of their book. I would ask Mr. Abernethy, Minister of Public Works and Services, if he has any opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the Department of Public Works and Services’ main estimates for the fiscal year 2012-2013.

The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $93.6 million for 2012-2013, an increase of 0.7 percent over the 2011-2012 Main Estimates. This change can be primarily attributed to the following adjustments:

•

increased maintenance and utility funding

associated with new GNWT facilities coming into service;

•

addition of two positions in support of the

ongoing implementation of the government’s new Document Management System; and

•

a reduction in base utility funding resulting in

energy conservation initiatives implemented by the department.

To help demonstrate how Public Works and Services is positioned to support and contribute to the priorities of the 17

th Assembly, I would like to

begin by mentioning some of the departmental activities and initiatives planned for 2012-2013.

In support of this governments’ priority to increase employment opportunities where they are most needed, the department uses a combination of local and regionally contracted services to assist in completing its ongoing prevention and deferred maintenance programs. In addition, the department has 12 indeterminate settlement maintainer positions along with 11 apprentice positions in communities across the NWT. These frontline positions enable the department to better manage maintenance activities and availability of resources at the community level, while promoting and strengthening our local northern workforce. They also allow the department to be more proactive in completing its mandate of building maintenance, complying with code-mandated checks and repairs

and completing deferred maintenance requirements.

Many of the government programs that support priorities of the 17

th Assembly and the services

available to residents are dependent upon information and communications technologies. The Technology Service Centre’s ongoing efforts to improve the technology services available to government continue to be a priority for this department. As the demand for electronic service delivery continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to manage the network and its growth effectively.

Over the past three years, enhancements to local network infrastructure have increased access speeds into regional communities by way of upgrades to the digital communications network and Internet. The new digital communications network contract is introducing new technology to provide additional bandwidth, while some of the other benefits of this new contract include:

•

improved network performance and reliability

due to additional bandwidth and new technology in microwave, satellite and fibre-served communities;

•

ability to prioritize different types of service to

allow the flow of critical data over the network, an example being health digital imaging;

•

ability to easily add bandwidth at lower per unit

costs; and

•

improved service response times when service

issues and outages occur.

Additionally in 2012-13, the Technology Service Centre will offer its support and expertise to the office of the chief information officer in its review of the government’s ongoing telecommunications requirements and the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project.

I would now like to mention a few of the department’s other important program and service initiatives for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Created in 2008-09, the department’s Risk Management and Safety Program established there was over $470 million in deferred maintenance associated with aging GNWT infrastructure that poses potential safety risks to employees and the public. In coordination with the capital planning process and other program funding, the Deferred Maintenance Program has addressed $145 million in deferred maintenance issues.

For 2012-13 and ongoing, the department will continue to focus on this very important issue to ensure government facilities remain safe, reliable and available to GNWT departments in delivery of programs and services.

I would now like to turn my attention to the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund program, one of the department’s most important energy management initiatives. This program is focused on reducing building operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions by assessing government facilities to identify and target program funding at those projects best suited for energy saving retrofits. Energy retrofits can reduce annual energy use by as much as 15 percent while greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced as much as 30 tonnes per building annually.

Since utility funding was consolidated in Public Works and Services in 2010-11, I am happy to report the energy conservation initiatives implemented by this department have realized $654,000 in ongoing annual utility cost savings. Since 2007-08, when the department commenced energy conservation activities, the cumulative energy savings have been $2.65 million while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 16,600 tonnes.

Preliminary estimates from the 2011-12 energy conservation initiatives undertaken by the department could generate an additional $550,000 in ongoing annual utility costs savings, bringing the estimated utility savings for the past two years to $1.204 million. The cumulative reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could reach 25,156 tonnes by the end of 2012.

For 2012-13, the department has re-profiled the 2010-11 confirmed utility savings to support ongoing capital investment in energy reduction through the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund program. With government support, this program is on its way to becoming a self-sustaining government program that reduces costs and increases energy efficiency.

The last initiative which I would like to mention is connected to the government’s increasing reliance on electronic systems and the paperless information they produce. I am specifically speaking to the e-mails and other electronic documents we and all government departments generate in the delivery of programs and services. The Digital Integrated Information Management System is an electronic records management system designed to effectively manage the electronic records created, received and maintained by government.

This initiative is a multi-year project managed by the office of the chief information officer for the implementation of a government-wide document management solution. The first phase of this initiative involved the document management system being implemented within Public Works and Services in 2011-12, while future implementations in other government departments will be completed in a phased-in approach starting in 2012-13. In support of this initiative, the department will be

establishing two indeterminate information system support positions starting in 2012-13.

It is through these and other departmental activities that Public Works and Service will continue to provide its many clients with the high quality of services they have come to rely upon.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide an overview of the department’s 2012-13 Main Estimates. I look forward to discussing them with Members in more detail.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Does the Minister have witnesses that he’d like to bring into the House?

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Does the committee agree?

If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses into the Chamber, please.

Minister Abernethy, would you care to introduce your witnesses to the House, please?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me, immediately to my right is Paul Guy, the deputy minister. On my left is Steve Lewis, the director of corporate services; and on our far right is Laurie Gault, the director of the Technology Service Centre.

Thank you. I’d like to welcome the witnesses to the House again. I appreciate you coming down today. With that, I will open up the floor to general comments on the Department of Public Works and Services. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to this plan for the budget there. Minister and your staff, certainly, a couple points I want to make this afternoon and then we can go through the business plans in detail.

I do want to say that the challenges that this department has had to do with the diesel price increases that they seem to be dealing with. In the document it said that since 2007-08 that the diesel prices have increased by 57 percent. I look forward to the types of initiatives you will have to deal with this issue of the high cost of energy in our communities by implementing or initiating alternative energy heating sources.

You have…(inaudible)…of the wood pellets, biomass and the different types of energy initiatives that are going in various communities. In my community you don’t see very much of those initiatives or any type of hydro or especially wood pellets or biomass. You see them mostly in southern parts of the Northwest Territories and little projects going, I should say huge projects going on

here and there. For my region we are not very successful in attracting the attention from the government to put in an alternative heating source so we have to revert to the good old diesel and natural gas. Even natural gas isn’t even safe to say anymore. Our reliability comes from the high cost of diesel and we all want to make some changes. However, we need the support of government and we’re hoping that this government here will be warming up to an invitation by the Sahtu and say we could put in an alternative source of heating. We have done some small projects such as the solar panel heating in our swimming pools. However, there needs to be a little more capital infrastructure commitment to putting some other projects that could save the communities a lot of money. In the small communities, to heat our community arenas it costs a lot of money for the communities to run it.

I think you pretty well have a sense of where I’m going with this so I’m going to be asking some questions. Through the business plans we also looked at the water upgrades in our communities. We’ve done some pilot projects making sure the water upgrades are safe and that training is there. The cost of taking over those plants and the infrastructure is quite expensive. I noted from my visits in my communities that even though we do have a New Deal and the funding, that the maintenance, the amount of times you have to change the filters costs a lot and we just don’t have the money there. So the communities are somewhat reluctant to take over the operations.

I do want to say I support your officials and your staff to look at how we get effective video conferencing in our health centres, especially in our health centres. The Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link is a very good initiative and you have my 100 percent support for that. I would like to see that because I know that will cut down for the efficiency. We could have that hooked up into our schools and especially in our health centres. So, Minister, you’ve got my support on that initiative, no questions asked. So I want to support you on that initiative.

Two other points I have, Mr. Chair, and I’ll close off. The Apprenticeship Program has been very successful. The Settlement Maintainers Program has been good for the small communities because it worked in the past and we did have those programs and somehow we got away from that. The last government made it a priority to get those programs back into our communities. There are many benefits to have those programs there. So the Apprenticeship Program is good and the Settlement Maintainers Program is pretty unique because our own people are doing things that they didn’t at one time think they could do. Now they’ve got the training and we’re empowering them and we’re setting up good role models saying that this person can do it, that’s my uncle or that’s my

auntie. So we’re setting up a path of other younger students in our communities could maybe one day be one of those people. This government is contributing to the growth of our communities through their capacity.

My last point I want to ask the Minister is to take a real serious look at the energy projects in our communities. We need the wood pellet system. We have some facilities going up in the Sahtu that maybe a huge wood pellet boiler can go in there to cut costs. I don’t know too much of the detailed stuff; however, I think that some of the costs we have were woodstoves. We had woodstoves in some of our places. Maybe I’m not speaking to the right department, but for your department having wood pellets in the school or the health centre, it makes a huge difference, unless Imperial Oil or some oil company decides to build a refinery in one of our communities, then our fuel would be cheaper, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So I look forward to the Minister looking at the various alternative heating supply systems in our region.

It costs us quite a bit of dollars and it costs this government a lot of dollars to continue using the diesel. If we do not get that type of support, then I’m all for diesel and natural gas, but that’s what keeps my people warm. If we have to pay the price, then we pay the price. So unless this government makes a change in the Sahtu with the hydro, with wood pellet, biomass or other geothermal, start looking at that type of heating, alternative energies in our communities and putting some of that infrastructure in our community, then I’m for it. I have a list of the projects in one community and it’s amazing how much money you pour into one community and that community has a low cost of living.

So I look forward to this Minister’s leadership in seeing what can be done in the three years on the planning or on the budget, everything, knowing everything. If he can deliver on a couple, I would be very happy and I think the people would appreciate it.

I know I said a lot in 10 minutes. So I want to leave it at that and thank the Minister and his staff coming through the Sahtu on a tour. We really appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Before we allow the Minister the opportunity to respond, it was agreed upon earlier today that we’d do an aggregate of the general comments and then I’ll ask the Minister the opportunity to reply. If there are specific questions, they can make reference to the particular Member.

With that, I’ll open up again to general comments from any of the Members. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s a big overlap between my colleague from the Sahtu

and myself. So I’ll try not to go into too much detail here until we get to detail.

I guess in general terms I appreciated the Minister’s opening remarks and I thought he gave a good update on the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund, and the benefits of work done on that, and the future outlook for that program and the environmental benefits in terms of reduction and greenhouse gas emissions. Again, I see a very responsible department towing the line fiscally and I appreciate the effort there. I know that it takes a lot of effort. So kudos for that and I’m not used to seeing the Technology Service Centre funding requests so stable. So that must be a huge effort there and I appreciate that.

This department plays a big role in our communities, a really big role that is not necessarily written into their mandate. I just want to give that some profile, express some appreciation to the employees who actually fulfill those roles and anticipate, really, that there is that understanding at the executive level as well.

One example I can think of is there are many communities that simply do not have commercially available expertise if you want your furnace fixed or some issue like that. Frequently it’s the individuals from this department who play a huge capacity role in communities, both by sharing their expertise with those that are inclined to absorb it and enhance the community capacity that way and ultimately providing some pretty effective on-the-ground service when the situation requires it. I know that’s stepping out, I think, beyond their mandate.

In line with that, my colleague’s compliments on the apprenticeship positions and programs, which I wouldn’t mind hearing more about at some point, is also very much appreciated and a key part of our really practical community capacity building approach. I’m always particularly interested in terms of energy efficiency and oil burner mechanics. I don’t think we have enough of those in our communities. This is something that the Housing Corporation also does and I hope that there’s one or two or five of them in those positions as well.

This department has subscribed to a standard of 25 percent better than the National Energy Code for buildings. I think that’s now out of date. We need to go to 40 percent. Essentially all of the provinces have gone to that either for the entire province or for the northern parts of the provinces. It’s time for us to recognize that we can effectively benefit from going to a higher standard in the North.

I will be commenting on other aspects in the detail, petroleum products division and procurement policies and so on. But I think I’ll save those for the detail and leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Any further general comments, committee? If not, we’ll move over to Minister Abernethy for an opportunity to respond to general comments. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll just touch on a few of these areas and then we can get into some details where I can answer some specific questions.

With respect to Mr. Yakeleya’s comments about the high cost of energy in the communities, we see that and we recognize that, which is one of the reasons with public infrastructure we have been looking at alternatives and we have been using the Capital Asset Retro Fund to help us deal with those things. I acknowledge that we haven’t gone to any alternatives necessarily in the Sahtu with respect to heating, but we have been working in the Sahtu. One example is the Norman Wells school, the Mackenzie Mountain School, where we’ve been putting in plumbing and electrical retrofits to increase the efficiency of that building. In the studies for that building, as an example, there is a plan where we can switch to a pellet boiler in that school. The problem being, obviously, is the supply of the pellets and the technology in the Sahtu.

We’ve had recent conversations with SSI where they’ve been talking about alternatives, as well, and we’d like to continue that conversation and see what’s out there as far as an opportunity. Most importantly, what is the supply opportunity for pellets, so if there is a guaranteed supply of pellets available on a regular basis to the Sahtu and everybody’s comfortable with the distribution of those pellets, making sure they are getting in there and we are confident they can get in there, it makes it easier for us to utilize the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund to put in those technologies in the Sahtu. So we want to continue to have those discussions. We see future possibilities but we need some certainly around the supply.

Video conferencing and whatnot that was mentioned, we’ve heard constantly over the last four years and even into this year the need for bandwidth into the communities. We hear about the fibre optic link which is certainly going to increase that opportunity into the future, but we couldn’t afford to wait. We have services and programs we have to deliver now, and as a result, the department has gone out and negotiated for increased bandwith into the Northwest Territories which is going to benefit all of the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. We are pretty excited about that. We can go into some more detail when we’re going page by page.

To Mr. Bromley’s point about the Capital Asset Retrofit Fund, we are very proud of this program. We see a lot of potential, a lot of future here, and we’d like to keep building on it. We’d like to

continue to move to alternatives as we can afford it. As we save money by utilizing the technology, it’s a double positive. For one, we’re contributing to the environment, supporting the environment, and we’re also saving money which is allowing us to invest more money. So it’s a good news story and as we save more, we should be able to invest more.

I’m going to get my deputy to just talk a little bit about the apprenticeship programs. Both Members brought that up, so we’ll get him to talk a little bit about that.

Just in closing to Member Yakeleya, we are serious about finding solutions in the Sahtu. It may take a bit of time, but we know there are good people there who want to work towards the same end and we will continue to work with them in moving forward.

So to Mr. Guy for apprenticeships.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Any further comments, committee? Mr. Bromley.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Very quickly, I would ask the Minister what would constitute certainty around the supply of wood pellets in the Sahtu. Is it a contract with a supplier or is it a transportation issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.