Marci, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are two things I want to touch on. I know the Member from Yellowknife North touched on it, but just to add a bit to what he said.

The first one is on the Community Access Roads Program. The Community Access Roads Program is a program that is in place as a program that Regular Members are trying to get government to add money into. I believe that this money that is spent in the communities is very beneficial to the communities and has an element of people who could be doing labour work. It has people who could do slashing, chainsaw work and also people who could run equipment, drive truck, loaders and whatnot, all of the little elements of training individuals.

This program also is a good candidate for other programs, like the community mining program, where individuals are training to get better skills to eventually work at one of the mines. This program is always underfunded. Normally, the community is not asking for a whole lot of money in this program, and this particular time we are asking for this money, I think, for one reason: to put a little bit of money, more than the usual, towards the Willow Lake project in Aklavik. It is something that has been, I think, going on for a long time, and I think it is time to put some money towards it to try to get the project moving forward and, of course, projects of most of the community.

I know that, in the last couple of years, most of the communities have indicated that they have access roads that they would like to see out from their communities, accessing traditional areas. There are a couple of communities where there are lakes just within a few kilometres, and they just don't have the money or the equipment to be able to open those roads up. So it is so beneficial. There are also areas where they can have an opportunity to access gravel. A lot of times, communities don't access gravel. This kind of gives them the possibility that they could buy a crusher or something and generate their own gravel, crush their own gravel.

For me, and I think for most of the Members on this side of the House, we feel that this is a very important program and it should be funded appropriately. Right now, it is not, so a lot of these projects start and have to stop right away because there is not enough funding in place.

The second point I would like to just touch on is the amalgamation of the two departments. Just in general, I am opposed to laying people off. It has just never proven that it is a good strategy. You save the money that you were paying to the individual, that particular individual, but you are losing in all kinds of areas. If individuals have to leave the North, you lose that transfer payment. If individuals put their houses up for sale when they lose their jobs and they have to move somewhere else, then that affects the housing market in those particular communities, wherever they are. Our markets are very small. Yellowknife has the biggest market, of course, but there are only a few market communities in the NWT, and if these lay-offs affect that, you see the impact of that.

Now, we could get into all of what it is like to have some equity in your home and what you can do with that equity and how you can work with that equity to put money back into the economy. Instead of getting into all that, all we have talked about all of that for a long period of time. The government is moving forward with laying people off. I think it is a mistake, but it is probably going to happen.

Also, one of the things that I have always talked about during the time there are cutbacks is: when the government goes to the process of doing layoffs, are they following the affirmative action policy? That is something that I want to keep an eye on, because the first reaction that I am hearing from people is that they are not.

If there is an amalgamation and there are a couple of people who end up in one job, then those individuals, they don't necessarily follow the affirmative action policy. I don't want to see this department come out the other end and say, "Well, we laid off these people and most of them were Aboriginal people, didn't have the skills or education to retain those jobs." I have seen it. I have gone through it. I have seen it when I was in the government. Things were brought to me, proposing to look at the list of people who were laid off. At one point, they were all Aboriginal, all of the layoffs. We have the very low number of Priority 1 candidates in the GNWT as it is. I don't think we should be targeting those guys when the layoffs are happening as a result of the amalgamation, this amalgamation and other ones. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank my colleagues for addressing some of the concerns. I guess my first one is in regard to the Minister's statement when they are talking about the various highways and winter road contracts to improve transportation infrastructure in the Deh Cho. I thank the Minister and the department for doing that. However, there have been cuts previously that have affected the reductions in this, so I appreciate the department looking forward and trying to get this addressed.

The next thing I want to talk about is the amalgamations, zero-based budgeting. To me, amalgamation, we just pump these together and there was not really a zero-based budgeting. There was a zero-based review and putting them together and seeing what happened. To me, I believe in amalgamation and trying to get it, but it needs to be done properly. That means to make it a lean, mean, efficient machine.

To become more effective and efficient, we need to look at the jobs, where they are placed, where they are allocated, and where they are going to do the best bang for their dollar. We have positions that are based in Yellowknife that could have been based somewhere else, in the regional centres or maybe even in Providence. If we are looking at the highways and engineers, looking at the ferries, those positions could be brought where the ferries are, in my riding and my colleague from Mackenzie Delta's riding. Those positions should be moved there and looked at to become more efficient. That is my struggle with this amalgamation, is we didn't do it. We did not do a zero-based budget. We did a zero-based review by throwing things together. It has to become more efficient.

The other one we talked about is the winter road in Sambaa K'e. Again, when I first started, I brought this attention to the Department of Transportation that Trout Lake wanted an all-season road. Now, they are asking for some work to be done on their winter road. They had a bunch of vehicles that had elders going in for medical that got stranded for six hours. Six hours that they were there, and they had to get help to get out of there. The community has brought this to the attention of the department. I have bought this to the attention of the department, saying, "Look, here is an opportunity to fix that winter road. If we are not going to get an all-season road right now, let's fix this winter road, so it is more efficient and effective, so people can get out and get out safely." We looked at it, and this is why my Member colleagues agreed that we would try to put this $300,000 in there. It is a start to try to get this one section of the road fixed, put some people to work, build capacity within the community, and make it so, at the end of the day, the department has a road that is even that much better for the transportation.

I am trying to be as succinct as possible, Mr. Chair. These are my concerns that have been brought with this department. I thank him for taking the time. You have heard me all say this before in committee, but I am saying it again here. It is important to be more efficient. If we are going to do it, we need to do it right. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Next, Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have concerns in this department, but as we move on, we will address them. The concerns are more directed: if you are going to do something, try to put the review, resources, and the time to do it right. Part of doing it right would include review of some of our activities that took place here in 1995, when the amalgamation and reductions exercise that the government at the time were done. There is a history to reflect on, some of the mistakes and challenges faced at that time. Sure, the economics and the organizations were quite different at the time, but still a principle of engagement could be shown as reviews for improvements.

It is no hidden secret I support this for the purpose of more autonomy and more authority going to our region. We certainly contribute to this government in terms of taxes and royalties; we should see a little return on the withdrawals of those resources. Just an example of autonomy and authority: back in my private life, we used to complain how many potholes were on the winter road between Tulita and Norman Wells. Yet, we had to wait for a phone call from outside the area to dictate whether we had to apply some water or apply some grater time to smooth it out for the seasonal traffic that we enjoyed to use that duration of the road. Now, when I look at the organization chart, it makes me proud to say that we are going to have our Sahtu regional superintendent.

Given those reasons, I look forward to going through the review and seeing how we can make it better. I am also mindful of my previous colleague's presentations on employment, to make sure it is done right with the affirmative action followed. Those are improvements and efficiencies that we can go through the department and see how we can make this transaction good and prosperous. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Thank you for your brevity. Seeing nothing further, I will let the Minister respond if he wishes. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said when I was up here last week for ITI, let's just jump right into it instead of me sitting here, trying to debate things that we are going to get into, line items. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I apologize, but I left Mr. Nadli off the list. Mr. Nadli, comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, wanted to just note some concerns that I have, namely: it was stated by the Minister that NTCL, in terms of the acquisition of the assets, and it is not reflected in the main estimates; I am hoping to at least maybe get an indication from the Minister in terms of how that will be reflected in this budget and maybe look forward to the process that might follow.

Amalgamations, I understand. The exercise was to look at, in the face of government, ensuring that there are efficiencies. In communities, it is always their perception that this is a big government and we have to ensure that this government operates in the highest efficiencies possible. I think, in that spirit, I look forward to the ongoing initiatives just to formalize the department.

Some key initiatives that I notice colleagues have raised are the community access programs in terms of ensuring that there are resources out there for communities, that they choose project initiatives to create employment. I could probably count maybe about two or three projects that could be eligible in terms of job creation, so I encourage the Minister to reconsider the amount that has been allocated for this initiative.

In terms of the Arctic Energy Alliance, I see some good initiatives to try to lessen the cost of living by looking at some energy efficiencies, whether it is helping people with their fuel-fired water heaters or else changing the streetlights within communities. I think that is a very good initiative, and we need to continue to support that. At the same time, I look forward to ongoing initiatives, perhaps that we could have a sharper focus, namely the energy plan in terms of addressing the electricity transmission and, of course, the whole challenge of lessening our dependence on fossil fuels.

I would note that it might be that this department has to tackle the idea of looking at a marine transportation strategy in terms of the realities that we face with climate change, the water levels in the Mackenzie going down, and looking at perhaps longer shipping seasons, or else shorter seasons. So I look forward to discussions on those fronts in the future. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Seeing nothing further, as we always do, we will defer the departmental total until we consider each activity. The first activity begins on page 224, continues to page 227, infrastructure asset management. I note that marine project management is in this location, so that would be a good time for Mr. Nadli or someone to raise that issue that he just mentioned. I will start with Mr. Vanthuyne.

Mr. Chair, prior to page 224 is the Department of Infrastructure. From 221 to 223 there are the revenue summaries and active positions and what have you. I have a few questions in and around there. Would we have the opportunity to go there, or will we save that right till the end?

That will be saved till the end. All the details on those three pages are contained in the subsequent activities. Any information such as revenue that is not contained elsewhere, we can discuss at the end when we are at this departmental total. Mr. Vanthuyne.

That is fine. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Further to asset management, on page 224 to 227? I will give committee a moment. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am looking at page 225, and it is the utilities line, the last line in the top section. There is about a $2 million drop there between last year and this year. I am just wondering whether someone from the department can explain that. If that is as a result of energy retrofits, boy, we are really saving a lot of money, but I don't think that is the case, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to give that one right up to the deputy minister, Mr. Paul Guy, right off the bat. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response. I guess it is all pretty much good news. In the highway, air, marine project management line, there is about a $300,000 reduction. Can someone from the department explain that between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 mains? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Neudorf.