Thank you, committee. Please turn to page 11, Finance. Capital investment expenditures, information systems shared services, not previously authorized. Mr. O'Reilly.
Debates of June 4th, 2019
This is page numbers 5713 - 5790 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd 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 women. View the webstream of the day's session.
Topics
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. In the 2019-2020 O and M budget, I think we transferred about 60 or 70 employees into this ISSS. Now, there's about $7.5 million worth of projects going to be transferred into this new entity. Can someone explain, how do you explain? I'll just pick an example here. An archival information management system which is presumably over at the museum, how do you transfer that to Department of Finance? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Stewart
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The information systems shared services unit is the unit that's responsible for building these systems and working with contractors on occasion to build them as well, so it is building the actual information systems, the computer systems, if you like, to do all of these various functions. The staff did get transferred at the start of this fiscal year into the new shared service unit. What this appropriation is requesting is the project dollars, the capital dollars, for the projects that were funded for 2019-2020 to be moved up from the originating department into Finance as well. There's a lot of governance in place on these projects to make sure that you're working with the user community, to make sure that the departments that are listed are getting the information in the systems that they need. The actual computer coding and the day-to-day development activities before it goes live is taking place in finance now, so this is transferring that budget to spend the money that's needed on software and licensing and those sorts of things into Finance. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think the deputy minister hit the nail right on the head. I am very concerned about moving the capital associated with these projects into a different department than the ones that these systems are actually meant to serve. How do we ensure that say, something like the archival information management system is going to be as responsive as the archives might need when the person's been transferred to Department of Finance. Now, the money for the capital project is sent over there. Any time any change has to be made, somebody from museum's got to pick up the phone, or go over and visit somebody at the Department of Finance to get the system fixed. Is that how this is going to work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Stewart
Thanks, Mr. Chair. This is the developmental activities to a large extent, but there is also the care and maintenance side of it as well. That's not unusual that the person working on a system wouldn't necessarily be sitting in the building. I think in the case of the museum systems, for example, the unit that used to support that was in Lahm Ridge Tower, so there was always a geographic distance if you like between them.
I think what the new unit is to take some expertise that was sprinkled all around the government where we had a lot of generalists who were trying to do a lot of things, whether it was around things like data management, websites, interfaces with other systems, those sorts of things, all trying to do it by themselves. Pooling the expertise so that we can draw on that expertise, so if it's website, there's a team that helps with that. If there's an issue around things like transactional for financial type information, we have a team that does that. I think what you'll see in terms of performance is we should be able to deliver these systems more on time, more consistency across government, greater career paths for those in the system, and hopefully with zero impact on the actual user community which we'll see at the end, a better product. That's what the intent is. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I understand what the intent is, but what kind of system do we actually have in place to measure performance? Is there an evaluation framework for this ISSS in place? Is there an evaluation framework? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Stewart
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The framework is being developed. It start on April 1st, the system, so I'm ensuring that the staffing is all completed and office space is dealt with, and those sorts of things. The framework, I think, has to look at a performance framework, look at not only information systems but the IT systems and those sorts of, because they all work together. That's being developed. All of them have their own performance measures, but I think we want a better integrated system so that the public, the GNWT staff that are the clients of this unit, as well as the Members can be provided information that supports that this is working better. I think that is what the Member's question is: how do we know things have gotten better? So we need to have performance measures that demonstrate that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can I get a commitment out of the Minister to share that framework with, I guess this would probably have to go to Standing Committee on Government Operations that oversees finance? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. O'Reilly. Finance, capital investment expenditures, information systems shared services not previously authorized, $13,013,000. Does committee agree?
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Finance, capital investment expenditures, total department not previously authorized, $13,013,000. Does committee agree?
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Thank you, committee. Health and Social Services, beginning on page 12. Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and support services not previously authorized, $17,373,000. Does committee agree?
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
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The Chair R.J. Simpson
Thank you, committee. Community health programs not previously authorized. Mr. Thompson.
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Shane Thompson Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister elaborate on the Woodland Manor expansion in Hay River for $90,000? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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