Debates of March 1st, 2021

This is page numbers 2199 - 2242 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 going.

Topics

Oral Questions

Members Present

Prayer

Procurement Review

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Legislative Lethargy

Dechinta Fish Camp

Hamlet of Enterprise Economic Opportunities

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Tree of Peace Friendship Centre

Mineral Resource Exploration

Government Transparency and Open Government

Rental Assessments in Nunakput

Bill C-92: An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families

Application of the Government of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Policy

COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Application of the Government of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Policy

Gaps in Emergency Services

Legislative Lethargy

Rental Assessments in Nunakput

Colorectal Cancer Awareness

Hamlet of Enterprise Economic Opportunities

Funding for the Tree of Peace and Non-Government Organizations

Government of the Northwest Territories Open Government Portal

Bill C-92: An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families

Mineral Resource Exploration and Development

Return to Written Question 22-19(2): Financial Obligations for the Ekati Mine to the Government of the Northwest Territories

Committee Report 10-19(2): Report on Bill 3: An Act to Amend the Public Highways Act

Motion to Receive Committee Report 9-19(2) and Move into Committee of the Whole

Tabled Document 329-19(2): Summary of GNWT Response to Dominion Diamond Mines Creditor Protection Process and Ekati Diamond Mine Sale Tabled Document 330-19(2): Outstanding Payments Dominion Diamond Group of Companies/Arctic Canadian Diamond Company as of February 3, 2021 Tabled Document 331-19(2): Executive Summary - Public Procurement Policies for the Government of the Northwest Territories Tabled Document 332-19(2): Discussion Paper for the Review of Public Procurement Policies for the Government of the Northwest Territories Tabled Document 333-19(2): Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 494-19(2): Economic Recovery

Tabled Document 334-19(2): Letter dated February 24, 2021, from Midwives Association of the Northwest Territories to Minister of Health and Social Services regarding Increased Funding for Midwifery Services in the 2021/2022 Budget

Systemic Racism

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Tabled Document 286-19(2): Main Estimates 2021-2022 - Health and Social Services - Deferral of Department (page 169)

Report Of Committee Of The Whole

Orders Of The Day

Committee Motion 81-19(2): Tabled Document 286-19(2): Main Estimates 2021-2022 - Health and Social Services - Deferral of Department (page 169), Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will get ADM Brennan to answer that.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.

Page 2217

Brennan

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the simple answer is yes. We would expect that it would increase over time as we add more assets to the system. The exercise we are undertaking right now is to look at our existing assets and looking at our existing regulations and then to try to come up with an engineering estimate to determine how much cost it would take currently to remediate. Given things usually cost more money in the future than they do today, I would expect that it would increase on an annual basis, if we are doing our jobs correctly and coming up with that number. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Page 2217

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Chair. Then I would anticipate that the Minister will then be directing her department to look and deal with more risk or higher risk-level assets ahead of lower risk ones and that some sort of prioritization like that, like a lens like that, will be put on this analysis? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We currently have what we call a dashboard. It kind of looks at all of our different assets, and we have a red, which basically means that these assets, we need to get them started. Then we have a yellow, and then we have a green. We have different colour coding on our dashboard to be able to look at all of the different assets that are required through the Northwest Territories in terms of our capital assets, so we do have a dashboard to be able to help us to determine what are priority assets and such. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Page 2217

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm really glad to hear that. It's going to be quite an undertaking for the department. I'm not sad I'll be missing it. I think the next question I have is around the Preventative Maintenance Program. Given that we have assets that have become worse over time, I'd like to talk about where the money falls within this department or this line item or these line items for the Preventative Maintenance Program so we can keep our assets in better shape. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to hand it to ADM Brennan. Thank you.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Mr. Brennan.

Page 2217

Brennan

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there are a couple of different places where we have money in our budget currently. Under asset management, as previously mentioned, there is $3 million for the Deferred Maintenance Program, but also, there is money in regional operations, as well, that each region has to do minor fixes to help upkeep of all the GNWT assets in the system. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Member for Great Slave.

Page 2217

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like the Minister to maybe speak a bit on optimization of these types of programs. Is the department looking at policy and procedural implementation, such as, for example, drivers' logs, inspection records, safety programs like that that actually have been shown to reduce maintenance costs, et cetera? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have a couple of different programs within the department. I talked a little bit about the Deferred Maintenance Program. That is intended for completing repairs to buildings. I already mentioned that in the Member's first answer. We also do have the different priorities. We have the status of Department of Infrastructure-managed and client-managed capital projects. We have a number of programs here that we look at. As things change and as things evolve and as we start to complete programs and start up new programs and new infrastructure assets, we start to look at what we can do better as a department to ensure that we are following some of the standards and some of the updated licensing. You look within the federal government and all the different policy changes. Transport Canada just made a new change that really impacts our operations in some of the airports going forward. It's a case-by-case basis, and I think we just need to keep on top of them and just adjust as we need to. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

March 1st, 2021

Page 2217

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you for that. I'll continue to follow up with the Minister on that at a future time. I'm just looking at the line item for transportation. Can the Minister speak to the 2019-2020 actual of $6 million versus the $3.7 or $3.8 million that has been the usual forecast? Is that a COVID-related expense? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I ask the Member what page she is referring to?

Page 2217

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Page 236, the $6 million in the 2019 actuals, the transportation line.

Page 2217

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to get ADM Brennan to find that. Thank you.

Page 2217

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Mr. Brennan.

Page 2217

Brennan

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. The difference there is about $2.2 million, and that's basically made up of about $1.2 million of incremental salaries that we spent on capital projects whereby the spending didn't meet the requirements of a federal funding agreement. We have worked on some bridges historically. Normally, we pay for that out of the capital, but because they never met the capital guidelines, it gets written up into the O and M. Then there was another couple of hundred thousand that was spent related to the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link that we never had in our budget for. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of March 1st, 2021

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