Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just actually going to request that Mr. Wind answer that question. He has some detail on that project. Thank you.
Debates of Oct. 27th, 2022
This is page numbers 4861 - 4892 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 know.
Topics
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Mackay
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Wind
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is, in fact, the same project. We did have some procurement issues which resulted in the need to reestablish that project and reestablish the appropriation for it.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
![Rylund Johnson](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-rylund-johnson/e2e9440ec8ad7298f34aac806f1c7037.jpg)
Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Thank you. Is anyone able to tell me any numbers about this? I know we don't do that but, you know, how much were we initially planning to spend years ago and then have we spent any money to date here in our failed procurement attempts? Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
![Caroline Wawzonek](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-caroline-wawzonek/5d417396788f4ec609f9f3c6279036df.jpg)
Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, Madam Chair, my understanding at this point is that we are in year one of a three-year project and so the costs will begin to be incurred in the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4885
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
![Rylund Johnson](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-rylund-johnson/e2e9440ec8ad7298f34aac806f1c7037.jpg)
Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Yeah, and I guess I'm wondering if -- you know, this is one of those areas where I also find a hard time for any of us to provide any accountability. You know, we spend millions on licensing and software and trying to procure these things, there's often problems. I understand that is the case across all governments. I don't really know anything about IT but I'm wondering if -- well, I guess I'll start with a question.
I heard Infrastructure is planning a dashboard to kind of update projects as they go along and perhaps release some sort of five-year capital plan, and I believe almost every jurisdiction does. Would software be included in that dashboard, or is that simply Infrastructure's capital? Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
![Caroline Wawzonek](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-caroline-wawzonek/5d417396788f4ec609f9f3c6279036df.jpg)
Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not privy to Infrastructure's plans for their dashboards for their projects but I can certainly take away the prospect of a dashboard for all of the IT projects that sit under Finance. Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
![Rylund Johnson](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-rylund-johnson/e2e9440ec8ad7298f34aac806f1c7037.jpg)
Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Yeah, thank you. And I think perhaps, you know, some sort of -- I mean, it's somewhat ironic to me that how little information publicly available with the Office of the Chief Information Officer. You know, we rolled ISSS into, you know, one department, and there's millions of dollars there. I'm wondering if the Minister could take back the idea of perhaps -- you know, I don't even know how many software licences we have presently, how much they presently cost, when they are up for renewal. But I expect that if you looked at the replacement costs and the licensing costs, it's tens of millions of dollars. I don't know exactly the divide of when the chief information officer has it versus department because I know Health is also spending millions of dollars in health software, but I believe they do that on their own. But I'm just wondering if somewhere all of that information could be compiled and then some day, hopefully, someone could perhaps try and track some of the issues that have happened with software procurement. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
![Caroline Wawzonek](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-caroline-wawzonek/5d417396788f4ec609f9f3c6279036df.jpg)
Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I certainly like the idea of a tracking mechanism. There may be some challenges to determine the cutoff points. And what I mean by that is at what size of or scope of software or materials do we begin to put on the tracker versus not. But perhaps I'll just ask if Mr. Wind could just speak a bit to the nature of some of the assets that we do have, what is tracked; again, there's probably room to improve that. I appreciate the suggestion. As I say, I do certainly want to spend a bit more time on it but at least we can get a sense of what we do now. Again, I suggest it go to Mr. Wind, please.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Wind
Thank you, Madam Chair. IT capital assets are intended to be tracked in their life cycle and amortization through our tangible capital asset system within the Government of the Northwest Territories. Much of the software licensing cost is not a one-time cost. It's an ongoing O and M cost to maintain those licenses, and so that cost and those expenditures are distributed across the organization based on the department or the area that's expending the dollars. We are undertaking some work to improve and consolidate fiscal transparency out of the OCIO across the INT sector. It's early days at this stage, and it's really intended primarily to help with our governance through our deputy minister committee and to make sure that we're spending both O and M and capital dollars on the initiatives and priorities that are most important. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4886
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
October 27th, 2022
Page 4886
![Rylund Johnson](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-rylund-johnson/e2e9440ec8ad7298f34aac806f1c7037.jpg)
Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I asked this during -- yeah, and that would also kind of allude to my point of I could go to every single department and try and find in their operations some sort of licensing contract. I mean, actually I couldn't do that and it wouldn't become publicly available. But I think I would easily get to tens of millions of dollars quite quickly in licensing fees every year, let alone the actual initial capital ask that gets made here.
But I wanted to ask one last question, which was, that Infrastructure is spending an undisclosed amount of millions of dollars on replacing all its capital servers. I know the federal government has switched to a cloud first computing model. I recognize that some servers for some information may be needed, but the reason governments are looking at doing that is it's quite cheaper. I'm wondering if that is something the Office of the Chief Information Officer has looked at, is some sort of cloud server system. Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
Wind
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we are looking at cloud as a component of our infrastructure and when we're delivering information systems and technology. It's not a blanket solution for everything, and it doesn't always save costs. What it often does is transfer capital -- one-time capital expenditures into ongoing O and M. So it's a complex kind of fiscal model and analysis that we do when we're looking at them. But, for example, our new service platform is a cloud-based platform and is resident in the cloud. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
![The Chair](/media/CACHE/images/polpics/19-lesa-semmler/ebd9f1db93495be362a6bdc4a9db65e5.jpg)
The Chair Lesa Semmler
Thank you. Are there any further questions, comments, under the Office of the Chief Information Officer?
All right, seeing none. Finance, Office of the Chief Information Officer, infrastructure investments, $3,380,000. Does committee agree? Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 4887
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.