Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I guess I'll note that my understanding is that most, if not all, of our municipalities don't salt their roads. It's one of the nice things about vehicles up here is they don't rust. And I'm just curious whether we have done any studies of whether this $1 million in salt actually makes the roads safer. I guess, you know, considering the coldest winter months, we're not using any because it's useless, I'm just curious, you know, whether we've -- we are just too far north to actually be spending this much on salt, or have we done any safety standards, or are we just doing this simply because everywhere down south does it? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, product data on any of the alternative products are reviewed on a regular basis. And it's based on environmental impact; it's based on cost of purchase, storage, handling, and application. Challenges identified through high costs of purchase for storage of these alternatives and required dedicated uses while the salt can be applied by trucks and equipment that are used for other tasks. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'll hold off on any more questions about salt. It just seems like a lot of money to spend on salt considering we don't use it for the coldest and darkest months.

I have some questions about the highway operations budget here. I'll note previous fiscal, it was at $71 million. This year's fiscal, it's jumped about $14 million, and then we're asking for another $3 million. I think it's fair to say if you went back in time and look at the highway operations budget, it has a steady, steady increase. It's not getting any cheaper to maintain our highways.

Can I just get, you know -- have we done -- I don't even know how to phrase this. How about I'll start with what is the $3 million increase getting us here this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that is an increase. 2.5 is for increase in some of the amortization adjustments. The $478,000 is for the salt, which the Member and I just spoke about. The 263 is for the collective bargaining agreement increases. Thanks.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess perhaps that $88 million is not as bad as I thought it was because I imagine it includes some amortization of things like bridges, and I -- I'm getting a nod over there.

I guess I want to move on to contract services here, another line item that I strongly suspect has a pretty steady increase upwards. We're spending $69 million in regional operations on contract services. Can I just get a sense of what the biggest contracts are that make up that $69 million? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The variance. So I mean, you look at the different line items on the contract services, line 30, 31, and 33, where you talk about the different increases. So the biggest variance is at $2.5 million in contract services that offset increase in expenditures that are being quoted to materials and supplies in our operation -- regional operations division, which means less contracts were entered into in 2021-2022 because of the COVID pandemic.

The increase of a half a million dollars is new lease space for the Hay River Health Social Service Authority in Hay River. That's the increase. Another increase of 1.3 is the lease budget for renewals, as well as the O and M cost escalations. So you look at TSC where we have charge back. Utilities we don't. The government buildings that we lease, we pay the utilities. So I mean, we could charge that back too. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm going to just ask again there, because I actually didn't know that leases that the department had would fall under contract services. Can I just -- in this $69 million, is that the primary driver, then, that the leasing money falls under here, or what are the biggest contracts under this $70 million? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you. Mr. Brennan.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake -- or sorry, Member for Yellowknife North.

No further questions. I'm sure I'll have questions on the 44 percent of that money that is leases when we get to the information item. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions under regional operations? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like a rundown of the airport operations of 17 million 363 by community. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.