Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 45-19(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on Bill 60: An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act. We'll take a short recess.

---SHORT RECESS

I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we've agreed to consider Tabled Document 813-19(2), 2023-2024 Main Estimates. We will now consider the Department of Infrastructure. Does the Minister of Infrastructure have any opening remarks?

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am here to present the 2023-2024 Main Estimates for Department of Infrastructure. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $16.4 million or 5.6 percent over the 2022-2023 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of Infrastructure while continuing to meet the GNWT's fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of these proposed estimates include:

• Forced Growth increases of $1.8 million, that include $821,000 for increased costs to winter and all-season road operations, $364,000 for mobile equipment fuel, $208,000 for regional airport contract services, and $381,000 for DIIMS software licenses, maintenance, and support;
• New initiatives of $1.9 million include funding for the updated energy action plan, and electric vehicle charging stations funded through the Zero Emissions Vehicles Infrastructure Plan;
• The estimates also include total sunsets of $1.3 million that is primarily associated with the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund, which is currently in the process of being renewed;
• Amortization estimates increased by $4.1 million to reflect new assets coming into service; and,
• Finally, a budget increase of $10.4 million due to a required change of accounting treatment for costs related to agreements previously classified as projects on behalf of third parties to comply with the Auditor General and accounting standards.

Notably, these estimates also include the inter-department transfer of $14 million from the Department of Finance to support annual service payments for the Tlicho Highway. This change is not reflected in the proposed increase, as prior year amounts have been restated for comparability.

These estimates support the priorities of the 19th Assembly and the vision of Budget 2023 by:

• Continuing the work in expanding the reach of energy conservation and efficiency initiatives guided by the 2030 Energy Strategy, continued core and supplementary program funding to the Arctic Energy Alliance, and the release of the most recent energy action plan with new rebates and grants;
• Ensuring government procurement and contracting maximizes benefits to residents and businesses, through collaborative work with other GNWT departments in reviewing procurement policies and practices and exercising procurement processes that align best with the interest of NWT businesses and residents;
• Continuing to increase regional decision-making and authority through ongoing engagement with our Indigenous partners; and,
• Maintaining our annual investment of $1.5 million of financial contributions to communities through the Community Access Program to improve local transportation infrastructure for access roads, winter roads, ice roads, marine facilities, and trails.

That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes.

Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, to my left I have my deputy minister for asset management, David Moore. And to my right I have my director Connie Lee, director for corporate services.

Thank you. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?

Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with asset management, starting on page 258, with information items on page 259 and 260. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I promise I'm only going to try and only talk for about ten minutes this whole main estimates review, and all of it's going to be about asset management. And I know this section's called asset management but I guess more in regards to all of the assets in the department.

Last -- earlier in this session, the Minister gave an update on road construction and she said there was, you know, $45 million improving our highways and bridges and 160 kilometres of chip seal. And as she was giving that statement, I tried to look through previous, you know, main estimates and the capital budget and whatever documents existed to get a sense of what that number meant. You know, it's kind of a completely meaningless number, I think, in context without any context. You know, the department's budget is over $300 million. We spend hundreds of millions on capital for roads and bridges so it's just hard to know whether $45 million is any amount of money. And, you know, I get the department wants to kind of celebrate its work, but it would be helpful if there was some sort of public information on how much we spend each year, what is the state of our roads and bridges, how often they're inspected, you know, and so you could look back in time to see whether we're spending more or less or whether maybe we did far more than 160 kilometres every single year before that. But that's not currently public information. Many jurisdictions publish -- their departments of transportation publish some sort of highways report, roads and bridges report. It just kind of summarizes the quality of everything and the cost of everything and the work that's going on. I know the department obviously has all that information, but is publishing it in some sort of form that's coherent something the Minister would be willing to do? Thank you

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, you know, the Member's speaking to one of the comments I made in earlier session and right now the Department of Infrastructure is working on what we're calling a dashboard. So the dashboard is kind of a big picture of all the different highways, you know, Highway No. 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, all the different highways, and to be able to have a picture of what it is we're doing. And if you can, Madam Chair, ask David -- Mr. Moore to speak a little bit more about this because I think this is really exciting, and I think that's what the Member was asking us to do. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Moore.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, you know, I am probably very excited for this dashboard, and I guess it's a bit of a wait and see what's in it. Yeah, and I think there's a bit of a tension that goes on in that, you know, we as Regular MLAs in confidence get the kind of long-term capital planning and the needs assessment and, you know, I have requested it, you know confidentially, to see, you know, the asset management planning that we do and the deferred maintenance but none of that is public, you know, and there's this tension, I think, of we don't want to necessarily show everyone how bad our deferred maintenance is and that we're not funding it. But I think we got to make some step in the middle to show, okay, this is all the things we should be doing but we're not actually going to do it. So in terms of a question there, can the Minister just provide us an update when they expect that dashboard to be complete? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we're aiming at the fall. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And then I guess there is, you know, there is -- to me, there's the goal of reporting on the quality and condition and all the work that we're doing with all the assets everywhere that we own, the multi-billion dollars worth, and then I'm wondering if the dashboard would speak to kind of tracking ongoing infrastructure projects or whether that would be another initiative. What I picture is, you know, we often pass these capital estimates and they -- and some community says they're going to get a small local project done and then it gets carried over and carried over and it never actually gets complete. And, you know, unless you're really diligent in following up, you don't actually know what's being complete. So is -- would the dashboard speak to kind of tracking how ongoing construction is going with regards to infrastructure projects? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to get Mr. Moore to speak a little bit more about some of the details because I think that's very technical. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Moore.