Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, utilities costs can and do include heating, electricity, water, sewage, garbage collection, so there are over 400 different individual assets that are managed by the Department of Infrastructure and depending on each community, there are some changes. One that I'd certainly point to quickly is the heating costs and obviously heating fuel, the cost both of providing it and then the actual costs have been very volatile over the last several years, including last year. Electricity costs obviously saw a bit of an increase already in July. And water/sewage may be dependent upon individual municipalities and what costs they are charging, so if there's been cost increases in some of the regional centres, that would then impact potentially on utilities costs. And yes, so those are just sort of my initial responses, Mr. Chair. Again, it maybe is a bit -- yes, in terms of budgeting that, there's -- this would be exactly a good example of what is forced growth but also when costs spike towards the end of the year, the forced growth process doesn't necessarily have the opportunity to take that into account and we can still see the department coming in short here late in the fiscal year. Thank you.
Caroline Wawzonek on Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 10th, 2025. See this statement in context.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Second Reading Of Bills
February 10th, 2025
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