Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have used a number of numbers now, but for the record again, to meet the requirements for occupancy of the existing facility, if the choice was made to renovate, it would be $12 million for the existing facility. To go new for the existing facility, that’s a full amount and I am going to have to double check the square metres for occupancy now. I will have to confirm that with the number I gave earlier. It could possibly be out substantially. The fact is $12 million for a renovation of the existing facility based on 2004 numbers. It is a $20 million renovation…New...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have already had a number of discussions with my colleagues. More importantly, I have had a discussion within one of the departments that deals with client departments, that being the Department of Public Works, and reviewing why we’ve had such poor responses from some of our projects that we put out there for tender or RFP and having to look at how we can try to increase the competition level or deal with our capital program. One of the issues we have to look at is how our capital program is put together. For example, when a department comes forward for an estimate...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This facility has been discussed, plans have been devised and discussed with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment with the community for quite a few years. As I stated earlier, the fire marshal’s office became involved in 2002. I can say that the departments have bent over backwards trying to accommodate the community. Public Works has revised a number of options, gone back to the drawing board a number of times trying to satisfy the client departments as well as community requests and concerns. We have now come to a stage where we have run out of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Minister stated in this area, the department had put forward negotiations in the area of over $150,000 anticipated for this. CATSA has come across with their national standard, I guess is the way to look at it, of $22,000. Most other jurisdictions were in the same position to say that is not adequate. The department has done a fair bit of calculations in doing this work. They have used the manufacturer’s technical information to build an estimate of what this would cost. As well, because the footprint is bigger, there is more space to heat and so on. They have...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I stated, I guess I would say that as the Government of the Northwest Territories we would not rather bring something like this to the table. But unfortunately, with the work that was done, the process that was used, trying to bring agreement to the table around this facility has ended us in a situation where this needs to get done. A decision had to be made and it is now here at this table for either the endorsement or the House's disagreement with what's being presented.

Yes, it is not a good position to be in and it's not a good position for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I already know that the work is not getting done. I’m having to carry this forward to the Assembly with a larger than normal amount in capital carryovers and we’re going to have to deal with that one more in a sense that we have a capital program that has a limit to it and we are now at that limit as we move forward and if projects don’t get done and we can’t find new funds for newer projects, we’re going to have to move forward on that and look at some initiatives of how we exactly do that. Further to that, and that’s something we have to finish here...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the total amount to keep the facility open as it stands now, the parts that are being used, is $3.5 million. If we decide we are going to shut other sections of the building down, then that’s what we would be doing if we decided to just upgrade the main departments. The decision, as the facility is constructed, your heating system is going to run throughout, your existing fire suppression system would have to be maintained, those things, electrical would have to be maintained as well. So the amount requested for keeping that facility open, as has been...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this request has come in and it impacts on a number of things. One is the size of the footprint of the building is one of the areas that has increased the impact of O and M that is required. Yes, the department is requesting two more positions -- one electrician and one millwright -- as the Member stated.

As well, there is a change in contract for janitorial services as a result of the increased size of the facility. As well, because of the increased size of the facility, the power consumption has increased as well.

One of the issues that is outstanding...

Mr. Chairman, I've been a Member of this Assembly for almost three full terms and I've been part of many processes where grandstanding is part of the game plan or part of the process to draw more attention to it. The fact is, Public Works is not putting this House in this position. Public Works has done work for a client department. The client department has worked with the community and there has been no satisfactory result or a decision made at that point. The fact is, the client department in charge of the project would have to make decisions and would have to bring that project to the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, a number of factors play in the size of this supplementary appropriation document. It is a larger amount than we normally do at this time of year. Every year we have done capital carryovers from projects that were not completed in the previous fiscal year and carried over for the following year. What we see in large increases in this amount are results, as I stated in my opening comments, the funding that’s flowing to communities through the community capacity building initiative and that’s over $30 million there. As well, the large amount that we’ve...