Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think I am going to take the Members point, and I think you can look at the Tuktoyaktuk highway as a prime example of the money that stays in the territories, and I think we've all seen the number of folks who work there, so that is one of the benefits of that project. Income support numbers, I know, went down. Housing rent collections actually went up, so there is benefit. I take the Member's point; we take that very seriously. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member's attempt at giving some credit to the department. It was going along really well until I heard the "but." I take the Member's point, though. I mean, he is right. We did have a briefing this morning. We provided Members with a lot of information on the numbers that we had, and some of the questions were on the detail of why those numbers came to be. I absolutely take the Member's point. I will work with the departments to ensure that, as we go forward or we debate another capital estimate, that we have the level of detail that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. The short construction season, we understand, and my understanding is that there is trouble finding contractors sometimes to go into some of these places. That would be a couple of the reasons for the amount of carry-overs: short construction season and the issue with finding contractors. If there are contractors listening out there, there is an opportunity, because there is fairly significant carry-over. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, through you, Mr. Chair, I would like to go to the Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The anticipated completion date would be July of this year, is my understanding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe they do keep track of the work, and I think it's part of the contract, and things may have changed, but you normally have to put your northern content in there. So all we need to do is have a conversation with Infrastructure as to what percentage was done by Northerners, and obviously we would like to see the bulk of this work done by northern companies, and I think for the most part, now maybe in the southern part of the territories there's a bit more challenge because they're a little easier accessible for the southern companies to move in, but we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are not exactly sure where the location is yet. I can commit to providing more information to the Members as it becomes available, but we take the Member's point. I will commit to provide him more information. I don't think the exact locations have been chosen yet. Maybe it is something we will have to work on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do learn from year to year on why projects are delayed and if there is an opportunity for us to get everything finalized, get the contracts out the door, have them awarded, have the contractors ordering their material or whatever they need to do to be ready for when the money starts being appropriated in April. It's a learning process. Again, we try to get as many of these projects out the door as quickly as possible, but, with anything we do within the government, it's a learning process, and we try to go with best practices and see what works well so...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As far as what got done last year, I would have to follow up and see exactly how much was done last year. The Member has some concerns about the amount of carry-overs, but I would be positive that there was substantial work done last year. I will gather the information and share it with the Member.

We provided a brief note, I believe, to committee of some of the questions they had this morning. I am not sure if it went into enough detail, but I would be willing to make the commitment to follow up on that and see what got done last year.