Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about infrastructure spending by the government to stimulate the economy. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the various infrastructure departments, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Public Works, and Transportation. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have an actual plan in place that will ensure that his departments spend all of their infrastructure money that they have in the budgets? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, that’s a, that’s a very good question.
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Mr. Speaker, it’s always our intent and we always plan to spend all the dollars and proceed with all our projects that we bring forward as part of our capital budget. Historically, we carried over sometimes up to one-third and possibly more. Over the last while we have done some significant changes to the capital process where the timing of the budget approvals is done in the fall versus the winter months. We’ve changed the system so that we have better due diligence on the projects. We are now in the position where we can roll our projects out, design them and develop the contracts over the winter months and we expect that’s going to change to carry-overs. We expect better results, less carry-over. The short answer to the Member’s question is yes, we plan to spend all our money, however, we know the difficulties with some of the issues and we probably will end up with some carry-over, although less than one-third. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, specific to highways, housing work and schools, some of the stuff that’s been in the plan previously. Does the Minister have a plan? What is the significant difference between this plan and all the other year’s plans that haven’t worked? Thank you.
The difference is timing and a longer planning period and the ability to have more discussion and have more people on the ground, whether it’s contracted or our own forces. It will allow us to get the contracts out earlier. It will allow us to have more attention paid and more diligence at the project level. We expect that will help us deliver. Mr. Speaker, we are starting to see some of the dollars flying from the federal government, especially in the area of housing, where we will have to spend all the money. It’s a use it or lose it agreement so we expect to do that in the housing front also. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to reporting progress from his various departments on the infrastructure spending to the House on a regular basis so that we can keep our constituents advised and our northern businesses and local businesses advised if these expenditures are not going to occur, so that they too can plan for these activities? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that’s going to be a very challenging commitment to make. We have, since this 16th Assembly came about ,we have, as a government, been investing a fairly significant amount in infrastructure. We’re close to the $300 million mark in the previous budget and we are looking at it again this time around. When you start adding all the different infrastructure initiatives in all the different departments including housing, some of the new housing trust money, comparing it to what we used to have, it’s probably triple. In 2001 I believe it was around $100 million; now we’re three times that. Having to deliver on a timely basis is going to require all our people on the ground all the time to ensure that we shorten up the carry-overs. We have many challenges. I would have to consider that. I’d certainly let the Members know through committee whether we can accomplish that. It’s going to be difficult to have all of the departments coordinated so we can present progress reports. We may be able to deal with it on a Member-by-Member basis, but I’d have to investigate to see if we have the resources to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate that reporting progress on all of that infrastructure spending would be difficult. Can the Minister then advise me, if he is able to advise this House or our committee, if the department is not able to carry out the planned infrastructure spending? Thank you.
I think we already have that mechanism in place as part of our process. If there’s a project that’s not going to go forward or has been dropped from our budget, and there is a requirement through our Financial Administration Act to notify the Member and notify the appropriate committee. So I think we already have that mechanism in place. If that’s not enough, then I’d certainly have to have that discussion with the Member to see what he’s looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
