Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of the first question that I heard, I think for the $27 million, approximately $5.4 million is related to the cargo, $13.8 million is related to fuel delivery, and an additional $7 million is fuel sales. Fuel sales is an item more where you ship fuel on behalf of Imperial Oil to Norman Wells, so we essentially take possession of the fuel in Hay River and sell it back to Imperial Oil back in Norman Wells. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Now, just moving down to shipyard, $3.4 million, what makes up that revenue? Is it work on other vessels or supply and material? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Some of this shipyard, terminal operations were based on a consulting plan, Ernst & Young business plan, and was drafted prior to purchase, so some of the revised amounts were reduced to reflect some of the actual work underway and completed. I know I am not answering the Member's question right now because he wants a little more detail in terms of cost. I am going to get ADM Brennan to answer a little more into detail.
Thank you. ADM Brennan.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to confirm what the Minister added was that shipyard cost is essentially third-party work that we do in the shipyard. We currently do work on coast guard vessels, and we charge back for that work. We also do work for the Arctic Research Foundation vessel, the Nahidik. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Under "other items," there is $10 million there, and that is about 25 percent of the revenue. What is that? What makes up that $10 million? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That revenue line consists of some of our federal funding to be able to retrofit our tugboats, and the other part is the Oceans Protection Plan, which is to be able to provide four double-hulled barges. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Going down to expenditures and shipyard, terminal operations, the $8.7 million, what makes up that $8.7 million? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to ask Mr. Brennan to answer that. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. The shipyard, terminal operations are essentially the cost of both salaries and materials that are used in the actual shipyard. When we do work on vessels, we charge time and materials to each vessel, so that would be the cost that we incur to do the shipyard work for revenue that is generated above. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank, Madam Chair. The labour cost charged for shipyard personnel by ORSI, is that included in that number? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, it is included in that number.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That has always been a concern of mine, is that we are hiring southern firms to basically crew our shipyard terminals and our boats, and I am just wondering if the department, I know they put the contract out, and I think it's only out in a year. I don't know if there are any option years in it, but maybe the Minister can comment on, going forward, crewing both the shipyard and the vessels, if we're looking at a contract being tendered in a year from now, or are they going to go to auctioneers? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Within the Marine Transportation Services, we are trying to maximize local and northern employment within the department. We do have 10 indeterminate GNWT employees who reside in the South Slave. Through MTS recruitment, the first priority for employment resides with resident locals, residents of the NWT, and third, non-residents. We do have a number of local employments. As the Member is aware, the majority of our transportation headquarters is in Hay River. I do want to note that about 90 percent of our shipyard staff hired were Northwest Territories residents last year. In terms of the contract, I'm going to ask ADM Brennan to speak a little bit more about where we're at with our contract. I just recently understood we had it tendered and closed, but I would just like more detail from the ADM. Thank you.
Thank you. ADM Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that information. In terms of the contract for ORSI, this year, what the department decided to do was to split the contract into two separate contracts. Previously, it was one contract for both the shipyard personnel and the seafarers. This year, the contract was split to give an opportunity for more people to get on both contracts. I do believe that the shipyard one was awarded recently to the winning bid, and the seafarers' contract, the RFP closed last week and hasn't yet been awarded as of now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Just for the Member, if you want to ask more questions on MTS, we go back to programs and services later on, and it falls under that, too. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Earlier today, the Minister and her staff were talking about the money spent under the technology service centre since April 1st related to COVID. The total number was $1 million, and under that was an amount for software. I'm just wondering if they can repeat that because I didn't have time to write it down. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to look to ADM Brennan to see if he can repeat his answer from earlier because, I'm sorry, I was looking through my papers and I missed that, as well.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I'm actually going to repeat and correct the number I said earlier because I read the wrong number last time; thank you for the opportunity. The number last time was just over $1 million, I think around $1.1 million, spent on the TSC, and $925,000 is for hardware and software. I think previously I said $670,000. I do not have the breakdown between software and hardware at this time, but we've already committed to provide that to the committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. One of the things that I'm wondering if it could be included in that is one of the things that I think a lot of us have noticed since April 1st is that we have used quite a few different virtual meeting softwares or virtual meeting technologies, and so I'm wondering if those numbers for virtual meeting software can also be broken out of that software and hardware number. Also, I'm wondering if I can get a commitment, as well, from the Minister to review the different licences for virtual meeting technology and maybe work with the GNWT departments and the Legislative Assembly to choose a platform and stick with a platform, and then we can potentially save some money on how many different virtual meeting softwares we're using across the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That was a lot of commitments in that request there. I'm not going to sit here and commit to something big, unless we're looking at some of our software and costs to be able to ensure that, if we do make a commitment, it is cost saving and it works within all our technology services across the board. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. One of the commitments I was looking for was a commitment to include the cost of the virtual meeting software in the cost for software that is coming back to committee, so I'll start with that one. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glancing over at the Minister of Finance because we do share some of the technology infrastructure in terms of broadband Internet and some of the services we do have. Without committing to something specific, I would like to reach out to the other departments within the GNWT to have a look at what are some of the things that are working within Education, Culture and Employment, within Department of Finance, and other departments to ensure that, if we do look at something permanent, we have done a lot of our work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll take that as a commitment to my second request for a commitment, which was to work with other departments to figure out which meeting technology we can use as a government. Thank you for that. My next question is in regard to Public Stores Revolving Fund. The Public Stores Revolving Fund deals with accounting forms, vital statistics, support documents, et cetera, that are used for different government departments, so it allows them to have a space, I believe, that they fund all these needs and then different departments can take it from there. My question is: is there an intent to move PPE and safety items to this Public Stores Revolving Fund so that different departments can access PPE as a group from this fund, or does it only include intellectual items? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That was very technical in terms of what the Member is asking for seems pretty technical, and I would have to kind of get a little more understanding on what that is. However, I do want to note that there is one Public Stores Revolving Fund at the warehouse. It consists mainly of forms used by government departments and was used a lot when the government was paper-based. In terms of where we're going forward to be able to look at new technologies for the fund, I am going to ask ADM Brennan to elaborate a little more about the fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. ADM Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of the Public Stores Revolving Fund, that actually was discussed last year, I'm not quite sure when anymore, regarding the ability of the Public Stores Revolving Fund to hold the PPE. One of the challenges that we ran into was actually because the warehouse in Yellowknife, currently where most of the things in the Public Stores Revolving Fund are stored, also stores artefacts for the museum. The hand sanitizers that we see all over town these days are considered a flammable liquid, so there are some volume issues there that we need to look into. At the time, because we were trying to bring in a lot of hand sanitizers to ship all across the territory, it was decided that it wasn't the right time, at that point in time. That is certainly one logistical challenge that we would face. In terms of your masks and gloves, certainly, I think that's something the department could look into. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the assistant deputy minister for that. I think that's a worthwhile commitment, and potentially an area where the GNWT can come together and save some money by consolidating that, so I really appreciate that. My next question is in regard to the Yellowknife Airport Revolving Fund. I just noted that the airport improvement fee has come down, of course, with people not travelling because of COVID and the recommendation from the Chief Public Health Officer, but I notice that the aeronautical revenues appear to have come down by half. However, the airport improvement fee has come down a lot less than half, and so I'm just wondering how they got to the airport improvement fee numbers, given that people aren't planning to travel still for 2021. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
