Thanks for that commitment. That’s what I was asking for. Obviously, as I mentioned, almost all other jurisdictions have already gone to the 25 percent and they’re more southerly than us. Our savings are bigger, obviously.
My second one is on the contracting and procurement services. Again, sort of an asset revolving issue, you might call it. I brought this up before. We do have a Green Procurement Policy in place but it’s worth beans. The department knows that and had committed in the past to coming up with a real Green Procurement Policy with best practices and standards and so on, getting that in place. Can I ask where the department is on that and when we’ll be getting a briefing and see that into implementation, hopefully within the next few months?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy. I believe we’re going to go to Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, as the Member has said, the procurement guidelines for the Government of the Northwest Territories are maintained by the Department of Public Works and Services on behalf of the Department of Finance. Within those guidelines, there was a guideline on green procurement and that has been going through the process of being updated, and I believe the procurement council is reviewing the most recent draft. I don’t know what date it will be complete, but I’m expecting it will be brought forward in the near future.
We’ll go to Minister Abernethy as well.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to Member Bromley. Like Mr. Guy said, we don’t have the exact date, but we will have some discussions this week and we’ll get back to Mr. Bromley with a more concrete date as to when he can expect to see and look at the suggestions of the proposal.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and deputy minister for those comments. I’ll look forward to that.
On the inspection services side of things, again, I know this department has their own building standards and so on, but unfortunately our communities don’t have a building standards act. I know that there are many cases when they’re at a loss, they do approach Public Works and Services and when they are able, they do provide a response on an informal basis to help out there. I’m just wondering, is there an assessment of that sort of service that’s provided or is that something the department should be doing, and would this department be willing to work with Municipal and Community Affairs to put together a buildings act and provide advice on the basis of their considerable experience with their own standards and codes. Thank you.
Ultimately, as the Member said earlier today, the responsibility for a buildings standard code in the Northwest Territories would ultimately be up to MACA, and we’re absolutely happy to work with MACA, share our expertise, provide any sort of guidance around the specifics that we can, and we will do that if MACA does take that direction.
Thanks for those comments. I know there is a lot of experience with the department, so that would be useful if we do go that way.
I was also asking, I know that communities have projects and often turn to Public Works and Services personnel on an informal basis. Is there a way of capturing that sort of thing and reporting on it as to the degree of activity that happens in that format given the absence of an NWT building standards act? Mahsi.
I’m actually going to Deputy Minister Guy on that one.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Guy.
Our technical services staff get requests from all sorts of parts of the community, whether it’s the community government or other governments. They get requests from consultants, practitioners on matters related to building construction, so it would be difficult to track and report on every request we get. The formal requests we do get in relation to supporting communities and technical matters are normally brought forward through MACA. Primarily, we prefer to see communities go to the private sector and get the technical help that they need. And where, if there’s a specialized need or a request from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for us to provide that technical support, then we’d do that through that mechanism.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Bromley.
That’s all the questions I have, and I appreciate Mr. Guy’s comments there. I understand that this is not the mandate of this department. They’re providing that service in the absence of proper responsibility by other parts of government. I appreciate that service. I know our communities do too. I’ll be working with the Minister of MACA to see what we can do to take that off your hands. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to the Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions here. The Minister mentioned that some of the increase in this budget is because we’ve added new facilities to our total numbers of facilities, and that the O and M operational costs of these facilities are increasing the bottom line for the budget. I wondered if the Minister could advise which buildings he’s referencing when he says that we’ve added buildings to our stable of facilities. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For some of the specifics on that and the actual costs and the individual numbers, it’s best to go to Mr. Lewis, so I’d like to pass it on to Mr. Lewis.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Lewis.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of the assets that we’d be referring to that have come into service would be the new data centre. It would be the new government building in Inuvik and records storage facility. Those are two of the larger ones that just come to mind. We do have a number of other smaller facilities that we’ve added. I can provide those if you can just bear with me for one second.
Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a big list, so rather than reading the whole thing out, we can commit to providing that to the Member. But we’ll go back to Steve just to give us some of the finances around that. But as far as the list, I just want to check if the Member’s okay if we provide that later.
Mr. Lewis.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. For 2012-13 an example would be the new school in Inuvik and funding associated with that. There is an ENR crew trailer and associated funding that was added to that. There was lighting assigned to do with the DOT runway, cold storage facilities for ENR, Health and Social Services senior assisted living facilities. They’re fairly small numbers. I can continue to go on if the Member would like.
Minister Abernethy, before we have you answer again, if we have commitment to provide that detailed information to the Member. Any further update, Mr. Abernethy?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Originally I committed to providing the list of the infrastructure, but we can actually provide the costs, as well, and make it a little bit easier for you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and his staff. I’m okay with the costs that have been outlined in general. I was just wondering which buildings, particularly the new school in Inuvik, and Mr. Lewis has advised that that’s included in this budget, so that’s a good thing. I don’t need that list. Maybe, Mr. Chair, you can confirm whether or not other Members wish to see that list, but I’m okay without receiving more information at this point.
I did want to ask a question, though. The description of asset management talks about inspection services. I know that it is certainly something that we do as a government, but my impression is that we don’t do very much and that inspection services in general in the Northwest Territories by communities and/or by the government is pretty minimal. Could I get a bit of a description of the extent of the inspection services that the department provides? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. By legislation we’re responsible, as a government, to provide inspections on certain types of things like electrical, elevators, boilers, pressure vessels and gas safety. But for a little bit more detail, I’d like to go to Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister did cover the list of things that we do inspect and many of these assets, certain types of boilers require annual inspections. Elevators require an annual inspection or whenever any work has been done an elevator it requires an inspection. The electrical permits are associated with all construction in the NWT, commercial and residential construction that will require a permit based on the act, but that service and inspection and permitting would be done through our safety division. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the information to the department. So I guess I’m just trying to understand whether or not the department covers every construction in every community in the NWT. So if somebody in Colville Lake is doing some addition to their house and they’re adding on electrical, do we send an inspector there to look at that addition and to make sure that the electrical has been properly installed?
The other question I have relative to this is if we do not, what kind of liability are we taking on? Thank you.
If there’s a requirement under the act, then we would provide the inspection. Thank you.
To the question of liability, Mr. Chair.
I guess, Mr. Chairman, I’m not really sure I understand that question, but about the liability, about any sort of undertaking is normally shared among the number of parties involved, whether it’s the contractor, the equipment, constructor, the supplier and as well as the inspection side, there potentially could be some liability, as well, and that’s often determined by the court process. So I’m not sure what the particular question is. But in terms of liability of on-the-ground inspections, where we have a legislative requirement for doing inspection, we would do that, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Ms. Bisaro, if you want to rephrase your question, I’ll allow it again. Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. It wasn’t so much that we wouldn’t do it, but I’m sure there are times when, for whatever reason, we don’t necessarily do an inspection. Then I’m not calling anybody’s credibility into ill repute here, but my concern was that if we miss doing an inspection, what are we on the hook for as a government?
Secondly to that, the line here states these tasks protect the public by ensuring all installations are constructed dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. So in reference to all installations, are we talking just GNWT installations or are we talking private installations?
I go back to my example of somebody in Colville Lake who is doing an upgrade or doing an addition to their house and it’s not owned by the government, it’s owned by me as an individual. So to those two things. What are we on the hook for if we don’t do an inspection and do these inspection services apply to every piece of construction in the NWT? Thank you.
I guess the role of inspection services to provide the services related to boiler, electrical, elevators, mechanical, gas to both GNWT projects, but also to the public, it’s a service that we provide to the public through the inspections branch.
In terms of the inspections they do, they are related to the portions of the building that are covered under the act, and mechanical system, boiler, the electrical system, if there’s an elevating device in that system and any gas or pressure vessels that might be in the facility as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think that covers it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Moving on our list we’ll be going to the Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, it’s okay.
Moving on, the Member for YK Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this particular page we have $51,000 under the TSC chargeback. I’m just trying to get a sense of, first of all, why does Public Works provide a TSC chargeback to itself and where does that revenue that accumulates from all of the TSC chargebacks actually show up?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually think the TSC chargebacks appear on 7-13 in the correct line as opposed to HR where it was in the wrong line under TSC chargebacks under $951,000. The $951,000 on this page is for computer hardware and software. The reason that TSC chargebacks would fall on this department is because this department is still utilizing the services of the TSC to manage and administer computer services. So like every other department, we have to pay our share of the TSC services.
Thank you. Now, that begs the question: Where does all the TSC chargeback go? If the TSC lies within the Department of Public Works, that money must go somewhere and where does it show up in our books? Thank you.
Later on when we get to page 7-26, there’s a complete, comprehensive list of projections and previous year estimates and actuals from ‘10-11 on all the dollars that came in from all of the departments, boards and agencies and the government services into the TSC. That money goes into the TSC to evergreen, to cover the cost of providing the services and all of those types of things. I might be missing something so I’ll go to Ms. Gault to see if there’s anything to add.
Thank you, committee. It’s been identified that the answer to this question will lie later in this document. So it’s my judgment that we’ll respond to that at that moment in time. So I’ll turn it back over to Mr. Hawkins.
