Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the heating fuel costs, we’re looking for $685,000. That’s on top of the $7.8 million that’s currently sitting in the base of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, which translates to roughly 8 percent.
In terms of the electricity costs, the amount that we’re sitting in the base for the Housing Corp is $7.846 million and we’re requesting $960,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I didn’t do that last math quickly enough here, but can we get a clarification on the electricity what that percent increase is over and above the base? Thank you.
I appreciate Mr. Lovely and the Minister for indulging me to get this number. I think with that number it should make a bit more sense and I appreciate them sharing that information today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $1.645 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $1.645 million.
Agreed.
Page 6, Public Works and Services, operations expenditures, asset management, not previously authorized, negative $546,000. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question. So we’re saving this because of efficiencies realized through our energy saving measures. What period of time is this for and would we know how many facilities this has been provided from? I’m trying to get a sense of what this means of all the work we’ve been doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s from the budget year ‘12-13 and what it notes here is they completed 39 projects to date and we have an appendix attached, which lists all of them right from Yellowknife NSCF right down to Behchoko Chief Jimmy Bruneau, and things like installing biomass systems, electrical heat conversions, energy retrofits, lighting retrofits. I think committee has that.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Asset management, not previously authorized, negative $546,000.
Agreed.
Total department, not previously authorized, negative $546,000.
Agreed.
Page 7. Justice, operations expenditures, community justice and policing, not previously authorized, $316,000.
Agreed.
Corrections, not previously authorized, $311,000.
Agreed.
Total department, not previously authorized, $627,000.
Agreed.
Page 8, Transportation, operations expenditures, corporate services, not previously authorized, $189,000. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just wondering, this is carry-over funding, what was the total amount, if we have that handy, for climate change-related research and development projects that we were provided through the Building Canada Plan?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The total amount was $406,000, of which $217,000 was expended and the request is to carry over the remaining $189,000.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley.
Have we been provided with a report on what we found with the other research with the previous dollars that have been spent on this file?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would ask if the Minister of Transportation could possibly respond to that.
Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s a total of $595,000 and some of the work is going to be carried over. What we can do is commit to the Members there are a number of projects, Inuvik to Tuk highway test section, winter road vulnerability assessment, remote weather information system that we’re putting in, sensors and equipment and permafrost, a short course that was run. We would endeavour to get a report of those activities to the Members when they’re concluded, and again, they’re not all concluded, as you see the carry-over for $189,000.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Corporate services, not previously authorized, $189,000.
Agreed.
Airports, not previously authorized, $650,000. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d just like to be sure I understand this. I believe, if my memory serves, this is a sudden collapse of a part of the Inuvik runway. I’m wondering: Is this sort of related, sort of the climate change that we’re seeing, is it related to the loss or permafrost? What have we got and what do we expect the full cost of this correction to be?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have $650,000 before us today, and then in 2014-2015 we are budgeting $2.350 million. They’re still doing the technical and geophysical testing to find out, but there’s a strong assumption that there are permafrost issues, moisture issues and those types of things that are contributing to the slump in the runway.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Airports, not previously authorized, $650,000.
Agreed.
Total department, not previously authorized, $839,000.
Agreed.
Page 8, Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, special warrants, $13.894 million. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I find myself almost repeating some of the same things I did last time we went through this exercise, in terms of a special warrant of over $10 million. In this case, we’ve got one closer to $14 million. This is something that I know is hard to put in the books. I mean, how do you predict fires and everything else, but that said, I think for budgetary purposes, if we’ve got a repeated pattern year in and year out that we’re exceeding our budget by such a large figure, I’m hoping that the budgeters can start putting that in, into the whole cost accounting for this here. But that’s not my question.
My question has to deal with we’ve got a severely aging fleet of our CL-215s that we continuously hear that they’re at the end of their lifecycle, or very near to the end of their lifecycle, and there is a point in time that that aging fleet is going to start costing us more money than making us money. My questions here today really revolve around are we starting to see the brunt of an aging fleet that are adding more dollars at the end of the year as a result of not dealing with the issue sooner than later.
Can the Minister maybe elaborate if the department has done any calculations whatsoever? Have there been extra costs attributed because of this aging fleet?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of budgeting, first, for fires, we’ve had some modest increases to the base, and it’s come up a number of times. This particular year, last summer was very intensely dry, a lot of lightning, a lot of fires by significant values at risk, especially in the Deh Cho. The fact that we were competing for scarce resources, we had to bring in other crews, other planes.
As it pertains to the 215s, the Member is correct; the 215s are nearing the end of their best-before date and some would say they’ve passed that. We’re struggling to keep them in the air. Just with the access to avgas alone is a major problem. There is a significant fleet review, as I’ve indicated, that is currently being completed that will be making its way through the appropriate channels and on to the desk of the committee, to look at the challenges that we’re facing as it comes to decisions that are going to be required in the coming years. We still have an existing contract for air support services, both land-based and skimmers, that takes us to 2017, but we are hard at work to make sure we start the process and the reviews so that we are well along the way with key decisions being made in the life of this Assembly that will determine the path forward with regard to air support services for firefighting.
On the subject of air support services, and obviously, going back to the CL-215 scenarios here, did we have any times whatsoever during the summer where any of the CL-215s were grounded for whatever reason, repairs, inoperable, or maintenance?
We’ve managed to keep them all airworthy. Not this summer, but last summer they were grounded. Our fleet was grounded because we had used up all the gas available in Inuvik so we had to bring in, on very short notice, some turbo prop aircraft, or a turbo craft aircraft that could assume those duties. That’s one of the biggest challenges. We’ve addressed it in the short term in the communities, trying to make sure we have gas available. That’s the one thing that has posed a real operational obstruction and challenge. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, if the Minister can also maybe give a clarification. Out of the $13.894 million, what dollar figure from that was due to acquiring and subcontracting other air support other than what we have currently in our fleet? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I can tell you where all the fires are but I don’t have that level of accounting detail in terms of the aircraft costs versus the breakdown of detail to the degree that the Member is asking, so we will commit to get that for committee. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I thank the Minister again. I have no further questions.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would the Minister happen to know what the last two or three years total cost expenditures were for fire suppression?
