Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort our witnesses in, please.
Minister Ramsay, please introduce your witnesses to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s my pleasure to introduce to the House the witnesses I have with me today. To my right is Ms. Kelly Kaylo, assistant deputy minister of ITI; to my left is Ms. Rhona Stanislaus, acting director of finance and administration with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Welcome to the House, Ms. Stanislaus and Ms. Kaylo. Committee, we are on Industry, Tourism and Investment, page 45 of your capital investments. With that, we will turn it over to general comments.
Detail.
Is committee prepared to go to detail?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We’ll defer consideration of page 45 until we are finished the details. I will get you to turn your attention to pages 48 and 49, tourism and parks, infrastructure investments, $3.598 million. Does committee agree? Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Are we including page 50 as well?
That would be correct, Ms. Bisaro. That would be 48, 49 and 50. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have a question with regard to the Gwich’in Park Lake access road. I know we have a program within Transportation for access roads. I’m wondering why – this is obviously a road issue – it’s in this department as opposed to being in the Department of Transportation. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It would be different than a community access road in that it gets to a park and would be the responsibility of the Department of ITI for the construction of that road.
So, to relate it to something I understand within Prelude Lake Park, it would be the same sort of a road as from the highway to get to Prelude Lake itself. Would that be a good comparison? Thank you.
That wouldn’t be a fair comparison in that there are different land tenures in that park at Prelude Lake and the road itself isn’t the responsibility of the park until you get into the park itself. I guess a comparison might be, say, Pontoon Lake Park where there is a bit of an access road into Pontoon Lake. Thank you.
That’s good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Continuing with questions on tourism and parks, I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am surprised and disappointed to see that there’s not significant work planned for Prelude Lake area. I am wondering if I could get a status on what work has been done there and what is still to be done. I know there’s a lot of concern about the parking areas down by the dock and the need to do some work on that dock. Obviously, low water time is a good time to be in there doing that sort of work. Maybe I could start by asking for an update on the status of that redevelopment at Prelude Lake Park. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Member for the question. With the limited capital dollars that we do have, we’ve done a lot of work at Prelude Lake and we will continue to put some dollars into Prelude Lake. Just to update Members, the marina at Prelude Lake boat launch, PWS plans to use a standing offer agreement with a marine engineer to draw technical specs for the mooring system and fabrication for the floating dock system that will complement the existing concept designs. We expect the engineering contract to be completed this month. These engineered drawings will go to tender later this year, due to some procurement procedures attached to the election transition period. Tenders cannot proceed until after the period is over. We expect to begin in the spring of next year.
As far as loop D, the tender for the build is closed and we are ready to award the contract. An internal committee of DOT, ENR and Lands is also helping to guide the project and we are hopeful that work can begin soon after the contract award this fall.
On to the shoreline improvements, the tender closed September 14th for on-the-land work. The in-water work to remove vegetation and place barriers to prevent regrowth has been cancelled due to permitted requirements and after a lack of interest to bid on the work was shown by potential contractors at a pre-tender meeting. Improvements planned are to refurbish the breakwater as per the concept drawings developed last fall. Vehicle access on the southern portion will be maintained and shoreline recreational space on the northern portion will also be developed. Permits are not required for this project as it’s considered maintenance as long as there is no work that has to be completed in the water itself.
Thank you very much for that comprehensive response. I think there’s a good record in Hansard for constituents who may be interested.
Would this work be proposed to come forward as a supp since it’s not in this capital plan?
This is current year spending, so it’s already been accounted for.
I’m not sure I fully understand that. I understand the work to get us to the point of being ready to do the work in the field, but I would assume that that needs to take place during the construction season after the 1st of April, and I don’t see that work referred to in the capital plan here. That’s why I’m wondering whether it would come forward in a supplementary appropriation.
Perhaps I’ll have Ms. Kaylo explain the detail to how the money is going to be spent this year, and as I mentioned, it’s already been in this year’s capital plan.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Kaylo.
The projects that the Minister spoke of were approved in last year’s capital plan, so they are for this current fiscal year, ’15-16. The work that’s underway right now is all in anticipation of completing these projects by the end of this fiscal year, March 31, 2016. We have, as the Minister identified, marine engineer drawings that, once completed, will be presented out for tender for the work for the marina at Prelude. A fair bit of work is required there. Of course, the extreme low water conditions this year have proven challenging for us. The new loop D, which went through consultations this past year, is also underway. The tender for the building of that particular loop has just closed, and again, we’re in the stage of awarding the contract and anticipate that that work will be completed by March 2016.
Then the shoreline improvement, same sort of thing. There were some modifications planned around what was presented in terms of the beach area as a result of getting more information on what could be refurbished along the breakwater, but that work is anticipated to be completed this fiscal year as well.
All those three projects were planned, budgeted for, and are underway now. There is another project for Prelude Lake planned for the ’16-17 Capital Plan, which is identified in the Member’s books as well. We can speak to that if required.
Thank you, Ms. Kaylo. I have next on my list Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few questions here. First, I’ll just make a comment. I have heard good things about our parks from some of the tourists who come through. It’s good to see we continue to update those facilities. Obviously, Mr. Dolynny, I think yesterday or the day before, was talking about some of the access in springtime and fall time. I know that’s an O and M thing, but if we’re going to invest some capital into this thing then I think we need to open up some of those parks for a little bit longer in the springtime and a little bit longer in the fall time. Definitely an issue.
I guess my first question is, and I know the Minister is also the Minister of Justice and I know Justice built some big fences. We have a bunch of fencing in this capital budget and I’m just wondering what’s the concept behind building fences into parks. My fear is that we’re making them look like an institution as opposed to a park. I just see several projects on the fencing-type stuff and I wonder what the concept is and why we’re putting up a bunch more fence.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fencing that Members will see is to protect assets first and foremost. We have put a number of fences in and we will have to continue to look at ways to ensure that our assets are protected and not left to be vandalized and potentially damaged. That’s why you see the expenditure for fencing.
On the extended parks season, I know the Member and I and other Members have had discussions about the possibility of extending the season, especially in the southern part of the Northwest Territories where we are seeing the milder weather into the end of September. This is something that I think we’ll have to continue to have a look at how this can happen. There are some problems when freezing temperatures happen and the impact on our equipment like shower facilities, washroom facilities, and things of that nature. We have to take a look at this, and if there is a way to ensure that we can keep parks open longer, I think that’s something that going forward the department will certainly be looking at it.
I think recently, within the last month or so, we had a public meeting and one of the discussions was about some of the park assets and some of the minor repairs that need to be done in the park. In parks in and around the Hay River area and the Twin Falls area, I’m just wondering: does the department have a consistent plan to do assessment in all its park facilities, and so on an annual basis we kind of look at what needs to be repaired and what needs to be replaced. As far as I know, we have a lot of wood structures, so rotting wood and stuff like that, especially in trip and fall areas such as walkways and stuff like that. Does the department have a maintenance program where they assess all the needs?
Yes, the department and the regions do a lot of work on looking at our infrastructure when the park season ends, cataloguing areas of concern, places where we need to look at making some investment and upgrading and looking at maintenance issues. This is done, and I know when you’re dealing with the travelling public and our residents using our parks, it’s very important that that work happen every year. We also have park officers and park staff who frequent the parks during the park season that are consistently bringing issues to our concern, and they can be addressed in a timely fashion.
My next question is about the actual budget. It kind of indicates that all of the capital budget for ITI is under small capital projects. Can the Minister just remind what that level is? Is it $50,000, $100,000 that we have to be under in order for it to be a small capital project?
That would be between $50,000 and $400,000.
I’m just wondering: for future considerations, do we have any major large capital projects over the next, let’s say, three years that we have currently slotted, or will we just continue to do small capital projects.
No, we don’t have any large scale projects planned.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Committee, again, we’re on page 48, 49, and 50, tourism and parks, infrastructure investments, $3.598 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
If I can get you to turn back to page 45, Industry, Tourism and Investment, total infrastructure investments, $3.598 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that we’ve concluded consideration of Industry, Tourism and Investment?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. At this time I’d like to thank our witnesses for joining us here, Ms. Kaylo and Ms. Stanislaus and, of course, Minister Ramsay. If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the House, please.
Committee, as we agreed upon earlier, we’re going to continue on with our capital estimates here with the Department of Justice. With that, I’ll turn it over to the Minister responsible to see if he has any witnesses he’d like to bring in. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we do have witnesses. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses into the House.
Minister Ramsay, if you would be kind enough to introduce your witnesses to the House, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to introduce the witnesses who I have with me today. To my left is Sylvia Haener, deputy minister, Department of Justice; to my right is Leanne Hannah. She’s the acting director of finance with the Department of Justice.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Hannah, Ms. Haener, welcome to the House. Committee, again, we are Justice, which is pages 51 and onward. We’re going to turn it over to general comments. General comments, Justice. Is committee prepared to go into detail?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, we’re actually going to defer page 51 until consideration of the activity as a whole. I’ll get you to turn to page 52, corrections, infrastructure investments, $7.846 million. Does committee agree?
