Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Yes, we can provide that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. And I thank the Minister for his commitment. Can I get a timeframe because I'm having a real problem with timeframes right now. So if I can get a timeframe within the next month, next week. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll get back to the Member within one week. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that response. In regards to forced growth, how is that developed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you. Mr. Chair, typically what would happen in airport operations is we would look to see what the drivers are that would fit with forced growth criteria and then we would determine if we could make a case. If we can pursue a forced growth submission the most common type of forced growth in the airport's activity particularly would be a contract cost increase. So if we have a contract that's coming up for renewal, we'll know that there will be some inflationary increase to that contract and so we will pursue forced growth to get that inflationary contract cost increase. Sometimes it can be usage has increased at a facility that would drive some additional O and M, which qualify for forced growth, and then in the past we have also got forced growth increase related to weather events where we're getting more…you know, the climate is changing, it's getting warmer, that causes us to undertake more O and M. And so we have been successful in the past in getting forced growth for that situation as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for his answer. In regards to regional budgets and that, do you track the increases needed throughout the year or the fiscal years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. The contracts are obviously airport-based typically so we would track each of those contracts individually. For this particular budget there is actually a forced growth increase of $257,000, that's in the Fort Simpson region. It is for contract cost increases related to both highways and airport-related activities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, and I thank Mr. Neudorf for that answer. I guess right now I'm looking at the airports. Do you have that split between the airports and the highways? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Neudorf.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there were seven different contracts that resulted in that $257,000 increase. Of those, two were airport-related, one for Trout Lake airport and one for Jean Marie River Airport. The Trout Lake airport resulted from the new longer runway that we recently completed construction of in the community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. Just in regards to contract services. It's a $4,000 difference from the-- approximately, I guess it's $33.6 million difference in the 2015 revised to the main. Is there-- what's the difference in there? Why have we seen such a huge reduction in this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
I will defer to deputy minister Neudorf.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Just for the sake of Hansard and clarity, if you wouldn't mind just letting the Committee know who you're directing the question to. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The revised mains were quite a bit higher under contract services in 2015-16 and that's because we did get some one-time funding for two different runways. We had some significant repairs that had to be undertaken at Yellowknife Airport; it was about $3 million repair, and then $1.6 million at Inuvik to complete a repair that we had there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope this is my last question on this section here. Does the department cover 24-hour services for the smaller communities, i.e., for medevacs and that, when there's the need for runways to be cleared? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When there's an emergency in any of the communities we'll call out all services that need to be to facilitate cleaning the runways so the emergency can be responded to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. There's nothing further from Mr. Thompson. Do I have more comments or question on page 409? Seeing none, we'll call the page, Transportation, airports, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $28,598,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Committee agrees. We'll move on to corporate management. The activity totals on page 413, we'll defer consideration until we look at the detail beginning on page 414. Questions on page 414, grants, contributions and transfers? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering how much money would it take to fund all of the projects under the local community roads project? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be a difficult question to answer because it's a community-based application and it varies year to year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When does the department think the estimates where they have a lot of history here with the amount of applications that they've been receiving in the past, what was it last year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the last couple of years the Community Access Program has been -- our application base by $1.5 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that's it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McNeely.
Yes, on the same page, 414, here on the same program, community access roads. Earlier the Minister mentioned this is a community-based application program is there reserved amounts per region? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This program is a first come, first served application base. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely. Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Any more discussion on page 414? Seeing none, we'll move to page 415, active positions under corporate management. No comments or questions on page 415? We can return to the activity total on page 413, operations expenditure summary, comments or questions, page 413? I'll give committee a moment. Seeing nothing, I'll call the page, Transportation, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, activity total $11,970,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
We'll move on to highways, page 417 is the activity total. There are information items beginning on page 418. Do we have comments or questions on page 418? Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this the maintenance or is this costs we have to pay the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation here?
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, this is a grant contribution to the community to create benefits and economic opportunities related to the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
