Thank you. Nothing further. I have Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question is what is the name of the new office building on 49th Street in Yellowknife?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
It is called the New Government Building. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't think that that name will stand the test of time. I am wondering whether the department is planning to name that building? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is my understanding it is an executive policy for doing that, so it would have to be part of the Executive. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Ms. Green? Nothing further from Ms. Green. I have Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions. I notice a reduction of $410,000 for the facilities program, properties planning risk management safety. Can the Minister please explain why we see the reduction in this area? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will defer that question to the deputy of Public Works and Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The net reduction is a number of amounts that went in and out of that particular line item. There were a number of transfers that went in. These were transfers for leases from Executive to Public Works for the single-window service centres, which added money in. Then we had reductions that were really some of the carryover reductions from previous years, the partial funding for the positions that were sunsetting from last year's budget. There was $100,000 for one position there, $93,000 for a second position. Sorry. The $93,000 was for surplus assets that were sent out as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the answer from the deputy minister. In regard to leases, I notice there is a reduction there. Is that just amalgamation with the two departments and we are eliminating some of the spaces? Is that what it is? Or is it vehicles or stuff like that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the leases, it is a couple of things. It is work that was being done for previous initiatives like consulting financial services. We find that when we go through and update the office space for departments and put them into new accommodations, they tend to use the space more efficiently, so we are getting some savings through being able to collapse leased space through some of those initiatives. Also, some of our lease renewals are coming in at a lower cost or at a stable cost. I think the third piece as well is that the O and M increases are less than we had anticipated on some of the leases. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson. Nothing further from Mr. Thompson. Do we have any further questions or comments on asset management on pages 224 to 227? Seeing none, I will call this department. Infrastructure, asset management, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $74,981,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We turn now to corporate management starting on pages 228 to 231. I will give committee a moment. If you have comments or questions? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not sure if this is the place for it, but I have a question: in light of the amalgamation, does an establishment policy exist for this new Department of Infrastructure? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Can the Minister's witnesses advise if this is the correct place and, if so, would they answer the question? Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That has made it through Cabinet already. Normally, we would wait until the budget procedure was done and we would bring that to committee, but I can make that commitment to sharing that with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sorry. Did the Minister say he will make that commitment or he has made that commitment? I don't think we have heard it until now. If he could clarify. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I said we can make that commitment to sharing it with the Members as soon as we can.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My concern was that we would be reviewing this in the head of such a policy existing, but I am pleased to know that it does, in fact, exist. That eases my concerns procedurally around this process. I am content with that. As soon as the Minister feels he can share that policy, I am sure we are all happy to look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister, would you like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, I will share it with the Members as soon as tomorrow even. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart. Nothing further from Mr. Testart. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just quickly to the Community Access Program. For many years I have always said that it is a great program for the communities. I hope there is no plan to make any drastic cuts to this department in the future. It would have been nice to see an increase in this. I know there is money going to the small communities, but a lot of the communities actually make use of this fund. It would have been nice to see an increase in this as well as the other funds under ECE, but I know I received the majority of those funds in the future. It would be nice to see an increase in this department as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I can hear what the Members are saying. This line item is one that has been well-used, as long as I have been the Minister here already. As you have seen, this government has put money into the Small Community Fund which we were talking today in the House. I think one of the opportunities we can look at moving forward with Members and other departments is how can we access working together with ECE with the Department of Transportation to make the best use of this money moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. I have Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to add to what I said earlier, and what Mr. Blake had just said about the Community Access Road Program. When the Members from this side of the House talked about the Small Community Employment Program, we certainly were not thinking that this was going to subsidize a Community Access Road Program; completely different type of projects in our minds. To try to now jam all of the requests that we have for around the various departments into the Small Community Access Support Program, it is not something that we support.
This Access Road Program, we are asking this department, whether it be the Department of Transportation or Infrastructure, to add money into this program. Money that is needed. Not labour money or employment money. We need money to operate equipment to be able to work on access roads, traditional areas that the community accesses. This makes it possible for the communities to access really good traditional areas, otherwise, like I indicated earlier, only accessible by small vehicles like maybe four-wheelers or snowmobiles and so on. This year, it gives the community full access to these areas.
I don't want the department to think that Department of Education putting small community employment dollars into the budget solves all of our requests. Not at all. This is a completely separate request, and I'm hoping that all of the departments coming up are not going to the Small Community Employment Program, the one provision that was made by the government for us, and now pile everything onto that program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard what the Member is saying, and my intention is not to pile onto the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to do that. We are holding our line with our budget line right now. As all the Members know, our expenditures are outpacing our revenues, and the reason we are holding our line on our expenditures is due to that fact, and we need to get the government's fiscal house in order.
This is a great fund. What I am saying is, if a community comes forward with a business plan that can create jobs in their communities, this is one way that they can use both funds to access more money to employ people in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Mr. Beaulieu.
We on this side of the House have plans for how difficult it is going to be even to access a Small Community Employment Program under its current rules. We are trying to talk to the government about changing some of the rules so that we can access that program as an employment program, not something where we have made a request somewhere, and if we do not get that request, we are going to take that money and place it in there. This is a separate request.
I think the Minister should keep those requests separately. If this Minister is then going to say, well, this would be a good way for the Small Community Program to leverage something here for employment, well, that is not our intention. We have all kinds of other projects in the communities that need to be done. That money is just barely enough to go around to the 33 communities to get that. Not an opportunity for DOT to then say, oh well, whatever short you are for this road, you can take it out this Small Communities Employment Program. It is not our intention.
The communities that we represent, we have been talking to, they have other plans for this. This is a separate thing. This is where the guys are running equipment. I talked about it earlier in my opening comments. This is something where people learn how to run equipment and things like that. Opportunities for training for them to get other jobs, running equipment, and so on. This is not something that you could use to leverage small community employment dollars with. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, we have our fund. We spend the money in the fund as requested by the communities. We think it is a good program. I made the point that we are not adding any money to this program this year due to our fiscal position that the Northwest Territories is in. I am not saying the fund is any less or any better than the Member, but I believe it is a great fund. All I am saying is, there are other avenues to help leverage this fund to actually bring more possible employment opportunities and projects to the communities of the Northwest Territories, and that is what this government is willing to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and just as firm as the Minister wants to be on not budging off this and saying that he is not putting any extra money into. This side of the House, it is just as firm also. We are asking the government to put the money in. We are aware of the fiscal situation. We are not going into this blind. We know what we are talking about. This money would go, and then it would be well-used. It will be well-leveraged, and it will have benefits to the government. If we start employing a few more people, it will benefit the government. We are taking people off income support. That is benefitting the government. We are taking people out of social housing. That is benefitting the government. Now, when we talked about the strategic spending that we are asking the government to do, this is a part of it. This is not a portion that can get stuck under another program from another department. This is a separate request. I would like the Minister to keep it separate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, we have our money allocated here. We are not willing to put any more money into this due to the fiscal situation the Government of the Northwest Territories is in. The Member has his point; I have my point. We will continue to spend the money that we have in the communities as they come and approach us for their projects. Many of them are very valid. Actually, all of them are valid, and we will continue to spend the money to help create these projects in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
No, Mr. Chair, I do not mind the position the government takes. What I am saying is that this should be something that stands alone. Our requests for the additional $700,000 into this budget as a request into this budget, it is not a request that you can then put under another department. We have our own issues with the other departments, and our request going to other departments. We keep them separate. We keep these issues separate. We are not having discussions with the Minister of Finance in saying, well, if you can combine this, or if you add over here, you can take away from here. All these requests are separate requests. All of these are strategic spending requests by this side. We looked at all of these, and we look at the strategic value to the NWT. We do not look at this and say, well, we can afford to shove this somewhere, or somewhere else; or if we can get this, we could afford to give up on this budget. We are asking the department to put this, and obviously the Minister is not prepared or cannot make that decision, then we will find another way to try to get that decision made. Thank you.
