Thank you, Minister McLeod. You may take your seat with your witnesses, and let the record show that Mr. Stewart and Mr. Kalgutkar are still at the witness table with the Minister. I will open the floor to general comments. Any general comments from committee on the infrastructure supplementals? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the carryover from last year is, if I get this right, $126 million. How does that compare with previous years and is there any overall explanation there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will go back to 2014-2015. The carryover was $60,623,000. It actually went up in 2015-2016 to $137,521,000 million, and that was a result of a lot of the federal money that we had that added to that. 2016-2017 was $126 million as the Member mentioned, so the federal money is the one that we have been working with that has brought up our carryovers a bit, but before that the numbers were fairly consistent in around $60 to $65 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister. Just so I understand this, the issue is the federal money is not flowing perhaps as smoothly as we would like. Is that a problem of them getting money out the door? Is it a problem of us invoicing? Any sort of overall conclusion there would be helpful to know. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with such an influx of capital money, a number of things may have contributed to this; the timing of getting the contracts out there, maybe the capacity in some of the areas of the Northwest Territories to get the projects done, and so there are a number of contributing factors to this, in fact that we had fairly significant capital budget as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. O'Reilly. Seeing no further general comments, we can begin consideration of the details. Please turn to page 6. We will begin with Education, Culture and Employment. Comments? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I understand that a Sissons Study did a planning study of JH Sissons School and was completed approximately five years ago, so what is the durability of a planning study? How long is the information good for? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. There was a planning study that was done five years ago. This was to update the study that was done, and my understanding is that there was not really too much that had changed in the initial planning study, but this was more or less just to update the strategy that was already done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is a lot of money for a simple update. I am wondering if the Minister could allocate $100,000 of that amount to a family violence survey. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Outside the scope of this document, but I will let the Minister respond.
No, Mr. Chair, I will not. We have significant funding that is earmarked towards those particular initiatives, and this is one that the work needed to be done to update the study. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Nothing further for Ms. Green. Seeing nothing further, I will call this page. Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018. Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $261,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. On to page 7, Health and Social Services. Comments or questions? On page 7, Health and Social Services. Seeing none, I will call the page. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $40,000?
Agreed.
Thank you. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, community health programs, not previously authorized, $50,000?
Agreed.
Thank you. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $90,000?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to page 8. Municipal and Community Affairs. Comments or questions? I see none. I will call this page. Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, community operations, not previously authorized, $957,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Municipal and Community Affairs, operations and expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $957,000?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Moving on to page 9, Legislative Assembly. I see no comments or questions. I will call the page. Legislative Assembly, capital investment expenditures, Office of the Clerk, not previously authorized, $14,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Legislative Assembly, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $14,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. On to page 10, Education, Culture and Employment. I will give committee a moment. Any questions? Seeing none, I will begin calling this page. Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $3,242,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $2,634,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $5,876,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. On to page 11, Environment and Natural Resources. Comments or questions from committee? I see no comments or questions. I will call the page. Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $31,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $1,179,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I didn't catch you there. I just have a question under forest management under Fort McPherson, Schiltee Lookout Tower Upgrade. From what I understand, the plan was to move the location of where the department was planning to put it. I would just like to verify that, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the information we have is the contract has been awarded but there was an environmental issue holding up the project. That could be it. I do not know that for sure, but I can find out. It must wait until spring of 2017 to continue the project, which is like right now. But the environmental issue, I will have to find out exactly what that is and let you know, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. I will call the section. Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $1,179,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, wildlife, not previously authorized, $6,286,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
