Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows, I am on the transition committee. We will see how this transition committee makes out compared to the last one. We can probably put a lot of recommendations in there, but that is just a recommendation at that point. The Member has made some good points around the small employment fund. I think, in retrospect, if we would have redirected that increase to this CAP program, depending on the way the small community fund is going to be rolled out here, the success of it, we might have been a little bit better off spending some of that money in this pot, but that is up to Regular Members to decide and push for, where they want to see some of that money going. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I mentioned, I have a couple of outstanding proposals for this fund here, so will the Minister ensure that those projects are taken care of? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I imagine there are other Members in this Legislative Assembly whose communities are waiting to hear back on their funding. We are close to the end of the year on this thing. This fund is almost tapped right out, but I can certainly look into which outstanding applications the Member has in his riding and get back to him where those applications are at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Anything further, Mr. Blake? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In considering the exchange that just occurred between my honourable colleagues, I just wanted to remind everyone that this budget is not yet approved, so, if Members are asking for things that are not in here, that should be fair game and not be put off onto a future potential government. My question for the department is just clarification on the strategic infrastructure line. I too am concerned with carry-overs. That is a matter that has come up. I see a substantial increase from the revised estimates, in strategic infrastructure. If the Minister could just explain what that funding will be used for, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Mr. Guy.
[Microphone turned off]
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess there are two or maybe three key areas the strategic infrastructure division will be focused on. The first part will be advancing those strategic initiatives of the department, things like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Slave Geological Province Access Corridor. Currently, where we have that significant amount of funding, it was announced this fiscal year for the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Great Bear River bridge. The focus of the strategic infrastructure division is to get that project and aspects of that project through the regulatory, environmental, and permitting stages and to complete all the community consultation work that needs to be done to advance those to a point where we can make a construction decision. So they will be focused on that work as well as the application for federal funding and the Slave Geological Province, completing those. Those are very onerous, large applications. There is a lot of work to do to get those done, so they will be working on that, as well, and other strategic initiatives like that.
Finally, there is a significant amount of reporting and monitoring associated with all aspects of the federal infrastructure funding, whether it's the Low Carbon Economy Fund or whether it's the Oceans Protection Plan or whether it's the Investing in Canada plan. There is a significant amount of detailed regular reporting and work that needs to be done to be compliant with the funding agreements we get from the federal government to access that funding, so their role will be to make sure all that work gets done and provided to the federal government in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Will this also include the Taltson expansion project? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
This will remain to be seen. It depends on the O and M on this project and federal funding going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, so we are really talking about the strategic infrastructure applications that we have in place? That is the primary focus of this division? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Yes, that is correct, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
How many positions are in this division and does this money support? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, in this budget, there are four positions identified. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. Are all of these positions staffed? Are these people ready to go? Are we going to have to take time to put those people in place? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have completed the design work. We have completed the job descriptions. We have had the jobs evaluated. Some of the positions are out for staffing now. Some have been interim staff through transfer assignments.
The work on staffing is well under way, and we don't anticipate any delay. We are working on advancing some of those projects. We have engagement meetings next week on the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project. That is being done by some of those positions that we have in place here today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. Just to be clear, because this new appropriation to support the division hasn't been approved, where are the resources for the people doing the work under what has been proposed? Where are those resources coming from, as they have not yet been approved? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those positions that we have in place are being funded through the Invest in Canada Plan. We are allowed to use some of that funding towards the resources that we need to implement the projects, so federal infrastructure funding is paying for those positions right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. Nothing further on that. I did have more of a policy question around the concerns that Members and the standing committee have raised around prompt payment and whether or not any of part of this budget is allocated to developing prompt payment policies or prompt payment legislation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. I point out that procurement is later on, but I will allow this. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no specific funding around prompt payment. All of the work that we are doing on procurement procedures and procurement policies, supporting the Department of Finance on the procurement procedures manual, any of that work is funded through a different activity in this budget. It is part of our base appropriation in the procurement shared services, and any of the work that we do around procurement is under there. There is no funding in here to develop legislation at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. This line of policy planning and communication, I am assuming that is where the department houses its policy analysts and the people who would undertake policy development and legislative development. Am I incorrect in that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct. Under corporate management, our Policy Division has the responsibility for developing all of our legislation work on the Highways Act, Motor Vehicles Act, and any of our other legislative initiatives, but currently there is no work going on or planned in that division around prompt payment. We would be waiting for the outcome of any work that happens at the cross-jurisdictional level, at the federal level, and the findings of the Procurement Procedures Working Group that is working on the matter right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
I will follow up on the work of the procurement group when we get to that activity. Thank you. Nothing further.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Anything further from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up on some of the questions by my colleague, the MLA for Yellowknife North, on carryovers.
In the business plan that is posted to the Department of Finance website, 2017-2018, almost 50 percent of the capital infrastructure projects managed by Infrastructure were carried over. I did hear the discussion about trying to better manage this issue into the future, but is there actually a formal tracking system that the department now has in place to track carryovers? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The information that I have is that, in 2018-2019, our client-managed capital carryovers was approximately 37 percent of the total GNWT Infrastructure carryover for 2018-2019. We have been doing a lot of work to improve on those results. I spoke to a lot of those details.
On the client-managed capital, which I believe the question was about, yes, we track each and every project. At the project management level, we have a tracking system in place. They are discussed regularly at the regional operations level, and at the regional project management level, progress on each project is tracked and monitored on a regular basis. We have an internal tracking system in place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am glad to hear that there is a client-based project tracking system. I take it by that, then, it is individual projects where Infrastructure is managing these projects for other departments. Is that rolled up in some way across the whole government, and does it include the infrastructure projects that the department itself is undertaking? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We also track the ones that we deliver on behalf of our own department, particularly on the roads and the highways projects that are tracked within the Transportation Division. They keep track of that there, and it is rolled up through asset management. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
