Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand there is bridge rehabilitation and then if we need a brand-new bridge that would be in capital. I get that this $80 million covers road resurfacing, but if we go to the capital budget, there are a number of existing kind of infrastructure projects related to highways. I was hoping the Minister or her deputy minister could just help me flesh out why some road maintenance ends up in operations and others end up in capital. Ultimately, I'm looking to get a sense of how much we spend maintaining our highways. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask Dr. Dragon to answer this question, thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to let the committee know that, in terms of this, anything above $50,000 that's not included in terms of our capital, we have a very detailed list of all the activities that we have across the North going from all the different highways. It's quite a bit of detail to be able to do here, but more than willing to provide that to the Member because it's two pages of very detailed work on all of the activity that we're doing on all the major highways. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I recognize perhaps the level of detail. I'm looking forward to breaking down this $80 million figure and looking at what is in capital is a bit too much to ask right now. If I could have the department provide it to me? Ultimately, I'm looking to try and get a sense, I know we've done some of this capital planning, but how much we currently spend on road maintenance, whether that is in per mile and what the future looks like for our road maintenance. I know a number of our highways are in really significant need of repair. I don't believe this $80 million comes anywhere close to maintaining them. I guess I just want to get a report, if I could, from the department on how much we spend on road maintenance and what the future of our ability to continue to maintain our highways looks like. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We actually do have an annual report that is available on the website, but I will commit to giving the Member a more fulsome briefing on our highways. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
No further questions, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Are there questions related to regional operations? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I've got a couple of questions about some line items on page 240. Maybe I'll just start with utilities. Back in 2018-2019 there was $38 million for utilities, and now, it's down to $35 million. Can somebody tell me why that bounces around a bit? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The difference in the utilities there is: we've seen the new Stanton Territorial Hospital utilities. It was originally an estimate. We had no other building in the North to compare it to. Now, we have actuals, so that's some of the change. We have $250,000 of marine utilities. We also have a sunsetting, not the right word, but for the Lafferty ferry upgrade, we're spending less there on utilities, now.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. The line before that, travel. I know this is a big department. I guess people are travelling all over the place, but $850,000 for travel. What kind of travel are we talking about there? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There would be travel around to do different types of maintenance, I would imagine, between communities if we have people in regional centres that need to go out to something specific in a smaller community. However, I think that I would like to pass this to Dr. Dragon to just explain more fulsomely why we are travelling so much in the Department of Infrastructure. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In looking at our travel budget, we look at monies that are transferred here. We had a seasonal project officer transfer so transferring that money, that was one, that was for $22,000 in terms of the difference. We also have, from time to time, increased travel due to activities in certain regions. In this case, we had increased travel in the Deh Cho region that had a lot of our teams going into that region based on projects that were identified there. That's it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Okay. I'm just trying to get a sense of this. Is this money for regional staff to travel or is headquarters included in this? Is this related to the maintenance of facilities or, say, if we have a capital project and someone needs to go out and check to see what is happening, travel related to that? Does that come out of this project? What does it really cover? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There would be definitely lots of different types of travel involved. I think I will go to Mr. Brennan for a more fulsome response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Some of the travel line item here would be for all of the regional staff for operation maintenance purposes. It includes building maintenance, highway maintenance, those types of work, and would not include any capital expenditures. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan. I'll move on to Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at contract services under the expenditure category of regional operations. I'm wondering if the Minister can give us an idea of what type of contracts would come out of this for a main estimate type budget for regional operations? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The contract services include things like leases and maintenance for the long-term care facility, Highway No. 8 maintenance, the seasoned project officer transfer that was already referred to. The Wek'eezhii land use planning office, the Norman Wells Health Centre maintenance. Highway No. 8 maintenance, we've seen some decreases there. We've seen a decrease in the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway operations and maintenance as well as a decrease in marine maintenance. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just looking at this line item and the substantial value of $66 million, I'm wondering how much of that ends up going to northern companies and staying in the North when we're hiring people to either do that maintenance or we're paying companies for office leases and such. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have that percentage in front of me. I will check with my team to see if they do have that. Dr. Dragon does indicate he does. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year the GNWT awarded 45 contracts valued at $95 million for construction and maintenance and A and E services. Of those, 87 percent were to northern businesses. One of the things that we're looking into right now in the discussions around procurement and the procurement review is: how do we publish those numbers effectively to make sure that we are looking at northern businesses, but also what do we do with our BIP clients and being able to see metrics so we're able to effectively look at all the different parts of contracts and where are they coming from. Are they coming from the North? Are we having southern companies? Some of the things that we're looking at right now. Again, for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, we're looking at about 87 percent of those contracts going to northern businesses. Six of those contracts or 13 percent were awarded to southern firms. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much. I think I'm crossing over to my same line of questioning as last time now, so I'm going to be careful. We talked last time about whether 87 percent went to northern companies, but did 87 percent actually end up staying in the North and benefiting northern workers? I just want to reiterate that that's my concern with that one. The definition of a northern company is a concern. Also, what is actually the benefit retention to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As we all stated, this is a priority to have this become a more meaningful use of our procurement dollars to retain them in the North, so that is part of the focus and what I have directed the department to do. We are going to be coming back to the AOC with a procurement presentation and the conversation around the plans going forward for input on how we can do procurement better. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to start off with the ferries. Most of the ferries are up there in age, and I know that we're spending money to keep them up to standards. I'm just wondering if the department is looking at, just on a cost basis, if it's worth to continue doing repairs and trying to keep them up to standard for Transport Canada, or are we going to be looking at possibly building new ones for the ferry system? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As any department would have, we do have a preventative maintenance program, an asset program, where we would be looking at items like the ferries and others to determine if they are near the end of their useful life, and whether or not replacement would make sense than continuing to retrofit. Currently, we're going to be applying for funding under our low carbon energy efficiency fund. I think I've got that right, but the LCEF, and we'll be looking for our money there to work on our ferries and potentially purchase new ones. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to move over here to marine operations, which I'm not sure if MTS is part of that. Anyways, what I'd like to comment on here is: in Hay River, a good portion of the operation is there. The facility is there, and ships are there. One of the problems we run into is the access out of the harbour. I'm wondering if there is any consideration given by the department to take a look at possibly dredging that harbour to reduce any cost associated with damage to the vessels because I know that this spring, I think MTS set one, there's one boat that start sailing out of the harbour. I wasn't sure if the department was trying to save money because it was unmanned, but they were able to bring it back. If it wasn't for the sandbars out there, it might have gone out a little further. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That does not include MTS. It's its own revolving fund, so that is the ferries. We do have an application in under the Oceans Protection Plan to dredge the harbour, so we're waiting for a word back from the federal government if we were successful in that funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
