Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it was hard enough to get just one, let alone five in each of the regions. But I mean, we recognize that this is safety. They are responsible for the department's occupational health safety, which includes all the national standards for various occupations that is throughout the departments. So at this time, we're just, you know, recognizing that we need to expand and I'm just happy that we were able to get one. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't really have much more to say, but I just wanted to say that I note TSC is here and I wanted to apologize to them for blaming them for my tablet problem during my statement last week. So they've been great and helped me a lot. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I need them to help me unlock my phone. Are there any further questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that the TSC is here, and I believe there are a couple of initiatives to increase the bandwidth and internet speed across the territory. I guess can I get an update on that work? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The digital communication networks, the DNC contract. With that, we have schools across the Northwest Territories will have internet provided through this. It will be especially beneficial in smaller terrestrial communities where the schools will now have at least one to three times improved access rates with no overage costs. So our regional centres in satellite communities will see minimal improvements. Currently, however, it is expected that Northwestel rolls out new services so we can leverage those improvements as part of our contract. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister just explain to me where that money is found in the budget? Was that already in the capital budget or is that coming forward in a SUP? I'm assuming that that expansion and that contract are not in the $2 million I see here for TSC. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I don't believe I answered the Member's question before, but after after I said, I was like hey, I know the answer. But let's move on to the next one. I'll try to be as quick as I can.
TSC operates a charge back. So I mean, that has not been done in the past. The Department of Infrastructure in the past has always assumed these costs, and I think we just got approval to be able to ensure that departments cover their costs for chargebacks. If I can, Madam Chair, if Mr. Brennan wants to add anything further. Thanks.
Thank you. ADM Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so while the TSC is under the program for services and terms of maintenance and if there's actually an information item near the end of the line of where the TSC budget is, and the Minister is absolutely correct, it is a chargeback model whereby all the users, basically the departments, pay certain proportion based on their usages. And the DCN is covered under the chargeback model. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess from my perspective, I don't really care whether a department pays Infrastructure for it back. Can I just get a how much that DCN contract costs? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to get Mr. Brennan to speak a little bit more about the cost for that. Thank you.
Thank you. ADM Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't actually have the cost of the entire contract but the increase this year for the new DCM work is $3.9 million. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair, can I just get a bit of an update on how whether we expect this to improve internet in schools in Yellowknife? We met with a number of the school boards, and they said during the switch to online learning that at certain times it just became impossible, and they were well past, you know, any of the bandwidth that TCS was providing them. Do we expect that this improvement will allow online learning to, you know, be a bit more feasible in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to note, you know, TSC manages all GNWT cell phones. The department does not have any direct conversation with Northwestel, Bell Mobility, regarding any of the wider coverage of cell phone or internet that is accessed here in the Northwest Territories. This project would need to be accessed by Department of Finance. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe I just have to step back because I don't understand fully. I see that TSC collects $32 million a year in chargebacks. So we spend $32 million a year providing itself internet through the TSC. I heard that we're spending a couple three more million to improve that network. And I guess my question is I don't care what Northwestel is doing. I care what we are doing to our infrastructure. Do we believe with that additional money that the internet that the school system gets will be improved and capable of online learning following this? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we continue to work with our partners at Education, Culture and Employment to be able to understand what are some of the issues within the boards and be able to look at options so that we could better manage capacity. So I mean, that's that's where we're at now, and I'm going to see if Mr. Brennan can add anything further. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so adding to what the Minister said, we are trying to figure out the issue in Yellowknife because we actually doubled the bandwidth in September however there still seem to be some challenges for them but I'm not quite sure if it's a TSC issue or a school issue. We do have the ability to go up as high as five gigabytes. It's at two at the schools in the Yellowknife. But currently, they're not using their two megabytes. So we're trying to understand where that issue is right now. And if it is a TSC issue, we have the capacity to flip the switch to go a little bit higher. But right now, they're not at the capacity that we're currently providing them. So it could and we don't and we're not in charge of what infrastructures they install in the schools, which may be limiting something as well, so. But we're working with them to try to figure that out. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And I sorry, I think the Minister said that I may have to ask Finance this question, and forgive me if I am slightly confused how this all works. Like I said, we're charging back $32 million to ourselves as a GNWT here. I get that TSC has about $10 million in staff, but some of them has 20 million remaining. How much of that would be going to Northwestel? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's very technical. I mean for us to just pop a number off on how much we're giving to Northwestel would take some time. So I'm going to ask the Member if we can get back to him. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, and I guess perhaps I would also like the Minister to clarify if I have a misunderstanding here. I know TSC kind of operates on this model of charging departments for the service provide, and it may not in fact be a true cost to the GNWT. So perhaps in coming back, the Minister could also clarify a bit about the TSC and what this $30 million means. Does that mean we are actually spending $30 million? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to see if Mr. Brennan can provide further clarification and perhaps a little more detail on the confusion the Member's having. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think in answer to the Member's question is yes, we are spending $32 million. We're spending $10 million on salary, we're spending $20 million on hardware and software, and somewhere in there is a bill to Northwestel. I'm not quite sure how much that is. We have various contracts in place, you know, fees and payments that we have licences, those types of things that we're paying. But yes, in answer to the Member's question, we are spending $32 million this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. So I'm looking at page 253, and I see that there's a couple of new positions that have been added to this activity, and I'm just hoping that the Minister can tell me what those two positions are and where they're located? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The departmental changes for the two for 20222023 is a highways transportation officer to ensure that we have highway compliance and safety and as well as the occupational health and safety specialist to ensure that we have compliance with regulatory as well as legislative and policy requirements. One is located in Yellowknife. The other one is in Hay River. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. So maybe I'll just start with the occupational health and safety position.
Look, I love Hay River, but why is the position located in Hay River? Are there existing occupational health and safety positions throughout Department of Infrastructure in all the other regions? Why Hay River here? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister for infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The decision I mean, when we look at increasing positions in the regions and here in the Northwest Territories, we try and ensure that we do, you know to be able to look at things equally by region and perhaps a decision was I'm going to see if my deputy minister, Mr. Loutitt, can add more to that.
Thank you. Deputy minister Loutitt.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We made that decision based on the fact that we do have an occupational health and safety specialist up in the Beaufort Delta in Inuvik, and we also have one in Yellowknife, so it made sense to have one south of the lake.
As the Member for I can't remember which riding, sorry, noted earlier, we would like to get occupational and safety specialists in every region. We recognize that we do perform activities that need that type of oversight. Thank you, Madam Chair.
