Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to ask Ms. Lee to speak to that.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the fuel services line within the programs and services. Again, the fuel service division is actually an operating revolving fund. So what you see here is actually the amortization for the fuel service assets as they are a revolving fund that does not have the ability to own capital. So in terms of a supplementary for the air lift, there would be discussion on potential requests if there is that need to go to the revolving fund itself in order to ensure that it does not result in increased additional increased costs because of that matter. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from Members? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you. You know, I think we started the DIIMS project about a decade ago. Can I just confirm if everybody is now on DIIMS? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we have almost everybody. We're not quite there yet. We still have colleagues and friends over at Education, Culture and Employment as well as Health and Social Services. So I mean, we are getting there. We are working in different parts. We've been piloting a little part of one of the departments in health to see how that works. But, I mean, that is the intent to get everybody into one system and I thank the Member for, you know, his question because I think that's important information to get out there. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you. Can we perhaps well, can we get an update when we think we can get ECE and health on DIIMS? And I think perhaps if I my understanding of the situation is that there's parts of them that will probably never get on DIIMS. You know, health is going out to get brand new health records software that I think is 10 million plus dollars, and ECE has been trying to get student records software that it's not that much, but it's millions of dollars as well. They just have unique records that, you know, need their own software that's not DIIMS. But the rest of the kind of operational parts of the department probably can get on is why I think they got blocked is my understanding. So a) can someone just confirm that's kind of why those departments are last; and b) when we actually think they'll get on DIIMS? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the Education, Culture and Employment is planning deployment in 2023, so within this year, for four more divisions. We will work with them to see what additional supports that they may need to perhaps add on some of the other divisions.
As I mentioned, Health and Social Services has two divisions that could go forward but we'll need to see how else we can support them in migrating other into other units to be able to get this all transferred.
I'm not aware that the Member mentioned that perhaps some of the the whole of Education, Culture and Employment can't get in within DIIMS. I'm not aware of that. But, I mean, we as a Department of Infrastructure will provide supports to the departments to ensure that if they need if they need any help going forward that we support that. End of the day, that's what we want, is everyone to be on DIIMS. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can maybe this is in the weeds but I or, you know, somewhere and perhaps we can update it, I'm sure there's some sort of DIIMS work plan. Can someone just tell me when the license for the software for DIIMS goes to? One of my great fears is that we're going to get everyone on and then every once in a while we get these notices from Microsoft or someone saying oh, we're not renewing this software, and we're going to have to restart with a whole new information management system. Are we confident that when we're done all this that we have a license for this software for well, at least a decade or something? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at this time we're not getting notifications as to this situation. Perhaps I hope we don't because, I mean, it does take a lot of time to get to get everybody on board with this. And, you know, if we get everyone on board and then we get notification, that's a lot of work and a lot of time, a lot of money that's being put into getting everybody on board. So, you know, my hope is that this doesn't happen. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions on programs and services from Members? Seeing none. Infrastructure, programs and services, operations expenditure summary, 20232024 Main Estimates, $17,836,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Minister, did you need to switch your witnesses?
Sergeantatarms, please switch the witnesses. Minister, will you please introduce your witness.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Connie to my right is still here but to my left I have my assistant deputy minister Gary Brennan for regional operations. Thank you.
Welcome, Mr. Brennan. All right. So Members, regional operations, beginning on page 274 with information items on page 275. Questions. Seeing oh, just about. Member for Thebacha.
So, Madam Chair, she thought I was not going to ask any questions. I just have a very short question. One of them is filling the vacancies, the job vacancies at highways and the airports.
You know, I know it's a it's a real concern for me how long it takes to fill a vacancy. And these are like, I'm just as an example, are the heavy duty mechanic positions at the airport in Fort Smith and at the highways, I want to make sure that they're filled as soon as possible because those are very vital infrastructure that we or personnel that we need to ensure that safety and everything continues as usual. And I know both positions are open and they're not you know, we lost one person who looked after two of them, and it was a major problem but he went with a different division in government. And so I'm just concerned about the vacancies in positions. I wonder if I can have the Minister answer that question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's always our intent to have, when we have vacancies to get them filled for several reasons, because it puts extra stress on some of the other staff that's having to do the job. And so, I mean, it is something that we're looking at. I do want to give Mr. Brennan an opportunity to just speak specifically about what's going on in the Member's area. Thanks.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so the Member is correct. There are a couple vacancies of our mechanics in Fort Smith right now so our mechanic at the Highway's Camp, which was doing work at both the airport and the camp for quite a while, recently left the department unfortunately. So we are in the process of reevaluating that position so it has to go through a job evaluation process at which point in time it'll be advertised. I think we've recently advertised for the airport mechanic as well. So both of those are in process. I can't give the timeline when they'll be filled, but it is in process currently. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
No, I don't have any other questions, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from Members under regional operations? Member for Monfwi.
Yes. This winter road, 6.2. So I just wanted to ask how many roads does it cover?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. So the you know, the Member's speaking more specifically, I believe, around the Tlicho road system. So the winter road includes a winter road from Highway No. 9, which is the new Tlicho Highway to Gameti, which is about 151 kilometres, and then you're going to over to Wekweeti which is about 243 kilometres. Also, we have the one to Aklavik which is about 129 kilometres. So yes, we do I don't have any more further details other than those are the three I could just speak to on the top of my mind.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. No, I was just asking in general, not just Tlicho specific. You know, I was just asking in general. But I know that winter road to Gameti was opened late and same thing with Wekweeti, it's going to be opened late. And I know there's a lot of people that are concerned about the climate change. And, you know, because of that that ice road, they're opening late and it's going to be, you know, like a short season for the ice road. So I'm just wondering now that it's because a lot of people are saying, you know, like, especially the elders, they you know, even to Wekweeti, there's big lakes that you have to go on. And same thing with Gameti too, you know, there's at least three big lakes. So they are very concerned. So they were asking that, you know, maybe to change the route from you know, to go more on land. So I'm just wondering if there was if there was any study done from the department to possibly change the route for next year? And like I said before, with one of the mine closing, we're going to have a lot of people with class 1 and class 3, and then they're going to be looking for employment. So I'm just wondering if there's any study done to possibly change the route for the winter road?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do want to go back to the Member's previous question. We have about 2,438 kilometres of allseason highways; about 1,227 are paved; we have about 1,211 that are gravel here in the territories. We have 1,435 kilometres of public winter and ice roads that connects all our communities overall in general.
Now I'm going to answer the Member's question more specifically about Gameti.
Yes, the road was opened to light traffic to only about 10,000 kilograms on February 27th, which is quite late. Madam Chair, we've been seeing a lot of our communities connecting, you know, wanting to get goods into the communities and we just it's a matter of safety. We have to ensure that our roads are safe for people to travel on. I just I can't say that enough. And until the roads are safe in profile, only at that time we're able to ensure that we get the right traffic loads on the road. So that is that is what we're trying to work on now. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Yes, okay. With that in mind, so with the climate change, is there a plan to increase engineer and safety inspection on the winter road, including profiling more often?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to use one example for Aklavik. We've had the contractors reach out to the department wanting to increase the weight loads on the Aklavik ice road, and we sent our profilers out. You know, we try and you know, the profilers are on a schedule but if the community and the contractor feels that, you know, it's ready, then we would send our profiler out. That was one example. And if I want to, just see if Gary wants or Mr. Brennan wants to perhaps expand on that. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, for the Tlicho winter road system, I don't believe that the number of inspections or number of profiles is the issue right now. We do profile on a regular basis as required. It has been a challenging year as the Member noted but, you know, warm temperatures to start and increased snowfall in the region. We're aware there's we're behind schedule, working with the contractor closely to make it up. Our two highway folks are up there right now. Just one profiled Gameti two days ago and working on Wekweeti right now to get the status updates. So we do profile on a regular basis on those there to increase the weighs as fast as we safely can. But as the Minister noted, safety is the top priority for us when working on ice roads for both the staff and travelling public. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Yeah, thank you. And I'm just wondering if there's a way that I'm just wondering if Tlicho if how are Tlicho involved in the profiling? Is there an opportunity to train local people?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to ask Mr. Brennan to just speak a little bit more about what we as a government are doing, because we have that partnership with Tlicho, and I just would like to give him the opportunity. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so when it comes to profiling, a number of years ago we had an incident on a different road where a truck went through the ice and at that time, I think it was 2016, the department made the change in policies whereby we do our own profiling and do our own interpretation. So we have had that in the past. Currently, due to some liabilities incurred from a previous incident, we do all profiling and interpretation of the data. Could we look at training Tlicho residents in the future? That's something that we can certainly discuss, absolutely. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify, this year the winter road to the Monfwi area to Gameti and such is actually being constructed by the Tlicho themselves, is it not? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that is correct.
