Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a survey authorized by both myself and Mr. Testart. This survey is called Your Health Care Patient Experience in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Colleagues, I have been advised that there was a motion for tabled item number 13. My mistake, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Oversight, Mr. Speaker, not a mistake. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member from Range Lake, that Committee Report 15-20(1), Report on Committee's Statement on the Housing and Health Care Crises in the Northwest Territories, be received by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? Motion has been carried and has been received and adopted by this Assembly.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024, I will present Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Notices of motion for the first reading of bills. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024, I will present Bill 12, Business Day Statute Law Amendment Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What is the wish of committee? The Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee would like to consider Tabled Document Capital Estimates 2024-2025, Department of Finance and Department of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. Okay, we will start after a short eight-minute break. Mahsi.
Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 193-20(1), Capital Estimates 2025-2026. Does the Minister of Finance have any opening remarks?
No, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Thank you, Minister. We have agreed to begin with the general comments on the capital estimates. Does any Member wish to make any general comments before we consider the tabled documents in detail? Seeing none. Thank you, Members.
No further general comments, we will proceed to the details of the tabled documents beginning with Department of Finance. Does the Minister wish to bring witnesses into the chamber?
Yes, please, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce the witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my left I have Bill MacKay, the deputy minister of Finance. And on my right, Dave Heffernan, the government's chief information officer.
The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Is the committee agreed to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Agreed. Committee, the Department of Finance begins on page 33. We will defer the department totals and review the estimates by activity summary beginning on page 35 with the chief information officer, with information item on page 36. Are there any questions? Mr. Morse, please go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a general question, and I figured now is as good of a time as any to ask it. So, you know, Members are provided in advance, you know, some pretty substantial project substantiation for all of these kinds of items. And my first question that came up when I was looking at those is why are the kind of more detailed substantiations not shared publicly? It seems like information that is not -- I mean, I can understand that specific numbers might need to be taken out for contract reasons, but is there a reason why the substantiations can't be made public? Because I personally can't see one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Morse. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the materials -- I mean, the information that we're providing in general wouldn't have the procurement detail in it. So the procurement detail traditionally, and across a lot of different governments, not only ours, they don't want to put the number to which then bidders would simply bid to to meet that budget. But, you know, again, I -- if there's information that we're speaking to here, it typically wouldn't be considered confidential. If the question is about making our budget documents bigger, then I can certainly take that back and have a look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Morse.
Thank you. Yeah, I guess to get into some more specific questions, I would encourage the Minister -- I mean, I prefer making information public as much as possible. It helps the public do their own scrutiny. Even if they don't read it, the information's out there. And I think that substantiations are important for helping them understand why Members may make the decisions the way they make, why Members may not oppose projects, but it's a little bit hard to say when all you have is the name of the project and nothing more to go on. So I would always encourage transparency where possible and when there isn't really a good reason not to be transparent. And I can just say for the substantiations that I've been able to see for all of these projects, there's nothing in there that need to be confidential. It's all this is why the government's spending this money. And I dare even say the substantiations are quite good.
So to get into a specific question, on the NWT courts modernization part, I note -- well, actually -- sorry, Mr. Chair. This is exactly what I -- this is the problem I'm talking about. I was about to start asking questions about the substantiation and I'm now just realizing, of course, that substantiation is confidential. So I got to find a way to ask the question what the substantiation is. So can I get a description of the substantiation of the NWT courts modernization, please, before I ask questions about it. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Morse. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And -- doesn't help. Mr. Chair, I was -- I'm looking at a blank page. Can I turn that to the deputy minister, please.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister McKay.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So the substantiation for this project is to replace the aging EOL courts management system, so that's called FACTS, and that manages day-to-day operations but it's -- it's fairly old and needs to be replaced so we need to modernize it with an electronic system that will allow for efiling and digitizing of court-related paperwork. So it'll basically modernize and make the system more user friendly. Thank you.
Thank you, deputy minister McKay. We'll go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Mr. Chair. And, yeah, if I could get a bit elaboration. The part that I was kind of interested in is alignment with government priorities. So is there substantiation speaking to that specific item? Thanks.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is. And I appreciate the question it doesn't necessarily line up from the title of the project what it is. But by having a modernization project of this nature, we're actually being -- making it easier for residents to access government services. It provides the ability to make services more accessible to all residents across the entire territory. It helps us decentralize those services, gives an opportunity to greater decentralize the services but also greater decentralize potentially positions associated with those services. These are obviously economic drivers. They are also obviously public safety drivers. And certainly to the extent that the justice system needs to conduct itself quickly and efficiently and in a manner that is in best keeping with best practices, that is definitely a core function of ensuring the justice system which is functioning at its best which is certainly a safety element. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Wawzonek. Member from Frame Lake.
That's it for this round. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member from Frame Lake. Any further questions? The Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I'm just scrolling furiously and possibly not getting somewhere where I want to get to fast enough. However could I get a substantiation for the technology service centre infrastructure ever greening, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member from Great Slave. Minister Wawzonek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is simply an amount that allows us to ensure that the existing infrastructure that we have -- technological infrastructure we have remains current. There are a number of assets that come due for support and that are -- whether that's servers, the networks, storage, telecommunications, all of which, I think -- you know, I don't want to presuppose or assume, but technology changes very quickly. It changes quickly on a government scale as well and so this provides us the ability to maintain some currency within that space by using this project budget. Thank you.
