She was referring it to the (audio).
I'll go back to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Minister noted, it is a risk management approach. Things that are of immediate risk are dealt with immediately through the operations and maintenance fund. If it's not an immediate risk, then maybe it's something that's dealt with through the deferred maintenance project. We have building condition assessment of every building that's done on a rotating five-year basis, and it looks at every single system of every single asset that we have. So through that system, we're able to see, you know, which risks can we manage with different tools in our tool belt. So this is one of the tools in our tool belt.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I know that I'll just be continuing to learn about the capital planning process and, you know, certainly my concern is that we ensure that we are able to address all of the most severe most urgent life safety issues and we don't have projects competing with each other that are all at that level, and that we also have enough money to ensure that we're taking care of our assets and preventing sort of disasters or breakdowns or life safety issues down the road. So I'll just continue to have this on my mind but keep learning about the process. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll just make a reference to the sweeper designated there for Norman Wells as part of the asset upgrade. That particular unit was brought to my attention several times there. Being so old, it was getting difficult to get replacement parts. But this -- my question to the Minister is this whole area of asset management and positioning, particularly positioning your fuel supply tanks, one of the things that we have learned in our discussion during the wildfires in Fort Good Hope was positioning fuel supply or storage in designated communities. Has this been discussed, this part of the asset management and acquisition of new tanks and positioning in different communities in case there's a fire in Deline or one in Good Hope again so that there's sufficient inventory to support our aircrafts with the Department of ECC? Thank you there, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, I'm glad to acknowledge the one item there that -- under asset management that is looking for a replacement. I would note there is quite a bit of work actually happening in this space of improving our fuel services in terms of the storage and the access. In fact, it's a pretty significant overhaul. Mr. Chair, it does happen to fall under programs and services section, so I certainly can speak to it now but -- or could come back to when we hit that section. I'm in the Chair's hands.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
I've got nothing further there, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just a really basic question to start. The capital asset retrofit fund, there's two lines here, TCA and DM. Could the Minister explain to me what the difference is, please. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are the different funds from which they are -- to which they are allotted. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, sorry, I'm a newbie too. Would the Minister be willing to give a substantiation of this project? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me see if -- oh, you know what, somebody has it in front of them. May I direct it to assistant deputy minister MacKay.
Thank you. I'll go to the ADM.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The aim of the capital asset retrofit fund is to deliver energy efficiency projects for GNWT facilities in order to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, reduce our energy use, and reduce our operating costs. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from the Great Slave.
Thank you. And I assume this is across the whole of the GNWT, but could the Minister please tell me what communities, what facilities, this will apply to in this go-around for this capital asset retrofit fund? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me see if I can kind a list (audio). I think everyone is -- the work plan for 2025-2026, Mr. Chair, we have a -- there are some items that are in Gameti, the school, then Gameti has some upgrading. Yellowknife is getting upgrading to the Tatsaoti'ne building, a district heating system. Fort McPherson, Chief Julius School, heat recovery optimization. Sachs Harbour's school is getting heating upgrades. There's some funding allotted for LED lighting upgrades in both fthe Sahtu and South Slave that's yet to be completely finalized. Deh Cho, Fort Simpson, again lighting upgrades. Wrigley, Chief Julian Yendo School lighting upgrades. And then some O and M money set aside to support the LED projects that I've just been describing. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And can the Minister speak more to why some of the projects in some of the communities or facilities have not yet been defined; why are we asking for money for projects that aren't yet defined? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is one of the areas where there's a funding pot that is in existence, and it remains there at all times even when perhaps projects are not yet defined. So it's an effort to ensure that we're distributing those funds equitably across different regions but at the same time trying to identify projects that are able to move ahead in any one particular year. So the projects that we have now been identified and scoped and are more ready to go, there's others that we're certainly, you know, again hoping to get that money out the door and just wanting to keep some held back so that it can be accessible to different regions when or if a project gets identified. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank, Mr. Chair. So I can appreciate that answer, but if we haven't decided by the time that we're in this House I just -- I don't understand why we would assign money to a hope. Wouldn't we want to come back the next year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are fairly small-scale projects. For example, some of the projects I was describing are under $100,000 or sitting at around $250,000, and for lighting, it's not -- those aren't necessarily projects that are, you know, significant. Heating upgrades, similarly $100,000. So my point with that simply being that while we don't necessarily have everything lined up at this point early on, this is for the 2025-2026 season which does provide a fair bit of time and a fair bit of room to still maneuver, so there will be some money that could lapse certainly but at the same time not -- yes, I mean, wanting to have a little bit of flexibility. Again, the projects themselves, we're talking about LED bulbs and biomass boilers, but particularly the LED bulbs, it is expected that the money can be spent. I can certainly look back and confirm to what extent this set pot does get spent every year versus not. I'm happy to do that.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, if the Minister could provide some information to committee on that, that would be greatly appreciated. And, yeah, I don't know if I agree with her characterization that these are small amounts of money, especially when we're looking for every little bit of money we can. So I'll just leave that as a comment. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you. For Dehk'e, Frank Channel bridge, it says estimated completion date 2027-2028. So when is the actual construction going to start for the Frank Channel bridge? I know the last time they said it was going to be last fiscal year. It didn't happen. So now when is the actual -- is there a timeframe for when the construction's going to begin for this project? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project certainly was -- did get to -- or was delayed over the last short while. I can say that at this point there's been some positive developments that at this point we are working with the Tlicho-Kiewit partnership, and it is expected that there's going to be a start-up project -- start-up discussions have already begun. This -- for this year, this concurrent year, there's a production of aggregate underway and the next stages would have an estimated completion date -- I believe the construction itself will start in 2026, so in the next fiscal, with a completion date -- again, tentatively at this point, but '27 -- it's in the fiscal of 2027-2028.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Well, that's a long time because we know that Frank Channel bridge, there's a lot of people that are concerned about the Frank Channel bridge, you know, even to travel on it. And, like, this -- our school buses go on it every day. And I know I talked to some of the residents. They were really concerned. They said they don't feel comfortable travelling on the Frank Channel bridge. And I thought, you know, the last time, when the other Minister was here, she did say that it was going to start last fiscal year 2024-2025 and to date, it's -- I mean, 2027-2028. So it's a long time to wait, especially for, you know, the condition of the Frank Channel bridge is a concern for a lot of our own community members and it's being used every day. You know, people travel on it and the big trucks travel on it to Yellowknife. So it's just a little disappointing because I know a lot of people have been asking in Behchoko too that, you know -- even in Tlicho region -- when are they going to start the constructions, because they did hear that too because it was said by the previous Minister as well too, so. And it's good that, you know, plow, dump truck in Behchoko, and it's -- so that's going to be -- that's for 2025-2026 fiscal year. So when is it -- when are they going to get this -- like, how many dump truck they're going to get for -- to maintain the Highway No. 3? Is it just only for the Highway No. 3 or within the community access?
Okay, I'll go to the Minister to the question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, first I want to acknowledge the frustration on the Frank Channel bridge and certainly have also been watching that project over the last short while and was certainly looking forward to seeing it at a different stage of completion. This was a project that is expressly in the Tlicho Infrastructure Cooperation Agreement, and that is an agreement that is certainly -- it is unique in terms of how we are conducting procurement. So that uniqueness sometimes has taken a little bit of time, but certainly the hope here is that once we get to a place where an agreement is signed, which it is now, that we ultimately have a product that is one that is better engaging with the community on whose lands -- with the government on whose lands this project is taking place. So I do want to acknowledge the challenges we've had to date but, again, we're in a good place now in that that agreement has been signed.
Similarly, the comments around from the community members, Mr. Chair, just wanting to, again, say we do monitor the bridge carefully. It is -- it's an old bridge and wasn't designed for the weights of trucks that are now available but heavy loads can reconfigure themselves so that they are not placing inappropriate strain on the bridge.
As for the plow, dump truck, that is meant to service not only Highway No. 3 but also the Tlicho highway. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
No, that's good. Okay, the school -- the school is going to be completed in -- I mean, with the new school in Behchoko, it's planned to be completed, like, I think within ten years. So that's why it's really crucial that Frank Channel bridge, because I don't think -- I think a lot of parents are concerned. So I'm glad that she addressed that. So, yeah, we have to think about the young people that's going to be, you know, travelling on it from Behchoko into Edzo to attend high school -- junior high school and high school. So it's a serious issue for us, especially for the community members.
And I'm glad that there's a new plow -- or the dump truck because I went to visit the facility that -- the infrastructure -- the highway departments in Behchoko. And I saw a lot of these -- they had, like, two or three dump truck and the plow truck too, and I told them, I said holy, I said, are these new? And they said no, these are hand-me-down from Yellowknife, and we painted it. So it looked new. So I'm glad that, you know, they are going to get a new -- new equipment which is -- you know, it's good. So that's all I have is that -- yeah, thank you.
Thank you. Is there any further questions from Members? I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is in regards to the James Creek maintenance camp. It's stated here that they're going to be fixing up the existing camp. Is there works underway for a new location? I have been told in the past that there was -- they were looking at a new location for a new camp. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this project is a retrofit of the existing location. The Member -- yes, quite correctly, there was originally back -- way back, 2016, looking at replacing the camp, and there was funding back at that time to do so. There was some challenges in that the first site that they landed upon was determined to actually not be suitable for this kind of camp based on the geotechnical and the investigation of the area and, unfortunately, no new sites could be identified in the area that were both compatible with the technical needs, compatible with what was required for the spaces and also appropriate for the local community. And as time rolled on, the new proposal simply started to look like the budgets were becoming quite a bit different as, of course, time moved past what that budget was. So with the budget that was available from now quite dated, it's been decided that rather than losing that funding, rather than being further in a situation with a camp that's increasingly out of date, that's where the decision has come to use the money that is available and rescope to retrofit the existing facility. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
