I would like to provide a report from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. It’s a report on the 2008-2009 draft Interim Appropriation.
The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning met to review the draft 2008-2009 interim appropriation between January 14 and 23, 2008. The draft interim appropriation included operations expenditures needed for the first quarter of the 2008-2009 fiscal year as well as a preliminary infrastructure acquisition plan. The operations expenditures are based on the 2007-2008 main estimates and do not include any new initiatives or reductions.
The committee agreed to support the operations component of the draft interim appropriation in the interest of the government being able to continue to provide programs and services without disruption, pending the approval of the full 2008-2009 main estimates.
This report should in no way be seen as an endorsement of the status quo. The committee fully expects that operations expenditures will be reconsidered in the context of our caucus priorities and that changes will be reflected in this year’s business plan and main estimates.
In the course of our discussions on the preliminary infrastructure acquisition plan, it became clear to Members that an overhaul of the entire capital planning process is urgently needed.
Over time, the plan that Members vote on at the outset of the fiscal year has come to bear less and less resemblance to the reality of the work that actually gets completed. Price estimates provided in the plan are often inaccurate and out of date. As a result, Members are not sufficiently informed of the full cost of the project under consideration.
Schedules and time frames are unrealistic and do not reflect the limited availability of contractors to undertake the work. This, along with insufficient accountability for project completion, has led to substantial carry-overs from one fiscal year to the next and an ever growing infrastructure backlog.
With every day of delay, the price of addressing the backlog is inflating as construction costs are rising at a rate well above the overall Consumer Price Index. The carry-over for capital projects and infrastructure contributions from 2006-2007 to 2007-2008 was a staggering $97 million.
Further, energy efficiency does not appear to be a consistent component of new infrastructure design. Members fear that this pay-later approach will leave us with buildings that we cannot afford to operate as fuel prices continue to rise.
Finally, the committee sees a need to revisit the overall fiscal strategy and the amount of infrastructure investment projected over the next several years. In light of these concerns, the committee was pleased to hear that the Premier has assigned a cabinet committee to examine the capital planning process. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has requested that two Regular Members participate directly in this review as our representatives.
Members also expressed concerns that some projects included in the ‘07-08 main estimates are no longer in the plan while some new projects appear to have been fast-tracked. The committee requested and received detailed explanations for these changes. In order to ensure that new projects are properly considered in context, the committee recommended that the government revise the plan to include only those items which absolutely require approval prior to the ‘08-09 main estimates and provide a justification for the need to include each of those items in the interim appropriation. The committee agreed that acceptable justification might include addressing urgent safety issues, honouring existing contractual obligations and meeting shipping deadlines for materials.
This concludes the report of the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning on the draft 2008-2009 interim appropriation. Individual Members may have questions and comments as we proceed. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Committee Report 1-16(2) be received and adopted. Thank you.
Motion carried.
