Glen Abernethy

I am pleased to present the Department of Public Works and Services’ main estimates for the fiscal year 2013-14.

The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $104.5 million for 2013-14, an increase of 11.5 percent over the 2012-13 Main Estimates. This increase can be primarily attributed to the following activities:

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one-time funding for the demolition of the Sir Alexander Mackenzie School and Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik; and

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ongoing funding for the transfer of responsibility and funding for the administration of Health and Social Services leased...

In proposals, the company that submits a proposal indicates the companies that they intend to work with, the work that they plan to have those individual companies doing. We have contracting staff and Public Works and Services staff – sorry; this was a tender – in the community who is reviewing their compliance with the contract that was signed. The contract makes specific reference to the individual local companies and NWT companies that they will be utilizing for services.

By way of example, on this particular project, 50 workers in Inuvik were enrolled in the training course arranged by the...

Thank you. I remember as a kid, going to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre here in Yellowknife, they had a lot of fantastic displays, and one of the displays actually had a significant amount of RCMP history and memorabilia. I believe that display is now gone, but I would be happy to talk to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see about bringing those materials back together and creating a display that maybe could go to different museums throughout the Northwest Territories.

We do have a number of facilities that may be able to show a display like this, but I’d also...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, we’d like the work, as much as possible, to stay in the North, but the NWT is a signatory to the Agreement on Internal Trade, which is a national binding agreement. A key component of the AIT is non-discrimination which establishes equal treatment for all Canadian persons, goods, services and investments. Further, with respect to the GNWT Procurement Policy, demands that the GNWT, in its commercial dealings, observe the highest standards. It must stand the test of public scrutiny in matters of prudence and probity, facilitate access, enhance supplies access...

Work is happening. I don’t believe it’s gone as far as the Member would like it to go. I would like to see it further along, as well, but given that we’re moving forward with shared procurement, we’ve had to make sure that everything’s going to line up and we need to get the shared procurement down and in place before we change too many other things.

The greening policies, the green procurement I think is important. I think the Member has made a significant number of comments about it and the value of it, so we will move forward on it. I will commit to having something for the Member to look at...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a clarification question. There are two things happening here. There was the ESA which was done originally, which was intended to identify the items in the building so that we could actually get a proper price and that people who were bidding on contracts for the teardown could be informed. Is the Member talking about that contract or is he talking about the contract that was awarded based on the information which… The first one, okay. To Mr. Guy, please.

Thanks, and I’ll go to the deputy for some more specifics, but at the end of the day we require our contractors to have a bond in place for their subcontractors and our contract is with the primary. The project that we’re getting is from the primary, and our dealings and our negotiations are with the primary. Their contracts are separate, independent legal documents between them and another party and it would be inappropriate for us to interfere with a separate legal contract between two other parties. We want to make sure that everybody is protected in the process. We make sure that the bonds...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department administers contracts on a huge scale from small standing offer agreements, sole-sourced contracts for small amounts of money like $25,000, $30,000; $5,000 and up. We also do major builds such as the East Three School and the new office building in Yellowknife. We have change orders on a regular basis on any number of these types of things, these types of contracts.

In particular I can talk a little bit about the teardown for the school in Inuvik. We have a contract which is well within budget. There are going to be some change orders on that building. We...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are committed as a government, not just as a department, to getting positions decentralized where appropriate, and in the Public Works and Services we did create one new position and we located it in Hay River.

With respect to the Sahtu and Public Works and Services, the Sahtu is actually administered out of our Inuvik office, and we do have employees in Public Works and Services in the Sahtu and we’ll continue to do that. As work increases, we may find that we’re in a position where we have to consider additional resources in the Sahtu, but right now the requirements...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the Member’s first question, we will put together a more plain-language explanation of what that is so that the Member and committee has a better understanding of what that is.

With respect to the large capital projects and the change from the main estimates to the revised estimates, I will go to the deputy minister, please.