Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Madam Chair. It would purely be my opinion, but as MLA for the Northwest Territories I have constantly and I will always be a supporter of the arts. When the Member asked similar questions about office space before, I agreed to work closely with Education, Culture and Employment and I will continue to work with Education, Culture and Employment and ITI, who have roles in supporting arts in the Northwest Territories. I think the Member’s suggestion that office space might be a reasonable place to support northern artists, I think that’s certainly an interesting idea and that’s why we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Paul Guy, the deputy minister of Public Works and Services.

I will ask that the chair go to Deputy Minister Guy, who has actually some specifics that address the questions Mr. Dolynny has just asked. We do those types of things and auction wasn’t really the right term. We have stuff in our warehouse that’s available to be acquired once it’s gone through any other means of disposal. Thank you.

In no way have we committed to this project. We have indicated that we are certainly willing to look at all options that save the government money over time, and if they present a business case that is a saving or even comparable to what we are going to be saving through our new building and the energy efficiencies we are putting in that building, including our biomass system in that building, if the price is comparable, we would certainly be interested in talking, but there is zero commitment at this point. There is nothing to the city saying that we’re committed to this project. We haven’t...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Additional Information for GNWT Response to Committee Report 1-17(3) to Review the NWT Information and Privacy Commissioner’s 2010-2011 Annual Report.

Thanks, Madam Chair. All equipment, all of the computer equipment and technology that the users, the staff in the GNWT use, has a lifecycle as determined by the CIO’s office and it is replaced on that lifecycle. That lifecycle is basically what evergreening is. When a piece of equipment hits the end of its lifecycle, it is replaced.

The Member shares exactly the same concerns I have with this same process. We still need to get a sense of space. There may not be as much and it may not be appropriate for all purposes. We certainly aren’t a retail outlet for art and we don’t want to be a retail outlet for art. We don’t want to challenge or compete with those outlets that are involved in selling art. It’s about displaying local artists. It shouldn’t be too complicated to figure out, but we will, absolutely, work with our colleagues.

Thanks, Madam Chair. There were some delays. There were some issues around design and whatnot and some budget issues as well. I believe for certain aspects of it, in particular the chimney systems, a contract has been awarded. The kitchen is out for tender right now, but with the chimney we were notified, I believe it was last week, about some issues that they’re having with the chimneys that I shared with Members. Those issues have been dealt with and they should be proceeding with the chimney and moving to the kitchen once the RFP is concluded. Just as a note, the work is scheduled to be...

We’re not convinced that there’s 1 percent. There might be more, there might be less. We need to really assess the space, the public space.

As far as the performing arts, I don’t recall that and I haven’t directed the department to look at the performing arts side of things. I apologize for that. I would say that it would fall under the same category of art.

Once we talk to the arts associations in the Northwest Territories, I think we’ll get some good input from them, but I’m not prepared to go to them until we have some sense of how much space is available.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not sure about all of the specifics of that question, but we can certainly provide a breakdown of where we are now, the items that need to be dealt with sooner than later. Once they’re dealt with, obviously, bad aspects of the deferred maintenance come off the list. So we can do a bit of an analysis.

What might actually be useful here is if I offer the committee a briefing on deferred maintenance and that we can all get on the same page. I’m happy to come before committee, whether it’s P and P, Economic Development and Infrastructure, whichever committee would be...