Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, I had indicated that we were at the planning stage of looking at the replacement of the tank farm. That will include the facility that the Member is concerned about. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have not done a whole lot of work in this area. It’s something that is still being considered and we need to work with ENR on it, and we’re also waiting to see some of the work that’s going to come forward as part of the Biomass Strategy. So it’s still work that we have flagged but has not been completed to date.

Mr. Chairman, on my left I have Paul Guy, the acting deputy minister of Public Works and Services. I also have Laurie Gault, the director of TSC. Thank you.

Just wait until the light comes on.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the Department of Public Works and Services main estimates for the fiscal year 2010-2011.

The main estimates propose a department operations and maintenance budget for 2010-2011 of $92.3 million, which represents a 65.3 percent increase in O and M funding over 2009-2010. Strategic and corporate initiatives like the consolidation of maintenance and utilities, and the one-time costs budgeted for the demolition of the Chief Albert Wright School in Tulita and the Deh Cho Hall in Fort Simpson account for $31.9 million of the O and M funding increases...

Mr. Chairman, no, the education institutions haven’t been removed from the service.

Mr. Chairman, we can certainly point to the fact that the availability of office space has been practically zero in Yellowknife. The demand is certainly growing and we feel this is a valued investment. It would help in many different ways and, yes, the people that are planning to have available office space are quite aware of what we’re doing. In fact, they are working on some of the aspects of this new building with us.

Oh, I’m sorry; I should correct that. I just had a correction here. They are working on another building that will be opening up office space.

Mr. Chairman, the size of the building that we would like to bring forward is 6,000 square metres and it’s around the same size as the Laing Building, I believe. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, our government has a multi-tiered approach towards ensuring we have safe drinking water. Our department, Public Works and Services, is a part of that along with ENR, Municipal and Community Affairs and Health. We get involved during the planning study portion. Once there’s a source of water identified, we help with the engineering, we help with testing the source and things of that nature. There are also other departments involved as it goes up the line. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the Member has pointed out that there has been a fairly large percentage of increase in this area and, of course, there are a number of cost drivers that we can point to. As it stands now, the departments are responsible for the cost in their areas. It’s fairly difficult for us to on our own put a cap on it, but that’s something that we can certainly have a discussion on. We can spend quite a bit of time talking and investigating the different areas that are driving the costs up. We’ve offered committee a more detailed briefing and that offer is still on the table if the Members...