Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Mr. Chair, so the section from -- is improvement from kilometer 59 to 61.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And so that's right around the Reid Lake campground. But can the Minister clarify, does that include new chip sealing where gravel currently exists, or is it just repairing and working on the chip sealing part that already is there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Mr. Chair, so the planned work scheduled for 2026-2027 includes installation of culverts and chip seal.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to go on to a different project. The capital asset retrofit fund, so retrofits to increase energy efficiency. Can the Minister tell us how much is the budget for that for 2026-2027? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
2 million $600, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister know how much money is being saved through these retrofits per year in utility costs savings? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
We're just looking it up, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I want to hand this off to assistant deputy minister, please.
Thank you. I'll go to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The initiatives are capable of displacing approximately 16,500 tonnes of GHGs annually and save us around $4 million in utilities annually. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So given that this project is saving us millions of dollars annually, has the department looked at opportunities to scale up this project? Are there more energy efficiency projects we could do if we had more money? Because it sounds like, you know, the sooner we do them, the sooner we can save more millions of dollars. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Minister.
I'll ask the deputy minister to answer that.
Thank you. I'll go back to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we continue to fund projects that do save the greenhouse gases, but a lot of the low-hanging fruit has been taken care of already. So we've achieved the biggest savings and now we're working through some of the smaller savings, but most of the large savings has been achieved already. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you for that explanation. Next, I just wanted to ask about the deferred maintenance. And so that is to cover maintenance of projects where there is a life safety issue or a need to protect the asset. How much in total is budgeted for deferred maintenance projects? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have $3,400,000 budgeted for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. So in order to figure out what we need to do maintenance on and what gets on the list, I assume we would need to be doing facility assessments. And so how often are we doing facility assessments to figure out, you know, what needs repair and maintenance? For example, you know, schools, health centres, all of the government major infrastructure and buildings. Do we have a policy on how often we generally do these facility assessments? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to ask the assistant deputy minister to answer this one here. Thank you.
I'll go to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We assess our buildings on a five-year rotating basis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And does the department currently have the resources to complete all of those facility assessments on a five-year basis, or do we have a backlog of facilities waiting, you know, longer than five years to be able to get their assessments? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to go back to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have the capacity to complete them on an annual basis, but we do have a backlog based on the COVID years. There were two years where we weren't able to get in to every community that we intended to. So it has created a bit of a backlog there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, certainly I would appreciate if the department wanted to bring forward in a budget, you know, an extra pot of money just to make sure we get caught up and have those assessments done every five years, I would certainly be in support of that because the last thing we need is for buildings to be falling apart and us not even know because we haven't assessed them.
And so once we do those assessments, I assume there's a list or a prioritization of the different safety issues -- well, life safety issues, things that are threatening the future of that asset being able to continue to function. Can the Minister say whether all of the life safety issues -- I guess, starting with that -- can be addressed through the deferred maintenance budget, or even within the life safety issues, do some have to get prioritized and some have to wait an unknown number of years to get addressed? So is our deferred maintenance budget adequate to cover all of the life safety issues that have been discovered? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I am going to the Minister.
I am going to ask the pro with this, the assistant deputy minister, to answer if she doesn't mind.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Short answer, yes, there is adequate budget for current life safety items. The report will show some life safety items that are renewal items, things like needing to go back and check on the status of a fire alarm, for instance. It may not need to be imminently replaced, but it's something that we need to keep an eye on. So the report does show both of those things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we certainly hear from, for example, some of the Yellowknife school boards that we have schools with, say, leaking roofs, and they certainly want to have them assessed and feel that it could be risking the integrity of the building if there's water leaking in and it can be obviously spreading, water damage, and we don't want that. And what we hear is confusion as to when does it become urgent enough, when does it become an emergency in the department's view. Because people are confused as to why this isn't getting prioritized for funding. Can the Minister or his staff explain or let us know how they're going to better communicate with partners around how these issues are being prioritized and when the department thinks that something is an emergency or a structural integrity issue and when it can wait? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I would say all our infrastructure buildings are looked at and prioritized based on the structural deficiencies, if there is any. So a lot of it relates to, obviously, the life safety, any structural repairs, building code upgrades, roof and exterior envelope failures, and that's all based on what's notified to the department. But if the assistant deputy minister wanted to add anything, she's more than welcome to do that. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the assistant deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Minister. And I'll add that YK1 and YCS schools are not GNWT assets, but we've recently reintegrated them into our assessment process so that we can assist them with their maintenance and assist ECE in capital planning for those schools. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further comments from the Members? Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a few more details on the questions I had about Highway No. 4.
So the sections in question where accidents over the summer occurred are the corner of Prosperous Lake and kilometer 21. So can I get some reassurances from the Minister that those two sections are going to be addressed by the rehabilitation? Thank you.
