Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I wanted to ask about some of the items in the business plan that set some targets for apprenticeships. Let me just pull up my notes.
So my understanding is that overall for the department, there's a goal of 10 -- hiring 2 -- sorry, hiring 10 new apprentices, but it looks like there's only one new apprentice that's been hired. What has the Department of Infrastructure done to try to meet its goal of hiring 10 new apprentices? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So some of the issues that we also have just attracting apprenticeship programs is -- apprenticeship students, sorry -- are the interest for apprenticeships and then also people to host the apprentice in order to run under the program. But, you know, there's also the competition of having apprenticeships with the government. They might be working with somebody else. But there is competitions being advertised for apprenticeship programs now also for different areas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. Is infrastructure, like in conversation with either other Ministers, like ECE Minister or community leadership, to try to sort of communicate and make sure people know that you have openings for apprentices and you're having trouble finding people to sort of brainstorm if there are people out there who, you know, want to find apprenticeships? I know we talk about this a lot as an overall goal for the Assembly, that it could be an important step to strengthening our workforce, and I know that we sometimes have trouble putting the actual pieces in place to make progress on this. But are infrastructure officials in active discussions with ECE, Aurora College, community leaders, to sort of troubleshoot and find ways to move forward with these goals? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So those discussions are always happening and the department's also met with ECE to identify potential students from the SNAP program. So there is ongoing meetings and opportunities out there. Like I said, some of the issues that you tend to run into with apprenticeship programs is having a trade person, a red seal ticketed person to work with that apprentice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do note that there's also a goal in the business plan of hiring five SNAP students and so far, at least when this was printed, zero SNAP students have been hired by infrastructure. So that's also discouraging. But you say one of the challenges is finding a red seal to work under. But does Infrastructure, in fact, have those people that apprentices could be working under, or are you also challenged to find the red seal tradespeople to work for you as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have lots of those tradespeople; however, they also have a right whether to accept an apprenticeship student underneath them. So, you know, if there's interested employees out there that are watching and are interested in getting an apprentice, please let your manager know. But there's always that appetite to train new people in departments. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. I will leave it there for now, Mr. Chair. But just wanted to keep highlighting this as something that we need to keep troubleshooting and trying to move forward on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you for the comments there. I am going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sort of pulling on the thread that my colleague from Monfwi was speaking about just earlier, in corporate management only two of the corporate management positions in infrastructure are outside of Yellowknife, and given that 73 percent of infrastructure staff are in regional offices, how does the Minister and his department ensure that regional needs and priorities are reflected in corporate decision-making given the concentration in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will start, and then I will just ask the deputy minister to elaborate a little more. But our goal, obviously, is to try to get these positions out to the communities or out to the regions. You know, we do have -- in Hay River, we have a couple positions that are -- as part of like MTS and stuff like that. So, you know, we're definitely trying. It's sometimes not always easy to attract these positions, and it's not always easy just to move them. So maybe I will just get the deputy minister to elaborate a little more. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we have five regional superintendents that help us make those connections on a daily basis. We try to have those constant communication between anyone located in Yellowknife and the regional staff to make sure that we are sharing those ideas, having those conversations, and making sure that it is inclusive of everyone and all of the regional staff. There is positions in corporate management that are -- you know, skilled positions or they're ones where this is where we were able to find the right candidate. We do try to have as much support as we can in the regions to support delivery as we can. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister and staff for that. I do recognize that regional operations are run by superintendents, and those folks are very in touch with Yellowknife on a regular basis; however, I mean, I am curious, though, that, like, you know, if -- there was a very strong push in the 19th Assembly, I recognize, but I would hope that this work continues to move more regionally-based decision-making into the regions. And so is that something that the department continues to contemplate in its HR planning as it moves forward? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I am going to go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Okay, thank you. Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair; I am good.
Okay, thank you. Okay. Is there any further questions? Okay, seeing none. I am going to continue on now to page 270.
Infrastructure, corporate management, $13,498,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to programs and services, beginning on page 273 with information items on page 275. Are there any questions? No further questions. Please turn to page 274. Did I miss -- seeing none. Okay, page 274.
Infrastructure, programs and services, $12,018,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to regional operations, beginning on page 276 with information items on page 278. Are there any questions?
Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask first, there is a significant jump in the cost of operating winter roads from $7.765 million last year to $12.5 million this year. So what is causing such a dramatic increase in maintenance of winter roads? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The majority of that is the -- I guess the result of contracted agreement for our winter road operations.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. Okay, so it sounds like a similar reason that we discussed during the supplementary estimates yesterday that this is going to be the increase going forward. So just to be clear, is this just an increase in the Tlicho winter road contract that's causing this entire increase? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's pretty much it. It's the cost of the Tlicho winter road cost increase, so. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I also just wanted to ask about the relatively significant increase in leases from $32.8 million to $36.6 million this year. Other than that, everything looks relatively stable. Well, utilities goes up, but. Okay. So with leases, what is causing this jump in lease costs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So we have a lease increase to the -- I don't know if I can say it, but the name of it, I am having difficulty going to say -- but the medical clinic lease in Hay River. We also have the specialized court security and client system -- sorry, SCSCS concerns here in Yellowknife and also the various forced growth in regards to those leases, so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to be clear, the specific leases that the minister mentioned, are those leases that have been transferred to infrastructure from other departments, or simply that infrastructure held those leases all along but the costs are going up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We hold those leases. The vast majority of the increase is all essentially forced growth and operations of these leases. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, I will leave it there for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are kind of a follow-up on my colleague from Yellowknife North around road maintenance, winter roads. Obviously this summer we had some significant issues with the Dempster Highway, particularly the section around Rengling River, as well as the last couple of years the increase in the snow removal required for the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. Some of that, again, due to maintenance that was required to be done on that highway to bring it up so we wouldn't be dealing with as much snow there. So I guess my question is, is the Minister confident in the numbers that he has here to ensure that, A, we can get some of that preventative maintenance -- I will call it -- on both those highways and that we're confident going forward that we're going to have the resources required to keep the Inuvik-Tuk Highway open. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
