Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is. And I appreciate the question it doesn't necessarily line up from the title of the project what it is. But by having a modernization project of this nature, we're actually being -- making it easier for residents to access government services. It provides the ability to make services more accessible to all residents across the entire territory. It helps us decentralize those services, gives an opportunity to greater decentralize the services but also greater decentralize potentially positions associated with those services. These are obviously economic...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the materials -- I mean, the information that we're providing in general wouldn't have the procurement detail in it. So the procurement detail traditionally, and across a lot of different governments, not only ours, they don't want to put the number to which then bidders would simply bid to to meet that budget. But, you know, again, I -- if there's information that we're speaking to here, it typically wouldn't be considered confidential. If the question is about making our budget documents bigger, then I can certainly take that back and have a look at it. Thank...

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024, I will present Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first, with respect to the fulsomeness of the public service, a lot of the growth in the last little while has actually been in the Department of Health and Social Services. A lot of other growth has actually been as a result of Jordan's Principle funding which is allowing additional services in ECE. And that said, there is a very active conversation happening, led with the Department of Finance human resources, around ensuring that we don't have positions that are sitting unfilled, that are not being fully utilized, and with a view to having those...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One consideration with -- well, I guess two considerations with off ramps initially. The first one that I was going to suggest is that we not put ourselves into a situation where the cost of coming off on the off ramp actually winds up being just kicking a cost down the line and being greater later. Again, not dissimilar to actual physical infrastructure that you can delay a renovation, you can delay a fix, but you may wind up with a bigger problem down the line. We do, you know, obviously -- and certainly I'm trying to put it back into this context, if it's clear that...

Mr. Speaker, absolutely we will have to prioritize that work again. Just by way of some example of what we did last year, we were widening the road that gave the ability for trucks to be going but also didn't impede smaller traffic with folks who may be doing their own personal resupply, had more signage, increased patrols, increased checkpoints, which was not only a safety issue; it helps increase the flow of traffic and make the flow of traffic better. And we've also had some increased maintenance, increased improvements. Again, everything we can do to keep the road in a state that people...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This project has seen an increase to its original budget, and it's likely to see some further increase. Mr. Chair, I don't get to do opening comments in terms of the topical areas we hit but I will say with respect to the IT infrastructure, over the last few years there's been numerous occasions where we've seen an early stage budget that winds up being significantly off, and that is something that the department, with the chief information officer, is trying to get a better handle on. Understanding the nature and the needs of the project more at the front end allows us...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would expect -- I expect that the project officers in the department, officials there, are already doing that. They've certainly been expected to do that for some time. We know that there's going to be more traffic on those winter roads this season just as there was last season when there was less barges. With no barges, fully expecting that road to be busy. So those meetings are already underway. Mr. Speaker, it was -- certainly, it was helpful for me to meet with some of those involved last year just to get a real picture of it, to have that opportunity...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So climate change considerations are part of the substantiation sheets. And -- yes, I mean, in this case with respect to the $1.9 million allotted, or roughly thereabouts allotted to maintain our basic infrastructure, it's -- this was not a consideration or a factor that, you know, went strongly really one way or the other. There was not a lot considered in this particular element. Thank you.