Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think there just isn't enough time during Committee of the Whole to get into it, but it is an issue that I want to continue raising, and I've got our research staff working on getting me ready for some questions in the House. Let me just look at my questions here.

Oh yeah, this was one I wanted to ask about, business plans.

So there seems to be, I note, a bit of a disconnect between what's in the business plan and some of the initiatives that the department is engaging in to improve and streamline regulatory. I just note that, you know, the deputy minister just listed...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And so following a review by the technical working group, I assume that will be brought to committee, and then it will go for more of a public review?

Fair enough. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I appreciate the department helping me better understand this aspect of their work. And, certainly, I mean, I think I join many of my colleagues in just -- you know, I would like to find constructive solutions to our problem. I appreciate the Minister adding staff to the department to try and address the timeliness issue but, yeah, I am making these suggestions with the hope of constructively getting us to a place where we are establishing kind of a baseline of expectation and trying to work from that in terms of measuring what a reasonable timeline is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister just help us understand what legislative initiatives continue to be a priority for the department and what they're working to advance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I can't help but, as I hear that process and how it plays out, think about my experience at the land and water boards, and -- because it's the process I am most familiar with -- I think about how timelines built into that legislation worked in a very similar situation where sometimes the board would be dealing with something and sometimes proponents would be dealing with something, and the clock would be running when the board had it, and it wouldn't be running when the proponent had it. So I wonder if we could establish something similar to that kind of process for...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that's it for me on this item. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the department have a chart or an infographic or something that MLAs would be able to refer to, and the public even, to help us understand what the various steps are in the process, where we're trying to speed things up, where things get stuck, what we do when things get stuck, what processes are engaged in order to move things along when they get stuck on a part of the process that we don't have control over? Because it's -- yeah, I think that it would go a long way in helping us have a more informed conversation about this issue if we understood it better and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, sorry if it was unclear. I thought I was referring to a specific line item. But yeah, that makes sense to me, like if there had to be highway closures, the various guide vehicles and all that that happens along with that. So that makes sense to me.

Can they help -- can the Minister help us understand how much of an increase this is over our regular highway operations costs. I mean, $9.1 million seems like a lot for the end of a year for inflation. I mean, how is that something that we weren't able to budget for knowing that inflation has been sitting around 2...

Okay, thank you. And, yeah, if the Minister could help us better understand if they've been working with the city on identifying lands that are needed for the military investments that have been identified and how that's going. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not a lot of questions left after that strong round from my colleague, but just the -- to build on some of the questions that she asked.

The line item for $9.1 million funding for -- to address high -- higher highway operations costs due to inflation, materials, and emergency response activities. Can the Minister help us understand the emergency response activities; what does that entail? Why -- like, how is that an unexpected and how does it relate to highway maintenance.