(May 29, 2013) - (Check against delivery)

On behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories, I am pleased to welcome you to the first symposium of the National Executive Forum on Public Property to be held north of 60.

For those of you who are travelling to the spectacular Northwest Territories for the first time, you will soon discover – probably around the time when you’re trying to sleep and the sun is still shining – that we have a very different environment here which brings unique infrastructure challenges.

The Department of Public Works and Services is responsible for the public infrastructure in 33 communities spread across a territory that is more than 1.3 million square kilometres in size, including a variety of terrain from the Precambrian shield and the solid rock seen around Yellowknife to the sands and silt of the Delta held together by permafrost. Challenges to maintaining our infrastructure include the remoteness of many of our communities, small population sizes, high transportation costs, and of course, the effects of climate change. 

Beginning in the early 2000’s, we began to see permafrost degradation, air and ground temperature changes, and increased snow loads that were unprecedented. Adapting to a rapidly changing environment has meant risk management has become central to how our government carries out its work.

Over the past 5 years, the Government of the Northwest Territories has implemented a number of initiatives that have helped us begin to address our infrastructure challenges. These initiatives include:

• the consolidation of government maintenance and utilities;
• the prioritization of regular building maintenance to maximize the return on our infrastructure investments;
• the creation of a deferred maintenance program to extend the useful life of our existing infrastructure;
• the creation of a capital asset retrofit program to increase energy efficiencies, which through savings has allowed us to reinvest millions in efficiencies (in fact, 33% of all energy needs in government buildings are being met through renewable energy); and
• we have also implemented a rigorous capital planning process that has since been adopted by other jurisdictions.

 

Simply put, the theme of your symposium – Risk Management, Best Practices for Decision-Making Today – is exactly how our government has had to adapt our business practices to address our infrastructure challenges in our northern environment.

Equally important to ensuring that the infrastructure is in place to support government programs such as education and healthcare, is the continual learning and adapting to industry knowledge and best practices. This is why our department is so pleased to host the Forum and take part in these meaningful discussions.

I understand that across your membership 6.82 million acres of land, 49,000 buildings and workspace for the equivalent of 282,000 employees, is managed.

Looking at your agenda I am confident that the National Executive Forum on Public Property will achieve what it has set out to do – which is to raise our collective knowledge on how to meet our common challenges in a way that benefits our organizations and the public we serve.

In closing, I wish you a successful symposium. I am confident that the networking and sharing of best practices that will take place during this symposium will be of great benefit to everyone. I would also like to encourage everyone to take this opportunity to experience our capital city and surrounding area. I hope that by the end of your time here you will see why we are so proud to call this part of Canada home.

Thank you.