Government Surplus Items Keep On Working
More Nova Scotia students have access to computers this year because of provincial government donations to the Computers for Schools Program.
These donations are catalogued in the province's annual Surplus Crown Property Disposal Report that was tabled Wednesday, March 27, in the legislature.
The report outlines how surplus materials were disposed of in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and list the $655,994.11 returned to the provincial treasury from surplus sales.
"The main goal of our inventory control team is to reuse equipment within government as much as possible," said Maurice Smith, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal. "But, when it's no longer useful, we do our best to get our money's worth out of every item."
The Computers for Schools Program is a partnership that gives new life to used computer equipment, giving a second life to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear in schools.
The list of donated equipment this year includes 1,381 desktops, 270 laptops, and hundreds of pieces of accessories such as keyboards, monitors, printers, drives, docking stations, speakers and computer mice. The equipment is refurbished before being put into schools throughout Nova Scotia.
"The province's focus on reuse of used technology significantly helps Computers for Schools Nova Scotia reach its goal of putting 5,000 computers a year into schools across Nova Scotia," said Stacy Barnes of Computers for Schools Nova Scotia.
Additional surplus equipment such as chairs, tables, desks and filing cabinets is donated by request to non-profit and community groups.
The report provides details of donations and also outlines the $727,257.98 in gross revenue raised by surplus sales. The sale of surplus land ($351,950.70) was the largest revenue generator, followed by the department's annual auction of heavy equipment ($274,420.13).
The full report is available on the Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal website at http://novascotia.ca/tran/publications/SCPDR.pdf.