Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a government, we have a lot of priorities. You look at every department that we are having discussions with, whether it's Health and Social Services, Education, Housing, and, our partnerships that we have with MACA. This is something that we have been working on since 2014. As I have mentioned, Mr. Chair, I have had chats with the executive of the NWTAC and have a good understanding that this is something that is going to be hard to fix in terms of the funding gap, but we have made some really significant improvements in terms of the work that has been done to address...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since I have been in the role as the Minister of MACA, I have had pretty good discussions with the executive of the NWTAC. I have told them that we have got to work together to get this addressed.

At the same time, our staff have been taking on some administrative roles for some of the municipalities because they aren't able to find SAOs or find people that can do financial work for them. That takes away from the work that we do at the department level, and it is something that I have been pushing. We need to make sure that the resources that our municipal governments have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For a little bit more clarity, obviously, we would try to look at finding the funding within our department to address those games, first of all, before we went to a supplementary appropriation. Really, it's year-to-year, and that is a discussion that I would have to bring forward to my Cabinet colleagues and cannot make that commitment at this time.

As the Member knows, we both work together with sport, recreation, and youth, and we know the importance of these games. It is something that we will be moving forward with, and if we do need to bring a supplemental forward...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we just had a little bit of a discussion, as well as the Minister's statement that I just put out today, which the Member was aware of. This is going to be a discussion that we're going to have with the NWT Association of Communities this weekend, and also look in terms of how do we address these, some of the shortfalls, but also what our core needs are for the communities. I know I've had these discussions with committee previously, and it's going to be something that we will have a discussion about and focus on this weekend, in a very honest and open discussion...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is something that has really taken the forefront over the last couple of years in terms of how we provide ground ambulance and highway rescue. With the new infrastructure that is being proposed, obviously, we are going to be taking that into consideration. Protection and safety of our residents, not even our residents, but people who travel throughout the North, even our tourists, we want to make sure that they are able to feel safe driving on our highway systems. As Members know, we did put out an RFP to get some work done. That didn't work out initially as planned...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know this has been a concern for not only MLAs and the government but also with municipalities. As I answered questions in the House earlier today, I am just going to be open and honest. I don't think we will be able to fill that gap during the life of this government. We have only got about seven months. Honestly, future governments are probably going to have a hard time filling this gap as well.

In my Minister's statement, I did mention that we have made some very significant improvements in terms of infrastructure, as well as O and M. I am more than certain that it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I will commit to bringing that information to committee as soon as we receive it, and it will probably be something that the next government is going to have to deal with, in terms of applications for the next funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we are looking at continuing to do that work. For maybe further detail, I will go to my deputy minister for where we are in that area, Ms. Young, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned when we went before standing committee, there are going to be some positions that need to be put in place, so we're going to be looking at emergency medical dispatchers, an emergency system officer, a manager, as well as premiums for shift work that people will have to do. There are also ongoing operation costs, such as program requirements of, for example, leasing spaces, communication, and obviously our information technology systems. Then obviously there are going to be one-time start-up costs that are initial training, as well as signage. I could give...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, all of our communities in the Northwest Territories, we have been approaching. The designated authorities are one of them. With our gas tax, we have been focused on making sure that they have the same opportunities as tax-based communities and municipalities. So, obviously, we are reaching out to all of our 33 communities, and this is something, concerns from the Member but probably some concerns from our leadership, that we will be having discussions with this weekend. Thank you, Mr. Chair.