Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is an initiative where we were approached by the community of Tuktoyaktuk, who had submitted proposals to both the Government of Canada and ourselves and wanted to take their own initiative to ready the community for the onslaught of expected tourists and visitors with the opening of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway. So we identified funds for two years to assist the community to get started. They were also successful in accessing funds from the Government of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In our response to the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, dated November 29, 2017, to this very question, we advised that: "Regular Members can identify the need for policy development and direction through any government-initiated consultation process, for example the review of the draft energy strategy, and standing committee can at any time propose the issuance of specific policy direction to the Public Utilities Board." Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows, with this new federal government, there have been certainly increased interactions at all levels, and with a lot more of the work being done in Ottawa. There's been a substantial increase in what we call FPTs, or federal-provincial-territorial meetings. Specifically, the deputy secretary will provide strategic advice to the Premiers, Ministers, secretary to Cabinet, and deputy ministers on an engagement that the federal government aim at achieving the Government of the Northwest Territories' key objectives; lead the development of an updated...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly believe that we can accomplish that. We bring in all of the GSOs for training at least twice a year. We also have a plan, so we will have an idea. We have GSOs currently who assist smaller communities nearby. They assist with the coverage. They can certainly assist with the capacity building. Some of the smaller centres, we have halftime positions, as well, so I believe that we can certainly develop a plan so that we can not only train people but we can also cover all of the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said, the Department of Executive only provides administrative services to the PUB, and the PUB has one staff, and that staff looks after the administrative arrangements for the Public Utilities Board. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I said MACA deals with volunteerism. I think this fund primarily promotes community services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're certainly prepared to do that. We will find out which communities have radio stations, and I'm sure we can get our GSOs to go on the air and talk about some of the services that they can provide, and educate, and communicate the programs and services that are available to people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to muddy the waters, but as we have said before for those regions or Aboriginal governments that have land claims that have negotiated arrangements where these types of cabins are not fully taxed or they are not taxed, we have been talking at least to the NWT Metis Nation where we are expecting we are very close to having an agreement. We have asked them to quantify the issue and we are going to look at what arrangements can be done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is we thought we were responding positively to requests from the standing committees, specifically the Standing Committee on Government Operations. It is my expectation, and I certainly believe that this responsibility is more properly housed within the Department of Infrastructure. I expect the appropriate direction will emanate from that department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is MACA has responsibilities for volunteerism and other voluntary services, and also dealing with the communities. So they're in a much better situation to deal with the funding requests and the services that are provided through that fund. Thank you, Mr. Chair.