Caroline Cochrane

I am well aware that this is not a federal government issue; this is a territorial issue. Like I said before, we are not finished the strategic plan. We are still working with the Association of Communities to deal with it. I would like to bring attention to, however, in my personal opinion, the territorial government is also underfunded, and that is a federal issue.

I empathize with all of the communities. I would love to have money that I could give to every community and every department. We all need money, but I think we are all well aware that the economy is not very good at this time, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. During the process of the 2017-2018 budget, this was brought to our attention. It was brought to our attention on many departments that were actually looking at providing the cuts over a number of years. This was presented to all MLAs, and the budget was passed at that time with the understanding that this was going to happen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct. The Fire Prevention Act is being reviewed, and we are expecting that there will be changes within this Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the analysis was done of the shortfall of community governments a number of years ago, every single year, Cabinet has provided extra money towards that. We are hopeful that that will continue.

We are working at the moment with the NWT Association of Communities to finalize the plan, and at this point, we are not yet finished. Right now, what I can say is that every year there has been an increase, and I am hopeful that that will continue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the MLA is correct. We are seeing an increase in seniors who are applying for this, and so this is a forced growth figure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have done reallocations internally to be able to provide that position within our headquarters department at the Office of the Fire Marshal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is, no, that a lawyer of the Department of Justice cannot go in even in camera to share that with committee. The other important thing to note is that we are also working with the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs on this. It is a pretty sensitive issue. At this point, no, Justice does not share that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is actually quite cumbersome with the $370,000. We allocated some resources to establish a senior policy analysis that was $15,000. The 911, at the beginning, we estimated that we would need money. Let me just look. Actually, Mr. Chair, this is quite cumbersome. I am going to switch it to Gary Schauerte, if you are okay with that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will take that as a comment.

Thank you. We should have said legal review versus legal opinion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.