Michael McLeod

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there was some costing assessed to see if we could do some temporary fixes to bring the facility to a stage where we could continue to use this facility. These costs were in excess of $7 million, and it’s not an option we’d like to follow.

We would prefer that ECE look at either a new facility or modular units. We were considering Arctic Tern, but I think that’s not an option anymore, not for the time being.

There are a number of options that are under review. ECE is looking at different ways to do this, and we will be working with them to try to locate another location...

I thought I was pretty clear that the core funding does not come directly from us. It does come from the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take the opportunity today as the lead Minister of the Building Our Future Strategic Initiative Committee to provide an update on the planned actions of this committee.

As you know, the Building Our Future initiative is one of five strategic initiatives that form the backbone of our government’s strategic approach. This initiative focuses on our future by making significant investments in prevention and long-term social well-being of the population of the Northwest Territories. These investments build on our significant base of programs and services that...

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship with all the sport organizations, including the Aboriginal Sport Circle. We meet with them on a very regular basis. They have some new staff. They’ve taken a new approach and set some new directions that we’re quite excited and pleased to see. We meet with them. I met with them, in fact, yesterday. They’re doing a very good job on the North American Indigenous Games. They have relayed to us their concerns as to core funding, and we will continue to support them.

We have, in the last while, lobbied the federal government to provide increased...

Mr. Speaker, this government spends approximately $5 million in the area of sport and recreation. That’s including the support we provide to our five non-governmental organizations that work with the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners, and they allocate the funding. It is part of their mandate to coordinate a system that recognizes their priorities and to provide direction. We also expect them to provide the resources fairly. On top of the support that’s provided by Sport and Rec, we as government also work with the Aboriginal Sport Circle to provide funding to go to the North...

Mr. Chairman, we’ll have Michael Aumond, the deputy minister, explain the discrepancy here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s always good to hear kind remarks about some of the work we’ve been taking on.

There are a number of things that we’ve focused on this time around as we brought our budget forward. We’ve really tried to focus our reductions on areas that we felt would avoid cutbacks to programs or program areas — some of the statutory requirements and programs that are scheduled to sunset or had significant concerns from the Members of this House. It’s also allowed us, in our new initiatives, to bring some investment to an area of real concern, and that is deferred maintenance. We...

Mr. Chairman, the intent of providing the service to the community would be…. If, while we’re in the community and doing our own facilities and buildings, the community was interested in us doing the scan on any of their buildings, we would provide that at no cost. Should a request come in for us to specifically come in to do scans on any building that’s owned by a community, we would expect them to pay for our travel costs but not the actual scanning.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have a total of roughly $7.5 million in our budget to start working on the deferred maintenance issues. We plan to have that as an ongoing program. This amount would give us the ability to deal with around ten buildings per year.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. With me today to present the Public Works and Services Main Estimates is Mike Aumond, the deputy minister, on my right; and on my left is John Gabel, director of the Technology Service Centre.