Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We always take the position to deal with the communities that accumulate a deficit and I’d like to point out we only have, I think this year we have four communities that have accumulated deficits and we continue to work with a recovery plan, we work on doing analysis where they may have overspent or where there are issues about shortfall. So we’ll continue to do those things. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have a copy of the proposal here and I would be glad to share it with Minister Dent. This proposal was given to me personally by the Children First Society. I will share that with Mr. Dent as soon as we are done here. I would like to ask the Minister if the department has done any work into estimating additional cost of housing childcare programs in schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been working on a number of funding allocations that we provide to the communities. We have had discussions with the NWT Association of Communities. We have had discussions with LGANT, Local Government Administrators in the Northwest Territories, and we’ve also had a discussion in the communities with the different municipalities about a number of areas where we provide funding. Of course, the New Deal is something that’s on the drawing board and we have rolled out the information and communications to the community. We’ve also been allocated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the budget session, I asked questions of Minister Dent on the early childhood facility that they were hoping to incorporate into the new school in Inuvik. The government leases buildings, we look for office space, we try to build office space and the people of the Children First Society come forward with a good business case and I believe the government should build this facility and lease it back to them. They are willing to do that. They are willing to give the government back some money. The Minister, at the time, committed to go back to his FMB...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the budget session, I spoke to the desire of the Children First Society in Inuvik to have their needs incorporated into a new school being built up in Inuvik. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak on the work that they continue to do.

I believe theirs is a worthy cause, Mr. Speaker, and I will continue to be an advocate for the society. Mr. Speaker, the society has put together an excellent proposal to justify their position. Over 30 businesses and agencies have given letters of support and close to 300 residents have given their support by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the budgets for this year have already been set. I would have to take that under consideration and review the situation with each community. Each community has unique needs and we have historically dealt with the communities and tried to address the issues that are causing them concern and will continue to do so, and if there’s a mechanism of working some kind of fiscal arrangement, then we’ll explore those options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there is and some discussion has already taken place. There is discussions and concerns brought forward by the two associations that we work with and have working groups with. We have had discussions with the community. We’ve been alerted of areas of concern. For the most part, the communities have come back and informed us that the funding formula is okay but the funding amount may be not adequate. So they’re asking us not to change the formula, but maybe look at the amounts that are allocated through the formula and that maybe we need to do...

Now, the thing that I'm having difficulty with, it says Inuvik. That's the only thing.

---Laughter

---Interjection

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today about several ground search and rescue initiatives implemented by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

The department recently produced new ground search and rescue training standards, which will be used to train community representatives in ground search and rescue techniques. Community representatives will then use the standards to train their individual ground search and rescue teams.

Training standards will ensure all participants are trained to the same level and individuals who volunteer are safely employed during any search operation...

Mr. Chairman, we did incorporate a cost recovery program for the initial capital cost for this project for the expansion of the passenger terminal building. We did receive money for the capital cost from CATSA. The fees we did increase were the landing fees and general terminal fees. That is not something we have looked at in this case. We are looking at an increase through a supp to accommodate the extra costs. I guess if there is no desire to move forward with this, we would either have to take it from within, from another project. I am not sure where we would take it from, but we would...