Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am assuming the need he’s talking about is the gymnasium in Nahanni Butte.

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Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of need across the board. We have to recognize that there is still considerable demand for investment in our water and sewer programs. We have had, in the last while, guidelines set with the federal government as to how we are going to deal with water, how we are going to deal with waste water. We have to make sure we can invest in those things. Some of the dollars that are flowing forward from the federal government come with criteria attached to where...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been focused on the youth in terms of our initiatives over the last while; we will continue to do so. I certainly will heed to the direction provided by the Members over the recreation facility issue in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think it is my position to side or give my opinion as to where I personally think the Village of Fort Simpson should belong, whether a tax-based or a hamlet. My job as Minister of MACA is to ensure that we have healthy and prosperous communities. If Fort Simpson has a problem with financing in the capacity of village status, I would certainly want to talk to them about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t often get an opportunity to recognize visitors in the gallery, so I want to take this opportunity to recognize a number of people. First of all, Blake Lyons, president of the NWTAC, is here with us, and also Yvette Gonzales, the executive director of the NWTAC. They are joining us today. We have the mayor of Enterprise, Winnie Cadieux, here along with Don Gray, the acting SAO. I would like to welcome them here.

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I would also like to welcome Mayor Raymond Michaud here to the gallery today. I believe we also have Maggi Levavasseur here...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if I’m understanding the question correctly, but we are doing it already. We’re paying for all of what the Member has pointed out with our own sources. Right now, with the transfer of revenues from the property taxes, the communities will enjoy revenues that they don’t currently get and without the burden of the administration for the interim. At some point we’d like the communities to take it on and we will require additional resources, but at this point we are looking at doing it ourselves through the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs and Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is quite right; there are a number of different components to this whole initiative that we have to work out over the next while. The issue of property taxes being transferred or reverted to the communities in terms of a grant is something that we plan to do in this next fiscal year. We are not planning to change how we collect those fees at this point. The Department of Finance will continue to collect them and we will provide those monies to the communities that they’re collected in, in the form of a grant. So we’re planning to use our own forces, our own...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think we would have all our review completed before the end of this session. I would point out, however, to the honourable Member, that the village was operating in the capacity of a village for some time. It has only been in the last while that they have been experiencing some problems. There have been programs to provide subsidy to a number of communities. This community has been one of them. We want to take a good look at it. Let’s find out where the problem is. If there is a problem, is it how the village spends its money? Is it the formula? What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last little while, we have had very good success in negotiating new pools of money for the communities to deal with some of the infrastructure deficit that we are facing. We have had an agreement or we received assurance that the money for the gas taxes is going to be rolled out in a certain way. That formula has been shared with us. We know we are going to get $37.5 million over the next five years under that program. We also heard today the Finance Minister announce that we will be looking at a base funding for capital for communities of $25...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, Mr. Roland, Mr. Krutko and myself had the privilege of attending the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services long service awards. With so much talk these days of trying to recruit and retain health care professionals, it was encouraging to see so many people honoured for the service that they have provided to the regions. Honoured for 10 years, Mr. Speaker, were Jacqueline Doucette, Lucy Geno-Heath, Julie Rivard, Agnes Allen, and Michelle Lennie. Honoured for 15 years' service, Mr. Speaker, were Jane Baryluk, Olive Binder, Pat Grandy, Clara Phillips and...

Mr. Speaker, I’m trying to figure out which community would turn down money. If the community does not want to take the grant that we provide, that we collected in terms of property taxes, they don’t have to. We’re not forcing it on anybody. Thank you.