Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I’ll have to follow up on that. I understand there may have been some issues there. I’m not quite sure what the issues were, but I will follow up and share with the Member some of the information that I receive. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have a few projects that are here in the capital. We are just trying to find the dollar value. If we can’t come up with it right away, I will commit to getting that dollar value to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we allocated X amount of dollars to every community, but they have to come up through an application process to justify the amount of money that we’re giving them. So, say if they were getting $110,000 – we’ll use that for an example – they have to have some projects, put an application in place for $110,000. If we just put it into one big pot and it was application-based then we’ve have competition from all 33 communities, so we thought doing it this way was probably one of the easiest ways to have some of the smaller communities that might be lacking some capacity to get their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a great facility in Aklavik and I was glad to be part of the opening. We still have a bit of work to do in the front of the building. We have some landscaping and that to do. I think that’s going to be taken care of next summer, I believe. I’m not sure about the deck. I would have to check to see if there is an opportunity in the future to put a larger deck on there.

The Member has been very diligent in bringing concerns of his constituents forward. Unfortunately, some of the decisions that are made are ones that he wasn’t aware of or because of one reason or another, folks were declined for some of the programs.

We have done a number of things to try and get as many people qualified for programs as possible. I think we have one affordable housing unit left in Detah and our desire would have been to find a suitable client to put into that unit. Failing that, as we did in some of the other communities, we have actually turned it into a public housing unit.

T...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Part of the formula funding review was to make some adjustment, because we had found that some of the smaller communities had just about all the infrastructure they need at the moment. Some of their biggest challenges, I think, was the O and M on some of the infrastructure they have. So I think we’ve allowed them to use I think it was up to 10 percent of their CPI funding to help with the O and M.

On the larger centres, part of the formula funding review, again, was to go on a needs-based assessment. We recognize that some of the larger centres are facing more pressures...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s actually the Centre for Northern Families and it’s the whole building that’s going to be upgraded.

We had originally intended to start this work I think early in the life of the 18th Assembly, but we fast-tracked it and did the formula funding review work before the end of this Assembly. Once the 18th Assembly comes into being, they will have to have a look at the fiscal situation. If there are opportunities to increase the money to the communities, then the Minister of the day will have to bring that forward and try to get the funds increased. So, the work has already been completed, Mr. Chair.

Not at this point. As we plan as we go forward here, we’ll have to look at each community and their needs going forward. We did, I think, have a couple of duplexes or triplexes that were planned for Fort Simpson, but because of the situation there, we’re trying to find ways we can get that product on the ground. As far as immediate future, it’s not in the plan right now, but again, as we go forward and as the 18th Assembly goes forward then they’ll start identifying some of their needs in the communities.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of MACA; and to my right, Ms. Eleanor Young, who is the assistant deputy minister of MACA.