Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Usually when there’s a request to have a site visit, we would go in. If the Member wants more detail, then I’d be happy to have a briefing note put together for him.

I am pleased to present the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ main estimates for the fiscal year 2013-2014.

The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $98.8 million, an increase of $3.25 million, or 3.4 percent, from the 2012-2013 Main Estimates. The increase consists primarily of $3.68 million in forced growth funding, offset by funding that is sunsetting this fiscal year.

MACA has a broad mandate, focusing on community governments but also providing a range of programs aimed at sport and recreation, youth and volunteers. Of the proposed 2013-2014...

Mr. Chair, I have all evening too, so I am prepared to answer all the questions that the Member is going to have on every single page that we are reviewing. If I missed an answer in all his questions in my replies to general comments, I apologize. Hopefully we can continue to debate the numbers in the budget and the work that we’re doing. We do try.

We have a number of programs. Get Active NWT is one where through the Sport and Rec. I think it is the NWT Parks and Rec Association where they do a lot of fantastic work. We’ve actually had one group take us up on some funding. We had an Elders in...

This year all of them have seen an increase.

MACA plays a valuable role on the board and our deputy takes part in a lot of the discussions that go on there as to what type of programs they should be looking at. We play a valuable role on the board. We’re not just a financial contributor. I can gather more information and do a little bit of research, and I’ll be happy to sit down with the Member and share my findings with him.

Mr. Chair, actually, I think the Member is free to ask questions on any page he chooses. If he chooses to ask them on this page, then I will do my best to try and answer it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $90,000 was money that we did receive from the federal government. Some of this I think we distributed to some communities to help with their emergency action plans. Joint Emergency Preparedness is the name of the program. This program was discontinued by the federal government and they’re looking at replacing it with a program called the Disaster Mitigation Program now. We’re not quite sure of the details. We have some discussions with my federal counterpart, Mr. Lebel, and we’re hoping to get some information soon as far as what this program consists of and what...

We always act in the best interest of community governments.

Mr. Chair, as far as new initiatives and youth go, we’re just continuing to enhance the programs that we already have in place. Obviously, we are always looking at ways we can improve the programs we provide to our youth. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member raises a number of fairly good points. I do want to assure the Member that through the departmental working group, we are looking at a number of things that she actually spoke to. She talked about equipment and that’s one thing they’re looking at, maintenance, administration, training, planning, budgeting and operations. I take the Member’s point very seriously, though, that we do have some folks that are responding to accidents outside their boundaries and they are actually paying for it. So the Member’s point is well taken and I can assure the Member that as...