Robert C. McLeod

We have communicated our desire to work with the community and they have communicated their desire to look at some of the options of establishing their own water treatment plant. The letter that we’ve received from them, they had laid out some options, and we would like to sit down with them and work on some of those options. If there needs to be some changes made to the way the community is funded, we would have to look at that also. They’ve made the initial communication that they have a desire to establish their own water treatment plant.

We do have some right now that we allocate to some communities that apply for it. It helps them with equipment mostly. We have to understand that there’s a huge liability issue in trying to provide emergency service in a lot of communities. If they’re not qualified, then that would put more residents at risk and put the communities or the individuals in a liability issue. So we have to explore all those options.

There is $200,000 now that is allocated to a number of communities. As the Member said, we only have three communities that have taken us up on it, but a lot of this is to help with...

Mr. Speaker, the intent is to have something by December of this year that we could possibly share. Obviously, there is a lot of work that needs to go into this to make sure we get a product that best serves all the people of the Northwest Territories. By December of this year, we are hoping to have something that we can have a discussion with committee about. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Originally this money was slated to sunset because we thought this would just be a temporary program until we can work out the details for a full-blown ambulance service once we did all the work, but it was committee’s wish that we reinstate this money. We are still a little ways off from coming forward with another plan on providing a wider scale of service.

As far as the application process goes, the communities know the drill. They have a pretty good idea of how they can access this money. However, I will commit to the Member that I will do some research into the...

Mr. Speaker, we do keep tabs on the community spending. We work with communities. This here is just to see if this accountability framework is meeting their needs. Is it working for them? Is communication between the community and MACA? Are there ways we can improve? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because we have given the communities a lot more responsibility and a lot more financing, the purpose of the accountability framework is to work closely with the communities to have a pretty transparent system of how that money is dealt with. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we could have asked them to report once a year. That may not have been enough to satisfy some Members. We could have asked them to report 12 times a year. We thought for the first part, this would be a good starting point. If there are other options we can explore in the future such as less reporting once things get rolled out really good, then there may not be a need for further reporting. I am sure the communities will let us know that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wouldn’t say it is to keep tabs on the communities. I would call it work closely with the communities to ensure that public funds are spent the way they should be. It is more of a communication tool. We want to make sure that public funds are well looked after. Thank you.

We know what the impact is going to be on the seniors. I have no problem in the next couple of months of sitting down with the NWT Seniors’ Society and getting some input from them. We know what the impact is going to be on the seniors. The seniors know what the impact is going to be on themselves. It’s going to be $35 a month, half of what we had originally intended to charge, come July 1st and next year it’s going to be $70 a month. If there’s an opportunity to meet with the seniors, I have no issue in sitting down and having a discussion with them. As far as an official consultation where...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The purpose of the delay was we listened to what committee had to say, their desire to have those out there that have paid zero for so many years adjust to have them start paying rent now. So we listened to what committee had to say and some Members had to say. We listened to some of the comments from the NWT Seniors’ Society. Thank you.