Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the budget for the Aboriginal Sport Circle…. I mean, if we’re looking at increasing budgets, particularly for youth groups, I’m sure that would be taken into consideration. That would come up during our review. Any increase would come up during the review of the business plans, which we’ll be undertaking in a couple of weeks.

Those commitments are coming back to bite me. I did say that we would do a review, and I commit again to the Member that we will do a review. Once we’re done sitting in the House, we’ll have an opportunity to sit down with the department and give them a schedule of when I’d like to see a review done. I will certainly pass that information on to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, we do have the ecoTrust. That was the program whereby we provided incentives to NWT residents to reduce their costs. In this case we were providing incentives to people who were purchasing vehicles that were fuel efficient, and certainly that is one area where we are helping people. The Energy Priorities document, we sent it out for discussion. We are seeking input from the general public, and certainly if it is seen as a gap, we would look at it. I should point out to the Member that with the ecoTrust program and energy conservation, our focus has shifted more to energy...

As the Minister of MACA I can’t make a commitment of funds on behalf of other Ministers. However, I will commit again that MACA’s staff will work with community governments in Tu Nedhe to see what options they have and support them in ensuring their equipment and planning and preventative maintenance needs are looked after.

MACA provides O&M formula funding to all community governments to support them in operating and maintenance in their communities. They do a review every couple of years to see if there’s an increase that might be needed because of the high cost of living and supplying these services. MACA is always willing to support community governments to try to find the most cost-effective ways to take care of the equipment they have in the community.

The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee is already working in that area.

Mr. Speaker, that is an area…. We’re at a disadvantage. There are shortages, but we have been working with the Arctic Energy Alliance, which has been providing a significant number of programs to fill that gap. As part of our energy priorities this is an area we want to look at. As well, we will be working with the municipalities and the NWT Association of Communities so we can find ways to provide that expertise. Certainly through some of the federal programs there are a number of initiatives that could assist.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of initiatives underway that deal with the issue of energy initiatives and also mitigating climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas strategy that is being developed by the government would be looking at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We all know that transportation is probably, as the Member indicated, the largest sector in terms of producing greenhouse gas emissions, so that is the area we would be looking at.

As I said earlier, MACA is doing all it can and will continue and commit to working with the communities to identify their equipment and come up with any type of plan that they can. This is the early stage of the New Deal, and MACA is always willing help the communities come up with a plan until they’re to a point where the capacity is there to take care of all this type of information themselves.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of the New Deal the authority for capital infrastructure was transferred over to the communities. Along with that transfer came the responsibility for maintaining a lot of the equipment they have. Having said that, MACA does work with the community governments to establish preventative maintenance plans to ensure that equipment lasts for a while. There are also the community works advisers in each regional office to assist the communities in coming up with these plans.