Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get, if the Minister doesn't have it now, a commitment to come back with how many people take and have taken School of Community Government courses, essentially? I know there are lots of courses in different areas, but I want to know how much it is utilized. The number of students, I guess they would be called. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When I look at the School of Community Government, I've heard tangentially from a few communities that it's good, but it's $3 million of the budget that I don't really know much about. My question to the Minister is: I know it doesn't necessarily operate as a school, per se, but is there an annual report or some sort of document where I can find out more information about the School of Community Government? I've looked on the website, and it seems that it's kind of sparse in the reporting. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Listen, I fully support the engagement work. I fully support working with Dettah to bring their fire services online. I support working with every other community. I think there's a big question of how taxes work on the Ingraham Trail and where that money goes, whether there should be a fire levy for services. In the past, the city used to charge, if you called a fire truck, you actually paid the City of Yellowknife a few thousand dollars. There are options. Those options and that work is not going to be completed in the next few weeks, and there is no way that this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that, in our capital budget, there is a relatively fixed amount that goes to the communities every year and that's based on the funding formula, but from what I'm hearing, then, if $18 million disappears over a budget, it doesn't actually affect the funding formula, given that it's federal money. Can I just get a clarification if that's correct? Essentially, with the exception of the gas tax, federal infrastructure money does not then feed into the need assessment that we make for municipal infrastructure. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to read from Hansard where the Minister has repeatedly said, "I am confident that we will reach something by that deadline," that deadline being April 1st. I recognize there are needs outside of all of the territories. I fully support us finding those agreements with every single municipality that has to provide services outside of a boundary. In this case, people's insurance is either going to either expire or go up on April 1st. I have repeatedly said that the only possible solution now, given we have about five weeks, and I don't even know if it is possible...

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get an understanding, perhaps first a clarification? I believe these numbers might be slightly misleading in that there is a $19-million budget of last year and $18 million this year, but is that actually what was spent? Will that be the actuals, or can I just get a sense of this number? Is that what we are budgeting that then, if approved, we would hand out, become an actual, or have we actually been spending $20 million last year and expecting to next year? Sorry. I am trying to rephrase that properly. Are we going to spend $18 million this year on this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe one last thing. I don't want to wait until February 2022 before I have any input into the Fire Prevention Act, so if I could get the Minister to provide just a summary of what is being planned. In that, I would like the question answered whether this is going to be beyond fire prevention and be a building standards act, whether we are going to look at the entire national building code and the northern building code, whether we are going to look at accessibility legislation, whether that is part of the scope of work that we are doing right now, and I would like...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get confirmation that this section also includes all the information items for MACA? Thank you, Madam Chair. I am seeing you nodding. Can I have an update on the New Building Canada Plan, Small Community Fund? My understanding is that this fund is about 10 years old now. It was instituted by the Harper government. I see that it's about $20 million a year of municipal infrastructure funding. When will that money end? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I caution the department. Early 2023 means there are a couple of sittings and then an election. It's very hard to get legislation passed early 2023. I think with this one, specifically, getting an LP in 2022, if it's not going in the right direction, we are at risk of not passing this once again. One of those directions, as has been repeatedly asked by the NWT Association of Communities, is that this actually be a building standards act, that we look at the work of developing a northern building code; we look at how the GNWT Good Building Practices apply to the...

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's not so much that I want it. I just believe I would like it to be publicly reported, so can I get a commitment that it will be made public? I can go look who won in 2015, where the money went, but then it just kind of fell off the map when MACA got hold of it. I am looking for public reporting. Thank you, Madam Chair.