Vince McKay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we pretty much already do a lot of that stuff. We do offer the communities support with the development of the emergency plans and also provide the training. So yes, I will consider what the Member's requesting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I'm aware of is nothing has been fully done or looked at yet until the afteraction review is complete that we're currently doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ICS program is a nationally and internationally recognized program. It's a common one that's used for these types of incidents. I'm interested in looking at this and seeing what we can do to develop it; however, I don't know what our grounds are on fully dictating to the communities what their EMO structures may look like. But at the end of the day, the department does work with the communities to establish these guidelines and assist them in developing them, which also includes recommending the type of training and offering some free training to the communities so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, with the Act and the regulations, we don't have detail to that level; however, I am looking forward after the afteraction review is complete to reviewing all these documents to see what changes need to or may need to be changed. Currently, MACA does offer the incident command system training, the ICS100, to all community levels, but we do not mandate it at that time. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too have sat on council for 15 years, so this has always been a topic in my agenda, and I ran on it with my elections. I'm sure you all are aware of that. But I would like to thank the Members for bringing this motion to the floor today. I agree with the Members on the important role of municipal governments and the importance of funding communities appropriately.

I want to take the moment to share some information on what funding MACA provides. MACA currently provides over $120 million in annual funding through community government funding policies. This funding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure the Member is aware, but the funding that the government gets is federal funding that we receive, and those pots are allocated through the formula funding that we have that go through all the communities. So we would not be able to retroactively commit to providing funds retroactively for the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The city of Yellowknife and Yellowknives Dene First Nation jointly submitted a boundary change request under the Executive Council Community Boundaries Policy. In December 2022, MACA requested additional information from the city regarding the proposed boundary line and its impact on adjacent land and improvements. The city provided its response in December 2023.

During the December 2022 meeting between DKFN and the city and MACA, a DKFN representative indicated that they were reviewing their land withdrawal areas and considering changes that might impact the proposed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order to discuss a timeline, the DKFN would have to make the separate submission on behalf of the residents of N'dilo to be considered a separate community government once boundary issues have been resolved with the city of Yellowknife. If a newer community is formed, MACA's current community funding budget would be reallocated amongst 33 communities rather than 32. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we are currently funding 32 communities in the Northwest Territories and at this time, until these meetings are held and discussions are agreed to, we will stick to our current policy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to introduce, to my right, the deputy minister, Gary Brennan. And to my right, director of corporate affairs, Jennifer Young.