Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister responsible for dust control. I’m not too sure where he’ll take it, but I think that this issue has been around this House for some time. A number of years ago, we had a pilot project that they put forward to look at main street chipseal. We had different programs in regards to dust control. This issue is real in our small communities. It is a health issue. I think that we do have to find a way to facilitate those communities that are dealing with dust control. I would like to ask the Minister, who is responsible for this department, what is the government doing to work with communities?
I know we have infrastructure funding. We have money that is allocated to communities. Again, there was a core program that was developed in regards to main street chipseal. I would like to know, is the government finding ways to implement that program so that we can be able to accomplish that in communities that are looking at dust control?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The chipseal program that was out a few years ago was part of the capital process when the transfer or the implementation of the New Deal, the money that went to the communities and then they determined their priorities and if dust control was one of the priorities, they identified and put the money towards it. We have seen lately in some of the plans that we are getting back from communities, a lot of them are starting to identify dust control as a priority and they are starting to put the funds towards it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The problem that I see with that suggestion is community gas tax dollars don’t cover a $600,000 or $700,000 capital project. We have to work with those communities to share costs, work with the Department of Transportation, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, to find a workable project, a pilot project or whatever, to assist those communities to deliver dust control in their communities. That’s the issue. What are we doing as a government, and Association of Communities, and the communities, to find the solution to dust controls in communities? Thank you.
The communities are continuing to do what they can to do control dust in their communities. The problem is we’ve transferred all the capital dollars to the communities, so they have the ability to make their own decisions. As a department, we have no infrastructure dollars left.
It’s a fairly new process. Communities are starting to buy into it. A lot of communities are identifying dust control as a priority and they are starting to put some of their funds towards it. We continue to work with the communities, with their infrastructure plans and identifying some of their priorities and even helping them to identify their funding sources and going through that process with them. A lot of them are doing very well at it and continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Again, I believe we are talking about a different level of communities. I know that the majority of the main paving projects that are taking place in the infrastructure funding and the capital dollars are in large, municipal centres. I’m talking about small communities such as Tsiigehtchic or Aklavik or Wrigley. Communities like that have a problem. I know I’ve heard my colleague from Nahendeh say this is an issue in his riding. It’s an issue in Fort McPherson. We’re trying to deal with it. Is there a way that they can develop a program similar to the main street chipseal program to work in conjunction with small communities that don’t have the infrastructure capacity, don’t have the equipment, to take on this type of a project? Again, I’d like to ask, will this government consider looking at that alternative to deal with dust control in our communities?
A lot of the larger communities that do have paving have identified or used some of their Building Canada money and some other funding, infrastructure stimulus funding, some have used that and they have identified paving as one of their priorities and put their money towards that. Some of the smaller communities had different priorities when this money rolled out, but are starting to see now that they are starting to identify chipseal as one of their priorities, dust control as one of their priorities and they are taking steps to address that. However, we will continue to work with the communities in identifying solutions and identifying how they can go about that. At the end of the day, the actual funding and the request will come from communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reason I raise this question is the community of Wrigley had $250,000 down for dust control for their community. They were refused because they weren’t able to match the $250,000. They don’t have the capacity to match $250,000. So how are we expecting the other communities to make this a priority if they can’t afford to implement it? Again, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister, can they look at this issue regardless of whether it’s a special project or pilot project or fly on the wall to find a way to solve this issue. Can the Minister commit to look at this issue with his colleagues and Members from small communities to try to find a workable solution to this problem?
We’ll always continue to work with NWTAC, which represents all communities across the Territories, and LGANT, the local government administrators. We’ll continue with them. The way the process is laid out now -- and I’ve responded in some of my answers to some of the other Members’ questions that we try to spread everything around -- we want to give communities the opportunity to make these decisions themselves. If there is money available and it’s cost-shared, then they would be responsible for matching those dollars. If we start doing one-offs again, then we’ll get into a situation where everybody can say you did it for that community, you have to do it for us, and then we’re back to having a corporate capital plan that takes a lot of the authority-making decisions out of the communities. But we will continue to work with communities.
I have to say again, I have seen a great improvement and a great willingness on the communities that have taken on this new money and all the authority that’s coming with it. They are really starting to come up with some excellent projects and something as a community they don’t have to wait forever for. It’s like my answer right now is kind of taking forever, so I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
