Agreed.
Okay. With that, we’ll take a short break and then begin with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
---SHORT RECESS
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. As we agreed prior to the break, we will begin with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. At this time, I’d like to ask the Minister responsible if he has any opening comments. Mr. Robert McLeod.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here today to discuss the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ 2010-2011 Main Estimates. The department’s main estimates indicate that $91.288 million is required for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. This is an increase of $5.2 million or 6 percent from last year’s main estimates. The funding change is related to increased funding for community governments to address forced growth, ongoing increasing strategic investments to focus on youth programming and services, and the establishment of stable, ongoing funding to support large multisport games events.
Of the $91.2 million in funding required for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, $71.1 million or 78 percent of the total budget is to be provided in the form of grants and contributions, primarily to our key stakeholders: community governments. The capital main estimates, approved in fall 2009, provided $28 million in infrastructure contribution funding for community governments in 2010-2011 to plan for and address their capital infrastructure priorities.
MACA’s main estimates include almost $3 million in increased funding for strategic initiatives that support the 16th Legislative Assembly’s goals of healthy, educated people. A large portion of this strategic initiative funding is allocated to youth, including an increase of $200,000 for youth programs, the establishment of $400,000 in new funding for regional youth sports events where the department will provide funding to support sports events for youth in each region, and increased funding of $450,000 to provide for the establishment of three new regional youth officer positions.
There are currently two existing youth officer positions located at the Inuvik and Deh Cho regions that provide youth programming to all community governments throughout the Northwest Territories. The increased funding will result in new regional youth officer positions in the North and South Slave regions to deliver enhanced youth programs and services in each region.
MACA is developing a territory-wide Youth Development Strategy to ensure the priorities identified by youth, community residents and Members of the Legislative Assembly are addressed. The Youth Development Strategy will improve our efforts to continue successful programming and develop new tools. The increased funding in 2010-2011 will support the delivery of the Youth Development Strategy and will provide a framework for our various youth programming and services. MACA is currently consulting on the development of the strategy and anticipates that it will be released publicly in the fall of 2010.
Funding of $500,000, unchanged from the 2009-2010 fiscal year, is also included in MACA’s budget for youth centres. MACA first established this program in 2008-2009 and there has been significant interest and uptake in the program since that time. In the current fiscal year, MACA has provided funding of approximately $17,000 each to 30 different youth centres. The centres use this funding to provide for core operational costs, allowing the centres to use funding obtained from fundraising and other external sources for youth programming.
MACA’s budget also includes an increase of $415,000 for enhanced implementation of departmental initiatives related to the Healthy Choices Framework. This framework is an interdepartmental initiative of MACA, Health and Social Services, and Education, Culture and Employment. In the current fiscal year, MACA has a budget of $200,000 and is using this funding to work with our partners to pilot an after school physical activity program. Eighteen pilot programs will be implemented throughout the Northwest Territories over the period of January to June 2010.
The pilot programs will promote physical activity by providing for the purchase of much needed sports equipment and the launch of new physical activity initiatives. Increased funding made available in the 2010-2011 budget will be used to expand this after school program.
During the current fiscal year, MACA was provided with funding to establish a permanent, stable budget for multisport games events and the 2010-2011 budget reflects funding of $650,000 for this purpose. This funding will be provided annually to the Sport and Recreation Council to support Team NWT participation at the Arctic Winter Games, the North American Indigenous Games, the Canada Games and the Western Canada Games.
MACA’s 2010-2011 budget reflects the deletion of one-time funding approved in 2009-2010 of just over $1 million related to the 2010 Olympics. The majority of this funding is being used to support targeted youth initiatives such as the Youth Ambassadors Program and the Inuit and Dene Games Demonstrations Program. Other funding was also made available to support sport volunteers under the Skilled Sports Volunteers Program and for the Olympic Torch Relay. The participants involved in these programs are very excited about their role and involvement with the 2010 Olympics and I know we are all looking forward to following their progress at the upcoming games.
A one-time funding increase of $150,000 provided to the Arctic Energy Alliance in 2009-2010 has also been removed from MACA’s budget. Total funding of $300,000 is being provided to the alliance this fiscal year for additional resources to hire additional staff to assist community governments with the completion of their community energy plans by March 31, 2010. The Gas Tax Agreement requires that all community governments complete an integrated community sustainability plan by this date and a community energy plan is one component. All community governments are anticipated to have their integrated community sustainability plans complete by the deadline.
The role of the alliance in community energy planning will shift in 2010-2011 to continue to help community governments update and implement their plans and MACA will provide funding of $150,000 to the alliance to assist with this process.
The 2010-2011 budget includes funding for ongoing activities, including the multi-departmental Drinking Water Quality Framework and the Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Services Program. The Drinking Water Quality Framework is delivered in partnership with Public Works and Services, Environment and Natural Resources and Health and Social Services. MACA provides training to water treatment plant operators, helps communities obtain water licences, and provides technical support, advice and assistance. The Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Services Program is delivered in cooperation with the Department of Health and Social Services. This funding assists eligible community governments with training, minor capital upgrades and enhancements and equipment.
The Maximizing Opportunities Initiative provides funding for the regulatory oversight and coordination related to the Mackenzie Gas Project. MACA’s budget includes funding of $408,000, unchanged from the 2009-2010 budget, to provide for three term staff to undertake review of new land use permits, plan reviews and other regulatory applications. There is also an ongoing need for the continued coordination of pipeline readiness activities in the department and other departments and with community governments. In 2009-2010, MACA deleted funding for two of the three positions from its budget and MACA will not proceed with hiring for all positions until there is greater certainty around the next steps with the project.
MACA’s budget includes forced growth funding of approximately $3.6 million or 7.3 percent for community governments to support their operations and maintenance activities, to deliver their water and sewer programs, to provide for grants-in-lieu of property taxes, and rebates to seniors and disabled persons for property taxation rebates.
There is also a funding increase for the Property Taxation Grant Program which provides a grant to most non-tax-based community governments equivalent to the actual amount of property taxes paid to the Government of the Northwest Territories by community residents.
In addition to reflecting forced growth requirements, the 2010-2011 funding increase for community government operations and maintenance funding also reflects additional funding for Fort Resolution as a result of its change in legislative status from a settlement to a hamlet. This change in status occurred in January 2010 and MACA continues to work with the hamlet on this transition. MACA’s budget also includes a funding increase for Colville Lake due to its previously projected change in legislative status. MACA will be returning early in the 2010-2011 fiscal year to remove this funding from the budget, to reflect a subsequent decision by the community government to change its status to a designated band authority rather than a charter community.
MACA’s budget reflects increased compensation and benefits, as a result of the recently settled Collective Agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Union of Northern Workers. There are also minor funding adjustments to reflect TSC chargeback costs and the consolidation of maintenance budgets in the Department of Public Works and Services.
The Building Canada Plan is providing for $45.5 million for community public infrastructure priorities and $140 million for transportation priorities. Originally envisioned as a seven-year program, the Government of Canada recently accelerated the program to two years for those communities who wanted and were able to deliver their projects earlier than planned. MACA administers the program on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories, and there is a funding increase of $238,000 in MACA’s budget for this purpose. This funding is fully offset by the receipt of revenue from the Government of Canada under the Building Canada Plan.
MACA continues to work on initiatives to respond to community government requests for greater control and autonomy. MACA undertakes initiatives to assist in this process through our partnerships with the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT. This continued collaborative approach ensures programs and services are relevant, practical and useful to community governments.
While many community governments have embraced their new role, others are struggling with the transition related to greater authority. Community capacity remains an ongoing challenge for some community governments.
Funding of $1 million to improve community capacity was transferred to MACA from the Department of Human Resources earlier this fiscal year and this funding is reflected in MACA’s 2010-2011 budget. MACA, the Department of Human Resources, the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT are currently working on piloting or implementing a series of programs and services to address challenges in the area of governance, as well as with the recruitment and retention challenges faced by community governments regarding senior administrative staff.
As I previously stated, community capacity is an ongoing issue. Initiatives to build capacity need to be long-term in nature, with results not necessarily apparent for several months or years.
Programs that support community capacity need to be sustainable, long term and adequately resourced. Pilot projects to improve community capacity are being implemented and we will continue to seek the advice of community governments, Members of the Legislative Assembly and other relevant stakeholders as we proceed with the initiative. This concludes my opening remarks and I look forward to discussing MACA’s 2010-2011 budget with Members in further detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. With that, I’d like to ask the Minister if he will be bringing in any witnesses.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Does committee agree that the Minister brings in his witnesses?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, escort the witnesses in.
Thank you, Minister McLeod, if you could introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am joined today by Mr. Mike Aumond to my right, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; and Laura Gareau, director of corporate affairs with MACA. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. General comments. Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I believe that MACA still has a very important role to play, especially helping communities. As he noted in his opening comments, there are communities struggling out there with regard to taking on their own rules and responsibilities as community governments. He identified the area of capacity and that’s one of the biggest challenges we face in some of our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I think it’s crucial that this government has to not only identify those areas, but demonstrate how they are working with communities to improve that situation, especially in light of the Building Canada funds and the area that he noted and also having the capacity to take advantage of these programs. One of the reasons that a lot of communities weren’t able to take advantage of the Building Canada funds or infrastructure funding is it was identified that most communities could not or did not have the matching funds to carry out those programs and also identified those communities were running deficits and weren’t able to basically come forward with their own funds to take advantage of these programs. I, for one, feel that MACA, regardless if they gave the money to the communities or not, has an obligation to ensure that communities not only have capacity but have the information that they need to make good decisions. For years, MACA has been compiling information, regardless if it’s shoreline erosion, main street chipseal and programs that MACA has solely been responsible for who has a lot of that information in our communities.
I would just like to illustrate, the last government put out some $30 million into communities to basically allow communities to identify their own priorities and have a decision-making process on identifying their priorities. A lot of these communities had public meetings. A lot of communities went through their capital planning process to identify the priorities of the communities, regardless if it’s with youth groups, elders groups or basically having public meetings in their communities in which a lot of communities identified their needs at that process. But I find it kind of odd that a lot of these communities, those priorities are still out there. But in regard to the Building Canada Fund, those weren’t even dusted off or brought forward for communities to consider since they’ve already taken the time to consolidate their priorities with their communities and, more importantly, identify those areas of contention.
Mr. Chair, I believe another area that this government has to be responsible for is the area of dealing with core infrastructure challenges we face in our communities. I’m talking water treatment services, regardless under the Canadian Health Act, and also in light of the area of liabilities from the Government of the Northwest Territories when it comes to safe drinking water. Again, with the situation that happened in Walkerton, I think that with the new water treatment plants that are coming on is that there is a threat that basically someone has to be not only seen as overseeing the guidelines that we have in regard to safe drinking water but, more importantly, ensuring that we are following national standards. I think that because of the challenges that we face, especially in a lot our smaller communities, and I know that there has been a decision to expand the role of Public Works in some of those communities where we don’t have that capacity, but I think that those types of things have to be carried out.
The other area that I have to talk about is the area that I’ve talked about until I’m blue in the face, is dust control. Dust control is a real problem we have in our communities. Yet I hear the Minister comment, well, sorry, we gave the money to the communities; it’s up to the communities to basically decide how they want to take on that issue.
Mr. Speaker, you’re talking about dust control in excess of somewhere between $700,000 and a million dollars. A lot of these smaller communities, regardless if they have gas tax and whatnot, are only getting $80,000, $90,000 in gas tax. They cannot take on these initiatives and programs. How many communities were really able to have the capacity, have the ability to come up with their plans, come up with the strategy to do what was required of them to basically access those program dollars?
Again, I think it’s crucial that we, as government, have to ensure that whenever federal dollars are out there, regardless if it’s $45 million, where was that $45 million spent and who took advantage of the program and who didn’t.
I think we can’t just look at the pro side of this. We have to look at the negative side in regard to who was not able to because of the challenges they faced because they don’t have capacity or they’re running deficits or they weren’t incorporated as a community. Things like that, that we have to be able to find ways of facilitating and providing those communities with that opportunity just like any other community.
The way I see this capital project, it seems the communities that have taken advantage of it were the larger communities in the Northwest Territories. The majority of the smaller communities, like the communities I represent, looked at projects that they needed which they felt were essential for them to be able to carry out their responsibilities, regardless if it’s a solid waste site in Aklavik or Fort McPherson or basically drainage issues in regard to Aklavik because of the flooding that takes place every other year.
I know I’ve raised the issue before in this House in regard to shoreline erosion and whatnot in Aklavik and also realizing that the community of… I believe this question was raised to the Minister in the Inuvik Beaufort leaders’ meeting, is looking at a youth centre for Tsiigehtchic. What does Tsiigehtchic have to do to get a youth centre in that community? I believe the Minister made a commitment at that time to look into that. But, again, there was a request from the community of Tsiigehtchic in regard to how we can provide that funding. I know the Minister mentioned quite a few communities that do receive the funding for youth centres, but, again, Tsiigehtchic is not one of them.
Mr. Chair, also in regard to the overall issue on capacity, I know you put a lot of money into the Arctic Energy Alliance, but yet some communities have taken it on themselves to hire their own consultants to do their own work, but yet we’re hiring an NGO in regard to providing a service on behalf of the government but other communities are having to do that research or basically identifying those reviews. So I’d just like to ask the Minister a question in regard to the area of the whole responsibility that communities have in regard to ensuring that they are able to sustain their gas tax but completing their community energy plans. In regard to that aspect, I’d like to ask the Minister in regard to community sustainability plans. How many communities have completed those plans and, more importantly, are they going to make the time frame of March 31, 2010? With that, Mr. Chair, I’ll leave it at that and I look forward to the Minister’s comments.
Thank you very much, Mr, Krutko. Next I’d like to call on Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I listened to the opening remarks of the Minister regarding healthy, educated people. It just brings back the students I have in Sachs Harbour that were failing, but it’s totally opposite of what I’m dealing with here.
MACA represents a total of 7 percent off the total budget, Mr. Chair. I’m happy to see the $400,000 of additional settlement maintainer positions in Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour. Those create jobs and I’m really thankful. In the long run it’s going to help this government in regard to cost savings for the generators and just the upkeep of our buildings in the communities that this government has.
And another $400,000 in our region for youth sporting events, which is good to see. We have a tournament coming up in, I think, Fort McPherson for all the Beaufort-Delta kids in outlying communities that I represent. The kids are getting all excited for that, which is good. We need to invest in our youth to open their eyes and not just stay in their home communities. We all live in isolated communities so something like that goes a long way. I think once they get back home, that’s when the Internet kicks in and they keep in touch with that. But that’s a good thing to see, the regional events. A question I have: Have any activities been identified for the Nunakput region? That’s the one question I will have on the sporting events.
The $1 million to improve the community capacity, very important to have effective, locally trained community government staff. If you don’t have a good SAO, it makes it harder on the community and the council on a go-forward basis in regard to trying to implement any kind of local government strategy such as gas tax and all those things that the community and the council has to deal with. Has the department started working with communities to identify what courses will be offered in the Nunakput region? That’s another question I’ve got for the SAOs or whoever’s going to need the training.
The $650,000 to fund Team NWT participation in multisport games, Mr. Chairman, has the department looked at any other increases to participation from the Nunakput region? I won’t get into it, but I was really disappointed a couple of weeks ago when our selection was made for amateur hockey. I thought there were three or four young boys that should have been chosen to go to the game prior to the team being picked. I didn’t think it was fair. That is where my thoughts are going to where aboriginal sports are concerned. I think we really should be taking a look at that and how we can increase the funding for the Aboriginal Sport Circle and how much is the funding the Aboriginal Sport Circle is going to receive this year. What role will the Aboriginal Sport Circle have in this year’s Arctic Winter Games and the future of the Arctic Winter Games? Those are a couple of questions that I have.
The funding, the $450,000 for regional youth officer positions in the North Slave, Sahtu, South Slave, what is going to be done in Nunakput communities? The youth officer positions should be right across the Territory. The south, sometimes I push a little bit in regards to the South Slave and everything. You have all the swimming pools, all the facilities that can do stuff with the kids. We have to go out into the communities and we don’t have swimming pools in the communities I represent. Half of them don’t have arenas. It makes the recreation part really tough when your indoor sports all the time in regards to taking kids out... Something like those positions should be utilized in Nunakput and out of Inuvik. More than likely I will hear that it is going to be from Inuvik. Everything is out of Inuvik. It is always a satellite run and that has got to change.
Between Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services to enhance emergency services, resources needed in remote communities to help plan to respond to emergencies. Out of that $350,000, will any of that investment reach Nunakput? We have fire departments in communities that I represent that don’t have proper bunker gear, proper breathing apparatuses, proper equipment that works to try to provide a service to the people and try to protect.
In Sachs Harbour, I said last week, I have a fire truck in cold storage right now. Has anything been done to date? We have to get this stuff sorted out. It is on our hands. This government is liable for that. If something goes wrong, it is going to be myself feeling that I failed in regards to holding government accountable to get the stuff that is needed for the community. Mr. Chairman, Nunakput region needs well-trained firefighters again and small communities need assistance in purchasing and maintaining appropriate equipment. That has to be done not only in Nunakput but across the Northwest Territories in our small, isolated communities. Fire marshals should be going into every community and giving an assessment as to what is needed in the fire departments there, as well as communities that do not have RCMP detachments, I am very fortunate I have all RCMP in my communities, but still we have bylaw officers.
I think that another approach MACA should be looking at is having two bylaw officers to be paired off with each other for safety purposes in the field of bylaw for the community.
I would really like to leave on a high note here and I would like to thank the Minister for coming into the community of Paulatuk with me to open up my new youth centre, which is really being utilized in the community. I just have to make sure what funding will be there for the youth centres in Nunakput. So I would like to again thank the Minister and I will be looking forward to going on to the page by page. Thank you.
General comments. Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to see the extra money put into youth expenditures. I think if you go through the business plan, it’s almost $2.5 million spent towards the youth. I think that’s a big improvement from what was there two years ago. I know that there has also been some infrastructure dollars put into youth centres across the Territory. So this is in addition to that, to the operations of these and maybe some youth workers, as outlined in the Minister’s opening remarks.
Still on the topic of actually having youth workers at the community level, I’ve made many youth statements in the Legislative Assembly to talk about the long-term benefits of working with our youth. I think the government, as a whole, as an overall strategy needs to look at dealing with a lot of social issues and social costs across the Territories, where we are seeing a third and possibly a fourth generation of people now in social housing. I recognize that’s going to continue and we have many generations of people on income support, because I feel that a lot of that starts with opportunities for youth. I think that this government has to put additional money in addition to what’s in the budget here into youth and look at it as a strategy to address these social issues in many of our small communities on a long-term basis. I think an investment now would be a good investment for the future of the Northwest Territories.
I don’t think the government is far away as a department. I don’t think it’s that far from putting the pieces in place to achieve what’s needed to support the youth additionally. I believe the youth are probably getting more support now from the GNWT than they’ve had ever in past governments. You know, we’re seeing youth centres built, opening up, youth centres being designed in the various communities and my feeling is that the government is three-quarters on the way to really putting money into youth and investing in the future. I think that the returns are tremendous. I think if the government continues to support the youth, continues to support the education of the youth, I think we’ll start to see results. We’ll start to see the benefits start to flow back to the government by reducing the amount of usage on social programs that are needed to support families whether it be social housing or actual income support.
I think the government is around $1 million away from actually having some youth workers in the communities. I think that a lot of the communities actually have people in place. I guess as long as the government doesn’t become too rigid in their policies of hiring local people, they could end up pricing themselves out of range. But I’m sure there are many in the communities who are local recreation people working with some communities that have youth workers. I think the government should support youth workers whether they be a youth worker that can deal with groups of communities geographically close to each other or communities that are big enough and have enough youth in the community to support one individual youth worker in the community. That’s been kind of like a goal of mine since I’ve started as MLA, to try to get more money into the area of youth, whether it be workers’ programming or youth infrastructure. I think government’s heading in the right direction. I think there’s a little ways more to go. I don’t think we should be satisfied with what we’ve done. I think that if the government strategically places money in this area, as I’ve indicated many times, there will be long-term benefits.
In another area I’m interested in working with the department is in the transfer of infrastructure. Really looking in the area of capital costs as the New Deal is rolled out and communities are taking responsibility for their own capital needs and there’s been capital dollars allocated to communities in the contribution. I think that some communities, because they have less people in smaller communities like the communities I represent, they don’t have the capital dollars to purchase any major capital. It’s like they’re able to maybe replace equipment that they have, possibly replace buildings or upgrade buildings and so on. I think it will be a strain on their capital to be able to get all their equipment and buildings up to standard. I’d like to see this government take a look at the conditions of buildings and ensure energy efficiency. I think that’s for the benefit of everyone, including the government and the environment and everything, to have energy efficient buildings and equipment that’s running properly. There’s an environmental payback on that as well. I think that at the point when the government does transfer it, I’m at least almost at that stage where, I shouldn’t say me, but the communities in the Tu Nedhe are almost at the stage where they will start taking over the buildings and equipment and so on. I think the government should be aware that this equipment is old, this building is old, and so on, and have that thorough discussion with the community to ensure that what they’re turning over are things that are going to be usable for the long term and it’s going to benefit the communities and allow the communities to work for their people in an efficient way.
Aside from that, I think I look forward to going through the details of the Main Estimates.
General comments. Next on the list I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to give a quick response to the Minister’s comments and a bit of reflection on where I’ll be coming from with my more specific questions.
I’d like to start with the 6 percent increase. That’s quite high. I see we had a target of 3.6 and that’s going to vary from department to department, but I see this as a substantial increase for this department. We are committed to 3 percent increase hereafter. This is a good opportunity to start being more responsible with our dollars. We’re losing flexibility as we approach our borrowing limit here. Again, I don’t see a compelling reason for this increase in the department.
Having said that, I want to express some support for the expenditures in the youth programs. That, I think, again, might have been up for discussion had I been playing more of a role in how funds got dedicated in terms of balancing things with the departmental increase. I generally do support the increased support to youth programs. I notice they’re approaching a couple of million dollars here on top of existing, so these are new dollars.
In particular, I want to single out the increase for the Healthy Choices Framework. I think we have said we’re about prevention. I really do harp on that because I think it’s key to giving ourselves more potential in the future, more flexibility. Because this Healthy Choices framework is an interdepartmental initiative, as the Minister noted, between MACA and Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment. It’s these sorts of cross-departmental integrated initiatives that I think can give us good returns. I’m just noticing that will primarily go to after school pilot programming for primarily increased physical activity promoting physical activity in our youth. I’d like to see that even more finely directed into outdoor activities, things that can bring some of the other benefits we want. More familiarity with our land, perhaps giving the elders a role in helping inform how that physical activity could mesh with those goals.
I also want to commend the Minister this year for bringing forward the multisport games budget in the budget instead of as a supp later. I suppose the one question I have for the games is: what proportion of these dollars gets spent on travel? I’m particularly interested in travel out of the NWT and so on. I think it is time to look at, for example, the Arctic Winter Games and decide how we can get more benefits out of it for our communities and for our youth. That’s a general comment there.
The additional funding and some of the retracted funding for Arctic Energy Alliance, I’m in line with those in supporting those. I think particular focus on helping communities with their community energy plans is obviously needed. We have not achieved our targets there by far. My understanding is we have not at all made much progress in that direction. There have been a few. Perhaps I’m just out of date on this. The Minister’s indication that those plans and their incorporation or integration into the community sustainability plans will be complete by the deadline, as the end of this fiscal year seems pretty optimistic to me, but I’d be happy to hear that we’re going to achieve those.
I think also on the community energy plans, and this is something I have said before, it’s an opportunity to introduce some rigour, some targets. I think the days of just blindly providing money to partners without requiring that and some critical thinking are over. Again, I stress how fine the line is between us and our borrowing limit and the vulnerabilities we have there. So, again, I see there is some money for updating those community energy plans already. We’ll have to start introducing some real targets in what we expect our communities to achieve so we really do get some value from those dollars. I know there’s lots of happy consultants out there these days helping with these.
I’d like to move on just to the Community Capacity Building, which the Minister has heard me speak on before and I think all of us have recognized the need for building our community capacity and the challenges there. So I want to give a nod to, again, across departmental work there involving Human Resources, NWT Association of Communities, Local Government Administrators and so on, and I’m hoping that those pilot project preps are already started. I think it would be great to see them get going and see some evaluation as well on those so we can find out what works, and that’s not an easy proposition I know. So I appreciate the extra focus there. I think it is recognized within this department.
I’ve mentioned, in review of earlier departments, the need for a good sustainable community administrator programs and one of four community capacity challenges is for good administrators that have the various skills there. I know there’s a program within MACA, within their governance programs, but I think there’s a real role for Aurora College and I’d love to see this department give the Minister of ECE a bit of a boot in the butt to get those programs on the ground and enjoy the benefits that they could bring. There are new ways of doing things and we need to be proactive and take advantage of those.
Last, support for increased enforcement of our trespass policy, our policies as they get more refined and developed, and I don’t see an increase in funding for recreational land use plans and I think that is an area where I would support a bit of an increased budget. Perhaps it’s buried in there and I haven’t spotted it, but one thing I hear is that people simply don’t get their land use inspected as they used to and that’s an important opportunity to interact with our public. Certainly we’ve lacked success in putting recreational land use plans together and on the ground in a way that takes care of some of the issues that we end up dealing with on a more emergency basis, but I know the department is taking some good steps in this direction. I would have been happy to see a bit more funding in the enforcement end of things. I’ll leave it at that, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next on the list I have Mr. Ramsay, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Yakeleya and Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a few opening comments on MACA. I guess a few good things to say. I’ve been impressed with the amount of money that’s going towards youth officer positions and also to the youth. I know Mr. Beaulieu has done a great deal in championing the cause for youth.
The one thing I just want to throw out there, this Youth Development Strategy, I wouldn’t want to see the department, you know, as important as youth is, every community is created differently, obviously, and I don’t know if you’re going to get the desired effect by going to a Youth Development Strategy. I think the money could be better spent going directly into communities where it would have an impact instead of into some consultant’s pocket. So that would be my suggestion there, is talk to the communities and if you’ve got some extra money that you would be throwing at this Youth Development Strategy, I think, like I said, the money could be better spent directly on going towards community-funded programs, the things that are already working in the communities I think. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on that. I think there have been lots of studies done and things of that nature. So I’d like to see that happen, but again, kudos to the department for finally taking a serious look at the youth and getting some money there. So that’s good.
On the support for capacity building at the community level, I think the department also has to be commended for the work that they’ve done there. I know it’s early days in trying to get this set up and it’s going to take some time to try to see the fruits of your labour, but you have to start somewhere and I think it’s a good initiative and I think LGANT has to be given all the necessary tools and help that they can in partnership with MACA and I know HR was involved in that too. but we have to do everything we can to try to find some homegrown talent in the communities, you know, to take over senior level positions inside the communities, because people are just coming in there and only staying for a short period of time and leaving and I think we really do need a made in the North solution for that. I think it’s something that’s attainable if you give people the training that’s necessary for them to take over and be successful. I think they will be in time, but again, that is going to take some time.
Another area that I’ve been pleasantly impressed with is the management of the Department of MACA and especially the Building Canada Plan, the rollout of that money. It’s been very well done. There’s been some concern about the back and forth between Regular Members and lists and things like that, but I think for the most part, you know, when you take that plan and it was supposed to be for seven years and it accelerated into a two-year program, I think you guys have to be given some credit for doing that and doing a very good job, in my mind.
So I think I may have some comments, Mr. Chairman, as we go through the detail of the budget, but I think for the most part MACA seems to be doing some pretty good things and juggling a bunch of different areas. So I think the management, again, of that department seems to be pretty sound and I thank the Minister for that, and the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Next on the list I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few comments in regard to the MACA budget in general and the Minister’s opening remarks. I want to echo Mr. Bromley’s comment right off the top about the increase, the 6 percent increase in budget from last year’s main estimates. I say this quite often, our budgets constantly go up, we never seem to get any new revenue and we, at some point, are going to find ourselves very deep in a hole. I expect that a lot of this increase is probably the result or maybe some of it may be the result of the negotiated contracts that were finalized over these last few months, but I think we need to be really careful about how much extra money we throw into our budgets from year to year.
Like Mr. Ramsay, I’m pleased with much of the work that the department is doing. I think they’re managing to sort of focus in on a number of things. Communities should be and I think it is the main focus of the department and that’s a good thing, and youth is also another one, but I am a little concerned. I appreciate the extra money that’s going into youth. I think it’s money well spent, but I am concerned about what seems to be a lack of coordination of the various pots of money that exists for youth. I mentioned this within the confines of another department; we seem to have little bits of money here and there or large bits of money here and there and I really wonder how well they are coordinated. The Justice department, for instance, has just initiated a Not Us! campaign, which is aimed at youth; well, other residents as well, but particularly at youth, and is that being done in conjunction with MACA and all the activities that MACA is undertaking with youth? I just have a general concern there and I will have some specific questions when we get to that section of the budget. I am, like Mr. Ramsay, somewhat concerned about this Youth Development Strategy. I just wonder why we need it, for one thing. Is it going to be a strategy that is going to target all departments within the government? Is it going to involve everything that we are doing in all departments relative to youth? That is the only way where I could see that it would be of benefit, in my mind, unless I don’t understand what this is intended to do.
I am extremely pleased to see that we are piloting programs for after school physical activity. I think that is great. It is certainly something that we need to do to get kids back outdoors and/or just active. Hopefully that is something that will work. I am also very happy to see that we now have funding for multisport games as it is a staple in the budget. It is an ongoing item for funding. The only concern I have is that I don’t believe that it is going to address all multisport games. I believe seniors are still left out in the cold. That is a bit of a problem, from my perspective. I think we need to do, and I believe it was mentioned in the business plan that there was going to be an evaluation with the Sport and Rec Council of our approach to multisport games both within and out of the Territories. I will have some questions when we get to that section about where we are at with that kind of an evaluation. Was there one done? What are the results?
I also think -- and this echoes Mr. Bromley’s comment, I believe -- that we need to do an evaluation of our participation in the Arctic Winter Games. I think it is very costly. I think the partners in the Arctic Winter Games, the government partners, need to take a bigger interest, I guess, in sort of the size of the games. We need to provide more direction to the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, because the games continually get bigger, which is simply an expense that is passed down on to the various jurisdictions which take part in the games. I think there ought to be some avenue for governments to have some input to the international committee and try to bring that particular program back under a bit of control.
I am interested in the Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Program. I have asked about that before. I note in the Minister’s remarks he talks about it being delivered in cooperation with the Department of Health and Social Services. That is good, but I am still concerned that communities which answer the call for ground ambulance services outside of their community boundaries may not be getting paid for the services that they are providing outside of their community boundaries. I will have some questions when we get to that section.
The increase of funding to community governments is absolutely something that I am glad to see. I know, during business plans, there was discussion about a review of the funding formula for communities that was either going to be undertaken or was in the works. I would like to know whether or not this increase in funding is the result of the funding formula review. I would be interested in the results of that review in general.
The Community Capacity Program or the program with HR and MACA to develop community capacity is something which I have spoken to before. I fully support this expense. It is well known that our communities cannot operate if they don’t have adequate staff. It is very difficult to get community government staff, particularly in small communities. I am really pleased to see this program is up and running. I hope to see that after 12 months of this, we will see some very positive results. I will have other specific questions when we get to various sections of the budget, but that is it for now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have comments for the Minister and his opening comments. Most of the communities, when we go out to communities, always have some issues. I think we are involving community governments where community governments want to have more control. I think this government and this department is doing that in terms of involving more authority to the community governments. One of the unique things about the community governments is that they have band governments also. You get into that issue of authority and jurisdiction. Some communities have band governments. Some of them have MACA governments and then there are land...(inaudible)...governments. I think this department is doing a good job in terms of how we work together. I continue to support them in terms of putting together some good policies, some good legislation in terms of how you increase the authority. I think the funding itself, I think it says in here a percentage of, I think it is $71.1 million going to grants and contributions to communities. That is a really good amount going straight to the government. Certainly other government departments should take heed of this arrangement. I don’t think we will get across right away.
Mr. Chairman, the real issue I want to talk about is the presentation by the Minister. He is going to look at new regional officer positions. I want to say that I applaud that initiative to get that into the business plans, get the funding and start looking at putting this program in place.
In the Sahtu region, 45 percent of our population is 25 years and younger. We desperately need this position. I really wanted to say I hope we could really do some good work with this new position here. We have a high population of young people. We want to do a lot of good things. I look forward to this position being staffed and up and ready once we get everything in place here.
I want to say the youth centres that the Minister talked about here are welcome in my communities. The one issue that I want to talk to the Minister about is in Deline they built a youth centre that came from community contributions from an old trailer. I am not too sure what kind of funding came from MACA to support them. I watched them bring an old trailer in. They made the gravel. They made the time, effort and it was all done by community initiatives. I think that when we do funding for youth centres, make sure it is fair across the board. One community gets one. Everyone should have an access to get funding. I want to raise that because the people in Deline were looking at youth centres, but they didn’t wait until the government came. They just went and dragged the old building down and got the gravel for it and they got skilled tradespeople to hook up the plumbing and electrical and painting and that. Now it is being widely used by the community. It is something that all youth centres should be treated equally across the North.
I am interested in the after school program. The Minister indicated 18 pilot projects. I wouldn’t mind a copy of that, a list of all of them. At least I have it. I just haven’t researched it in the communities. I also look forward to seeing the completion of the communities’ energy plan and see where they are. I think the Minister already gave us a copy of that paper, so I have to look again. It is amazing here. However, I look at how closely these energy plans will get done.
The other one I want to talk about is the Highway Rescue Services Program. I know there is some ground ambulance assistance to some of the communities around all-weather roads, but my communities are all on winter roads. I am not too sure if we settled this issue on who is responsible in terms of if there is an accident on the road, if someone from the community goes out because that is what they do, that is just the right thing to do, or is it coordinated through Health, RCMP or outside municipal boundaries? I’m not too sure if that’s been settled. I know the Town of Norman Wells wanted to look at the ground ambulance rescue, but we weren’t in that discussion yet. Now it’s coming out. Even the Town of Norman Wells wants to know if they should get a ground ambulance. They don’t know. They were quite concerned about that. I’ll be looking forward to some discussion on that.
I want to tell the Minister that when his staff did some work on the Mackenzie Gas Project community profiles and all the assessments, they did a really good job. They put together some good information for us on my communities that are going to be affected by the right-of-way of the pipeline. Excellent work. I think that work should continue. Continue working with our community members on the potential impacts to the community. I think that this department did a really good job on that.
The decision that the government is going to look at Colville Lake becoming a First Nation government, I was talking to the band manager and they’re pretty excited. I look forward to this government looking at increasing government authority and how to work with Colville Lake, start the funding arrangements and improving their staffing skills. Like any other community, it took quite a lot of efforts on both sides to get to where they are today.
The last point I wanted to raise is one of the goals of the department says to support communities in their efforts to provide a safe, healthy, and vibrant environment for their residents. I underline “safe” and “healthy” for the amount of dust we have in our communities. I wanted to let the Minister know that we hope he’s heard enough to work it in the budget to chipseal the communities. It’s been a longstanding issue. When you give the communities the authority to choose their projects, and certainly there’s not enough money for all the projects they have, even our water treatment plants. We’re not able to maintain that. The filters are from the States, the machines are from overseas. It’s just really difficult to have our own in for the water treatment plant. I’m not even sure if we’re up to code in terms of the Drinking Water Quality Framework. That’s a lot of work there. Things like that, when you give something to the community, things that they lack for so long, they’re going to go through some difficult processes as to what do they do and what do they get. So I think the dust control could be an issue that should be considered going back to the government or the government helping the communities get a good dust control or paving program. Especially for the people. I’ve gone into the communities, sat down to have tea with them, and there certainly is a lot of dust in the house. People complain about that. Especially the older people who have difficulties. They have to always change their filters. It costs a lot. They always talk about doing something about the dust. So you have difficulties with their own local governments and our own territorial government on who should do it. It goes back and forth. I hope we can work on something like that.
I have more questions to the Minister as we go to the details.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to raise a few issues, as I travelled around my constituency. A couple of my communities still have capacity problems. They still have problems managing the money that’s delivered to the communities. I think certainly part of their issues is that a lot of the planning is specialized stuff. It requires engineers for buildings. Particularly in the community of Wrigley where they’re telling me that they have the money but planning is specialized. They have to talk to engineers and pay all that additional cost. It’s kind of not fair to the community if you really think about it. That’s some of the issues that they’re looking at in particular with capacity issues.
As well, assistance in the community when they lack a finance officer. I think what’s important for me is for the department to know that right away and get a handle on how the community is spending money. We’re still responsible for the money that we give them and if we don’t act quickly, then the future of the community, it just hurts them. I think we do have a responsibility to continue to assist communities in that way.
With respect to us concentrating on youth funding, certainly I concur with my colleagues. I think we’re heading in the right direction with that. Just out of a particular interest, in the Minister’s opening statement he’s talking about a pilot program to promote physical activity for purchasing much-needed sports equipment. I’m not too sure which communities are on the list for these pilot programs, but I do want to mention that I did get a recent letter from the community of Wrigley asking for volleyballs and basketballs. I’m not too sure why the community doesn’t have those right now. But if I can put in a plug for the community of Wrigley, I think that community should be assessed in terms of those needs. I don’t know if the Minister can make a note there and follow up with me on that. I certainly would like to support that community if indeed there is a lack of equipment and it means there’s a lack of activities happening not only for the youth but also for the community.
As well, some of the smaller communities were able to get some of the community capacity funds and access some of the stimulus programming and I’m pleased about that. But I think that more can be done for the communities. I’m for also providing as much resources as we can. I don’t know about this fiscal year, but certainly we should try something the following fiscal year. If we can call that a pilot project, let’s do that, because there’s some products out there that can be viewed as a cheaper alternative. It will help with the dust in the communities.
In terms of the community public infrastructure I know that the community of Fort Liard has spent a lot of its previous resources on the community youth centre and they do need assistance with getting theirs up and running. I know that we’re providing some resources. I’m supportive of our youth centre programming dollars that are there. I’m also supportive if and when communities are eligible for special projects, such as in other ridings of building a new youth centre, that we should do it. But all available efforts must be used to assess, of course, the best way that they can do it. I’m in favour of some communities getting their special projects, but at the same time we should try to allow opportunities for other communities and other regions to access that type of funding. We’re well aware that we cannot do all communities at the same time. The government’s always pressed for funds, but at the same time a fair share of resources should go to all communities in the region. With that, Mr. Chairman, mahsi.
Any more general comments? Is everybody agreed that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
With that, I will give the Minister the opportunity to respond to general comments. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was a wide range of concerns raised, but I think for the most part, all of the Members had the same concerns. I am going to go down the list here and try to speak to as many of them as I can. We will obviously have an opportunity when we get into detail to ask individual questions on each individual area.
We do appreciate some of the good comments we have been hearing as far as some of the work that MACA is doing, some of the investment in youth. Obviously, it is a priority with this department and with the government. We are starting to see a lot more money allocated in the youth areas in the last few years. We would be willing to provide a list of communities that are receiving monies under the pilot program. We can do that, so I think that just about every community in the Territories is covered to a certain extent, so they will all benefit from this money.
One of the things that we keep hearing is -- and I think Mr. Krutko started it and then just about every Member spoke to it -- was about the capacity in the communities and that is obviously an issue and is one we are taking steps with LGANT and NWTAC to deal with and we are looking to see some positive results. This is a program that is just starting to roll out, so I think that within a year or two we will see more homegrown SAOs, more homegrown administrators, so we are looking for some positive results of that.
As far as allocating the money goes to the communities, we allocate the bulk of our money on a base plus, which is fair to communities. They will all get a base and then they will get plus based on population, so it works out well for them and the communities are receiving a lot of money. Just in the experience that I have had just since I took over the portfolio, the communities are really pleased with them having the ability and the authority to make these decisions as to what is good for them. It kind of takes it out of our hands a bit as an Assembly and it goes into the hands of the community, but that is the way it should be because we are here at the pleasure of the residents out there. There is still some capacity challenges, we will admit that, but for the most part I think that this has been a positive experience for the communities.
We talk about youth centres and you have some communities identifying that as a priority in their community. Mr. Jacobson mentioned it before when we visited the youth centre in Paulatuk. That was done strictly by Paulatuk, for Paulatuk, and they take a lot of pride in that. I think we are going to see more like that. We have some communities identifying some of the dollars that they are getting through some of the federal programs geared towards youth centres and they are trying to match some of the funding or put some of their own infrastructure money into it, which is a good thing. We hear lots of concerns with dust control. It is a concern that we share, but the communities now have it within, and they are starting to realize that if dust control is a priority in their community, then they can allocate some of their infrastructure money towards that and we are starting to see more and more of that. We keep in close contact with the community, we see some of the programs that they are planning on, we work with them on their infrastructure plans, so we have an idea what they identify as priorities and we are starting to see a few more of the communities identifying dust control as a priority and starting to make an investment in that regard.
I think Mr. Yakeleya asked a question or somebody asked a question about where these positions are going. It might have been Mr. Jacobson that was asking. I think that as we go into detail, you will start to see where some of these positions are going into.
We appreciate the comments on stable funding for the multisport games. Obviously, there are still some questions that are going to be asked as far as that goes. Someone spoke about the opportunities for youth, and we obviously can’t solve all the social problems in the NWT as a department but we can work with the communities and the communities allocate resources to build infrastructure that the youth can take advantage of. I think we are starting to see more and more that. I see in my travels around, that the communities are really putting a high priority on programming for their youth.
We have a lot of things going on for the youth throughout the department and I think it was Ms. Bisaro was speaking that she was concerned with the coordination of all the money. I will be doing a Minister’s statement on it in a couple of days, but there is a new website that has been launched. It is called proud2bNWT. This is actually an excellent resource for any youth that is out there looking to find youth money government wide. I think it is geared more toward MACA but it has... We have had some really good feedback. I have spoken to some teachers and students that took it upon themselves one day to check it out while they were in the classroom. We have had some really good feedback on that, so hopefully this will be a new tool that they can use out there, just to go onto this website; it is “proud2bNWT.” I see Ms. Bisaro writing. This was just launched I think about a month ago and this is one that is already getting some good positive comments back.
This is another tool that we can provide to the youth and people that work with the youth. We have youth ambassadors, I think, and we are posting some photos on there. They are putting on blogs of their experiences in Vancouver, so this is one that we are looking forward to.
The increase, there were a couple of Members that had some concerns with the 6 percent increase but we can tell you right now that the bulk of that money went to the community governments. We have heard from the community governments that they are having issues with O and M. Their costs are getting higher, so we have taken steps to address that and that is the reason for part of the increase and most of the money is going to the community governments. I am sure we will have more questions as we get into more detail. I have tried to touch broadly across this.
The energy sustainability plans, the integrated community, there was... I think Mr. Krutko had asked some questions about who had done what and we do know that the bulk of the communities have completed most of their plans, a lot of the communities are just in the... Okay, we have 10 communities completed, we have 13 communities that are just waiting council approval and then we have 10 that council will approve in March, so we are quite confident that as of March 31st, all communities will have their plans in. We are looking forward to that and we will obviously update Members of the committee as to the progress of that.
I think, Mr. Chairman, that I have basically covered the main points that were raised and I don’t want to take up too much of the time, but I am sure that as we get into details, Members will have questions on each individual department within MACA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN (Mr. Krutko):
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can provide that to the Members. I’ve also, I think, made a commitment to provide a list of some of the communities that were getting the pilot project money. So we’ll provide those two pieces of information to Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. I’d just like to ask the House if they want to go into detail.
Detail.
Okay. We can move to page 6-7, department summary. With that, we’ll defer until we have considered detail. So if we can move to the following page. Does committee agree to defer?
Agreed.
Information item, page 6-8, Municipal and Community Affairs, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions? Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 6-9, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, revenue summary. Any questions? Mr. Yakeleya.
One question I have is on the lottery licence. The majority of the funding going into these sports field in terms of the funds that we raise through the lottery licence and the dollars that the majority go to support multisport across the North.
Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; all that money goes towards supporting sport in the Northwest Territories.
Page 6-9, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, revenue summary.
Agreed.
Moving on. Mr. Miltenberger, did you have a question? Moving on to page 6-10, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, active position summary. Mr. Yakeleya.
I’m just going to make the presumption that the increase of positions is this three officer youth positions.
Minister of MACA.
That’s correct, Mr. Chair.
