Thanks, Mr. Aumond. I am not pointing fingers here at all. I am trying to understand the situation, please. I am not meaning to be offensive, if I am. I guess I would like to know what steps need to be followed. What process does exist that needs to be followed? If, for instance, there were to be a sale within the block land transfer for the City of Yellowknife and the City was not agreeable, would the community that “has the block land transfer” have veto power? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.
Mr. Chairman, the short answer is no, they wouldn’t have veto power. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I just have one last request. Is it possible that committee could see the outline of the process that is followed when land is sold? Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, we can share that with committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. We are on page 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, lands administration, operations expenditure summary, $3.248 million.
Agreed.
We are moving along to page 6-30, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, lands administration, active positions.
Agreed.
We are moving along to page 6-32, 6-33, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, sport, recreation and youth, operations expenditure summary, $5.179 million.
Agreed.
We are moving along to page 6-34, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, sport, recreation and youth, grants and contributions, grants, $100,000. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The other thing I did a statement in the House about was supporting our youth drummers. I would like to ask the Minister. Is it somewhere in one of these contribution programs that a proposal may fit in there, Mr. Chairman? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister McLeod.
Mr. Chairman, we are always wanting to do what we can to support the cultural activities of the youth across the Northwest Territories. In this particular one, it would either go on a youth contributions, youth corps, but I caution the Member that we support the cultural aspect of it. But when it comes to competing for prize money, then MACA is very hesitant in supporting groups that go on a competition for prize money. We have had requests for some hockey teams to contribute to them, but they are going to play for prize money. The cultural part of it, where they just go and showcase their hand games, then we would look at it on a case-by-case basis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wondered again for the reduction of the youth corps funds and the increase in the pan-territorial sports programs, are those related to each other? Maybe I can just get some details on those. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.
Mr. Chairman, the Pan-Territorial Sports Program has been increased because the federal contribution to that program has increased. It is something that is matched between ourselves and the feds. The youth corps reduction, although you see a reduction in youth corps, really what we have done is taken $150,000 out of the youth corps money and created the permanent Youth Ambassador Program so it is still money spent within youth. It is just being reprofiled within that envelope. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Next on my list is Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here. First of all, I mentioned last year that we seem to have an awful lot of youth contributions. I have suggested that the department needed to look at them and see whether or not they can be combined. I have great difficulty in looking at these and seeing how some of them are different from others. The youth centre is one, that is pretty self-explanatory, but I fail to see the difference between the youth contributions and the youth corps.
The other thing that concerns me is we also have contributions to youth corps and youth contribution programs and regional youth sports events on page 6-41. There are huge amounts of money here to youth, which is a good thing, but I am wondering why we have it in two different places. First of all, why do we have so many different pots of money? Why do we have it in two places? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the way we have this sorted out is it’s historically been that way and I suppose if we tried to lump them all together, we’d be explaining why we made the changes we made. However, having said that, there is youth money in the regional ops section of the department and there’s youth money in sport, rec and youth. Generally youth corps funding is for those territorial-wide programs and the youth contributions are for those regional or community type of activities, which is why it’s on this particular page. It’s quite small in comparison with what you’d see at the regional ops page.
I do hear what the Member is saying and we do have to work with the format that we are provided, as well, but I guess we can always try something better. Really, some of these programs are distinct and we do try to highlight them for ease of explanation. I think a lot of them are, if you look at the multi-sport games, you know what that’s for, but the difference between the youth corps is generally territorial-type programs, Take a Kid Trapping, for example, whereas the youth contributions are for a specific community or regional program that happen normally on a one-time basis while the core money is stuff that happens on a multi-year basis. Thank you.
Thank you. Maybe I ought to wait until page 6-41, but the youth corps, if it’s territorial, we’ve got $675,000 on this page and another $500,000 in regional operations. So maybe I’ll ask the question when we get there.
The other question I wanted to ask on this page has to do with the amount for volunteer contributions and at some point it was increased from $20,000 to $70,000 and I’m glad to see that that has gone up. It’s still nowhere near the money that it should be and we don’t have the structure that we should in terms of volunteers, but it’s a good thing we’ve got a little bit more money.
I did read, though, in the information from business planning, that support for volunteerism is $150,000 and I wondered where the other $80,000 shows up in the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. Gareau.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other funding for volunteer contributions, or, sorry, to support volunteers shows up in the O and M area of the division. Thank you.
Okay, I need to know where the O and M expenses are in here and I have no idea. Thank you.
On page 6-33 there’s a summary of details of other expenses, as well as the program delivery details at the bottom for volunteers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Gareau. Ms. Bisaro, is it clear?
Yes, it is indeed there. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Ms. Gareau. So if there’s $70,000 in contributions, I guess I’d like to know what the other, the 236 to 180-something thousand dollars, what that’s used for. I mean, I presume its PYs and so on, but is it all expended within the division of sport, recreation and youth for staffing, or does some of it go to programs? Thank you.
Yes, the MLA is correct; it does go to support volunteer activities of staff in the division. I can provide a breakdown of that program area if the Member requires that information. Thank you.
Thanks, Ms. Gareau. No, I think if it’s the same information that we got during business plans, I have it already. So if it’s changed, then, yes, I’d like it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. No question. We’re on page 6-34, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, sport, recreation and youth, grants and contributions, grants, $100,000.
Agreed.
Page 6-35, contributions, total grants and contributions, $3.357... Oh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe we’re on 6-35. I just wondered with the Get Active NWT $100,000, that seems to be a new program. Is this federal dollars?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod. Ms. Gareau.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, this is not a new program. Get Active NWT has been run by the department for at least three of four years now. We were previously funding this money out of O and M. None of the expenses have changed, it’s just we’re more appropriately reflecting that this is grants and contribution funding. So what we’ve done is an internal reallocation to move it from operations and maintenance funding into grants and contributions funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Gareau. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there an outdoor focus on these dollars or would the Minister consider putting an outdoor focus on these dollars? That would help focus these dollars on other healthy initiatives that we have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a very strong outdoor component to the Get Active NWT: snowshoeing, Nordic walking, Dene games, cross-country skiing. So there’s a very strong outdoor component to this. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Next on my list, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have one question with regard to this particular grant as well. I wondered whether or not the Get Active grants and contributions fund has been fully subscribed. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is fully subscribed.
One other question on this page in regard to the Healthy Choices Initiative, I understand it supports after school physical activity programs, which I think is great and my understanding is also that it was quite well used last year. But I am somewhat concerned, and I’ve mentioned this before at other departments, that we have programs related to healthy activities for children and youth in several departments and I wonder whether or not we have the proper coordination of these programs. You know, MACA is spending $615,000 here and Health spends $400,000 elsewhere. My understanding is that departments meet and talk about these things, but are we really achieving a coordinated attack on getting our kids to make healthy choices? I wonder about that. I’d appreciate the Minister’s comment. Thank you.
With the after school physical activity program, we do work very closely with Health and Social Services, ECE, and our program is fully subscribed to. We have a list of all the schools in the Territories that are accessing some of the funding and some of the programs that they’re offering. So we work very closely with our sister departments to ensure that we’re fairly well coordinated. Thank you.
Thanks for the info. I guess my last question would be, are you quite confident then, Mr. Minister, that what MACA is doing for healthy choices initiatives is complementary to what all the other departments are doing? Thank you.
The answer is yes, I’m very confident that what we’re doing is working in conjunction with our sister departments. Thank you.
