Thanks to the Minister. That’s good to hear. That’s all I have.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Page 5-53, NWT Housing. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I noticed that just overall it looks like there’s an increase over last year’s mains of $2 million. But when you go down to program delivery details, you see a reduction in expenditures in the Nahendeh district. Perhaps the Minister can explain what’s going on here. Some other districts did not reduce by that much so I’d like an explanation.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s mostly due to some HELP units that we had built in Nahendeh that we have had trouble allocating and we’re just not including those in this year’s numbers because the money was spent last year. We just haven’t been able to fill some of these units. Thank you.
I wasn’t too clear of the answer. As for this year’s budget, because they had problems last year, is that why they reduced our budget this year?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. For clarification we’ll go to Mr. Stewart.
Last year we constructed a number of HELP units in Nahendeh that we haven’t been able to allocate yet, so rather than build more, we’re waiting until we were able to allocate those units before we start to build additional stuff for vacant units. We have some vacant units there that we’re waiting for some program intake, and then we’ll be able to go back and build some additional units. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Page 5-53, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, programs and district operations. Any questions? Page 5-54, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, programs and district operations. Any questions? Being none, page 5-57, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, local housing organizations. Any questions? Page 5-58, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, local housing organizations. Any questions? Page 5-59, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, lease commitments, infrastructure. Any questions? Page 5-60, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions? Does the committee agree that we have concluded final consideration for the NWT Housing Corporation?
Agreed.
Thank you very much. I’d like to thank the Minister. I’d like to thank Mr. Stewart, Mr. Anderson, and if we can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort them out of the Chamber. Thank you very much.
Committee, we’ll be continuing on with the next department, Municipal and Community Affairs. Does the Minister have any opening comments?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Please proceed, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ main estimates for the fiscal year 2012-13.
The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $95.5 million, an increase of $2.1 million or 2 percent from the 2011-12 Main Estimates. The increase consists primarily of $2.5 million in forced growth funding and $647,000 initiatives funding, offset by funding that is sunsetting this fiscal year.
MACA has a broad mandate, focusing on community governments but also providing a range of programs aimed at sport and recreation, youth and volunteers. Of the proposed 2012-13 budget, approximately 77 percent is provided to our key stakeholders: community governments. This includes $45.6 million to provide for community government operation and maintenance costs and $13 million to provide for water and sewer costs. MACA, with input from the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT, is currently undertaking reviews of both of these funding programs as a part of the New Deal review and the results of this review may result in changes to the budgets in future years.
MACA will also provide community governments with infrastructure acquisition funding of $28 million in 2012-13, comprised entirely of capital formula funding. In addition, the Gas Tax Agreement will provide community governments with funding of $15 million in 2012-13, unchanged from 2011-12.
In support of the 17th Legislative Assembly’s goals, MACA will provide technical advice and assistance related to the implementation of integrated community sustainability plans in the areas of energy, capital, and human resources. The department will continue to implement the Public Service Capacity Initiative, and will implement an accountability framework to better support reporting requirements for public funding, and to support community governments’ ability to be accountable to their residents. MACA will also complete the Recreational Leasing Policy Framework.
Through programs such as Active After School, Get Active NWT, traditional games tours and participation in the Healthy Choices Framework, MACA will continue to support the 17th Assembly’s goal of healthy, educated people free from poverty and its priority of supporting the health care system through preventative measures such as physical activity.
Forced growth funding accounts for $2.5 million of the year-over-year increase to MACA’s budget reflected in the 2012-13 Main Estimates. This increase is to provide grants-in-lieu payments to tax-based communities; increased operations and maintenance funding and water and sewer funding due to population growth, cost in fuel and electricity; Property Tax Revenue Grant Program increases based on the amounts collected by the Department of Finance; insurance premiums to designated authority First Nations for the assets transferred by the GNWT to the designated authorities as part of the New Deal initiative; and to provide for northern allowance adjustments arising from the Collective Agreement.
Reported results confirm more communities have accumulated surpluses, and fewer communities have accumulated deficits. These are strong performance indicators of improved financial management, and community governments should be acknowledged for the improvements they have achieved with the support of MACA staff and through the Public Service Capacity Initiative. MACA continues to support community governments in their capacity building initiatives, and funding first approved in 2010-11 for the public service capacity is again reflected in MACA’s 2012-13 Main Estimates. There has been a great deal of work done on this program over the past year, and the input of our partners from the NWT Association of Communities, the Local Government Administrators of the NWT and the Department of Human Resources has been integral to the program design and implementation. Most of the programs under this initiative are started and the department is currently working to finalize an evaluation framework to use to measure results and to report on the program and its outcomes.
MACA is in the second year of implementing its strategic plan and will continue to report on the progress of implementation on an annual basis. Continued support of community capacity building, management initiatives, youth leadership development and healthy choices are some examples of how MCA is responding to the priorities of the 17th Assembly.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide an overview of the department’s 2012-13 Main Estimates. I look forward to discussing them with you in more detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Does the Minister have any witnesses he wishes to bring into the House?
Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Can I get the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring our witnesses in, please?
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Would you like to take a moment to introduce your witnesses to the House, please?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me to my left Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Ms. Eleanor Young, assistant deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; and Mr. Gary Schauerte, director of corporate services, Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. I welcome the delegation to the House today on negotiation with Municipal and Community Affairs. We will open up our floor to general comments. Again, committee, by protocol, we have just been doing general comments and then having the Minister respond as one aggregate. I will open up the floor to general comments. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Obviously, in my previous work when I commend the department on their sport, recreation and youth, they are doing a good job in there. The initiatives that I have seen over the last couple of years working there, and the more money that is being put towards it, is truly an investment into our future generations and into our communities, healthier and safer communities. I do see the results time and time again in the communities and by e-mails and correspondence with the youth that I used to work with.
One concern that I do have, though, is in… There are community deficits. I have spoken in the past on how we can deal with those. Sometimes it is just mismanagement. I do understand that Human Resources does have a secondment program that can be utilized with some of the communities and possibly the bands for… I’m not sure if this department promotes that or not when they go into communities where they can second, possibly get finance workers into the communities to help them get their books up to date. I know, with certain communities that I have spoken with, the frustrations that do come along with it and the frustrations I am sure that the department sees working with communities who have run deficits and trying to get themselves back in good with the books.
We have spoken about this in some instances with the ground ambulance and highway rescue services and the decreased funding that is being proposed with this department. It is something that our communities do feel needs to be addressed and taken into consideration, considering that for quite a few of our communities the only access in is sometimes by highway, such as Tsiigehtchic and, I am not sure, I think Jean Marie. I am not too sure, but there are some communities that can only be accessed by road and more in the wintertime there. I didn’t get a chance to go through it all, but just throwing out some general comments while my colleagues are getting ready here.
Something that has been brought up is the management of drinking water for my colleague in the Sahtu and things like the Peel watershed and making sure that we do adequate testing, proper testing and looking at our standards on how we collect the water samples and the returning and getting the results back to the communities so that they are able to ensure their residents that the water that they do have is adequate for drinking and that it is safe and healthy.
At this moment I don’t have any more general comments, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to touch base on those and I look forward to hearing more on how the department is working with these community deficits, the ground ambulance services and also the management of the Drinking Water Program and the testing guidelines and standards. With that, Mr. Chair, I thank the Minister and his staff for coming and meeting with us this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Moving on, we’ll go to Ms. Bromley... Sorry, Ms. Bisaro.
---Laughter
It’s started again, Mr. Bromley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few comments. I will have some questions later on, but maybe the Minister will answer some of my comments taking them as questions. We’ll see.
In general, in terms of the funding we provide to our community governments, both the O and M funding and the infrastructure funding which the Minister mentions in his comments, there hasn’t been an increase in those contributions. Whether it’s operations and maintenance or whether it’s infrastructure, there hasn’t been an increase for a number of years. It’s my understanding that the department is doing an evaluation of how our community governments are funded. I want to see the report, which hopefully is coming soon and I’m hoping there is going to be an increase. Our communities are struggling with increased costs the way everybody is. As individuals we are and as a territorial government we are. So we can’t expect that they can continue to receive the same amount of funding and be able to provide all the services that we expect them to provide and that their residents expect. So I guess my concern there is when the…(inaudible)…will be done and hopefully that we’re going to have an increase in what we are funding them.
I’m really pleased to see that the public service capacity in the program in conjunction with HR is seemingly successful and that it’s continuing another year. I think it’s addressing a deficit in capacity in our community governments and this is one way I think to try and address that. Certainly, what I hear from communities is that they lack the human resource capacity to do everything that they’re being asked to do. I’m really glad to see that we’re trying to provide the training that people need and we’re also trying to make sure that the mentoring and the backfilling of positions is happening. I echo Mr. Moses’ comment about... I totally lost my thought. I echo his comment, it was a great one.
---Laughter
It was really good. He also mentioned about the funding, $200,000 sunset for ground ambulance. My understanding was that that was training money and there wasn’t a great uptake on it, but I still believe that community governments that are on the highway system are bearing costs to provide emergency services on the highway that they should not have to. They are basically outside their municipal boundaries. They are attending to emergency scenes that are outside their community, and it is a community cost which they are not being reimbursed for. I feel really strongly that we have to put something in place that allows communities to get back the cost of providing services which they are doing on behalf of GNWT.
There is a reference to an accountability framework which is either being developed or has recently come out. I’m glad to see that. I think the Minister said in a statement last week or the week before – and I will want to hear from the Minister what he means by it – something about reporting. I’ll try to find the document over suppertime. I am a little concerned about the fact that we may be requiring communities to report.
A couple of other things. This is a broken record for the Minister and some of the Members of the department, but I still fail to understand why we have as many pots of funding for youth as we do. In looking through the budget this afternoon, we have three pots on one page, we have three pots on another page. Like, oh my, do we really want to administer six different pots of funds? So, you know, please, please, please put them together. Rewrite the criteria so we can still give the money to all the people we need to give it to, but it just seems like a waste of resources, not financial but human resources, in my mind.
I’m glad to see that we’ve got some sort of a solution for the Recreational Leasing Policy. I think the Minister knows I still have concerns about whether or not enough on-the-ground work has been done, but I think there’s been a consensus reached. My understanding is we’ve had discussions with the people who have used the space. Again, I hope that in a year’s time, if we add lots this year, that in a year’s time we do an evaluation of the impact that its had on the various lakes and the people who’ve used them. I hope we do go back to the users and ask them what kind of an impact it’s had on them.
Lastly, there’s no increase in any funding for volunteers. The volunteer contributions have stayed at the same level for the last number of years. This is something that I think we as a government need to put a greater focus on. Volunteers are the backbone of what much of what our people need and provide much of the services and programs, and we do recognize them in terms of awards, but we don’t recognize them financially and give their organizations the money they need to do a better job. So I would love to see that amount increase.
Other than that, I have nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Moving on, we’ll have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments are similar to some of my colleagues who have spoken, so I won’t stay too long on them.
Mr. Chair, the Minister’s department, one of the main objectives, I believe, is to protect the consumers in our communities. I was back in Tulita and it was very disturbing to me to do business in the Northern Store and they us their LINK card in the Northern Store. If you don’t really know the complexity of the LINK card and English is your second language – and these older people just use the LINK card to get in and out of the store or check their account – the Northern Store is robbing you without a mask because of the amount of money to use your LINK card. They charge you to check it, they charge you to take money out, they charge you to pay your bill. That is unreal what the elders are paying. The Northern Store is smiling and saying, have a good day; I guess they’re going to have a good day. They’re getting a lot of money from the people. We need some understanding with the Northern Store and the use of the LINK card.
Mr. Minister, the community is being literally financially robbed by the Northern Store. You wouldn’t accept this in any other community. The community got so mad that it bought its own bank machine. The Northern Store is the only game in town using this system and they’ve got everybody by the scruff of the neck. This is our only store and you use our LINK card, use our system.
I want to ask the Minister and the staff, hopefully they will look at this situation in the small communities. This is a private industry, a private service. In our small communities we only have one store. Some have two stores, the Co-op. This is very serious for us in our communities, especially now where Tulita, Good Hope, Norman Wells is going to be very busy because of the oil and gas activities that are happening there right now. People are spending money. Money is floating around in those communities. I want to ask the Minister what type of initiatives he can look at on financial literacy, on handling these types of financial transactions with the LINK card and how they can educate the people. Like I said, a lot of my people in Tulita are probably about 85, Good Hope, older, they speak their own language. So they don’t really know much about financial stuff that’s attached to those LINK cards.
I want to ask the Minister also, with the ground ambulance, you know that Tulita and Norman Wells are going to be busy with oil and gas. Last year it was estimated just over $70 million being spent, close to $80 million, lots of activity there. I know these ground ambulances are set for all-weather roads, but now it’s getting busier between Tulita and Norman Wells, Tulita and Wrigley, and different communities and people have been telling me they’ve been having close calls. Thank God, knock on wood there’s no serious accident. We need to ramp that up and say what type of services can we expect. Right now we don’t know. If you call somebody right now that’s on the winter road that will go and help that person, you will need the goodness of people’s heart to jump in the pickup and go on the highway. There’s no set ambulance or RCMP or health. Everybody really hasn’t been coordinated that much on the ground ambulance.
I want to ask the Minister throughout the page by page what type of coordination is he working with his colleagues on the drinking water quality, Every department does their own thing. In Fort Good Hope this came up. MACA’s doing one, Health is doing one, ENR is doing one. Everybody’s doing their own part on ensuring that the water is safe, the testing is proper and that they are properly testing for the chemicals. They don’t do all the testing. Is the Minister going to come forward with some kind of coordinated process? This is what we’re doing with all the departments, just like they had the social programs coordinating committee, so they cannot coordinate what everybody else is doing.
Ms. Bisaro talked about the human capacity and I think MACA is doing a good job in that area. The Minister got a smile out of me here. I want to thank you. The School of Community Government is doing very good. I’ve seen people in my communities and regions who have taken this and they said they’re doing well. I want to thank the Minister for that and I could continue to support you on this initiative.
I want to ask the Minister on the New Deal in the communities. Are you helping the communities implement the New Deal and to fully implement it to its capacity on the New Deal? I know the Minister of housing talked about the IAB lots. I know MACA is involved with the federal IAB lots. There have been some people in my region that have been saying that this is Indian Affairs’ lot, why is MACA taking over? Who gave them authority? It becomes a collective property issue of rent and who pays the taxes and all that stuff. Some people still firmly believe that these lots that were given to them by the band, that these are their lots. Why is the territorial government, through MACA, taking these lots away from them? There is some confusion there, some difficulty. In and around Good Hope especially. That’s where a lot of people still say that these lots belong to them and that they are band lots, so to speak. I guess that’s some work that we have to do.
I’ve supported and continue to support the initiatives with the youth, the different games that they play, and the ones that are getting some good airtime now are the traditional games in our small communities. Especially with the hand games that are becoming more and more popular amongst other traditional games in the Northwest Territories. I’m starting to see that. I want to see how we can continue to support the traditional games.
Ms. Bisaro talked about the voluntary sector and their importance to our communities. We certainly appreciate the voluntary sector for coming out. Be it the Arctic Winter Games or any kind of games, you see in the regions all the volunteers that come out to support the children in the community. I guess I want to see continued strength in those areas.
The Municipal and Community Affairs do a lot of funding to the communities. I think the majority of their funding goes directly to the communities. I wish other departments would follow your lead so they could give the powers to the community. That’s how it should be, with the support of the departments to the communities.
I just want to say that I appreciate that process there and I will have other questions for the Minister as we go through page by page.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next on my list is Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome to the Minister and delegation from MACA here today. I’d like to take a moment to commend the Minister and all the initiatives they do for sport in the Territories. Seeing with my own eyes, as Regular Members do, and seeing that the benefits that sport has done with the division of the department, I have to commend them.
With that said, I believe there’s nothing in his opening address, nothing in this budget which tends to look at some of the bigger picture for sport and youth. I’m talking more about the layers of administration out there. There still tends to be some concern out there with respect to how the Sports and Recreation Council with its other members, a lot of people feel that we have a lot of duplication of authority. I would ask the Minister and his team to potentially take a look at this as many constituents far and wide, north, south, east, west, small, rural, urban, many have come forward to many Members and asked that maybe it could be reviewed and be more efficient so that at the end of the day monies are going to where they’re intended to: back to the kids, back to the volunteers, back to the TSOs, so that they can perform to the best of their ability. We want that message to be taken in the right context not the wrong context.
Communities have expressed major interest in respect to delivering ground ambulance and highway rescue services. We obviously will talk a little bit more later on today regarding one of the budget items. The NWTAC has come out looking for support. I believe the municipalities are looking for support. I believe the people of the Northwest Territories are looking for answers. Bar none, this is going to be a very expensive program. This has been discussed within a committee structure and I agree that this is a very complex issue, one in which, though, we need to discuss. One in which we need to have a better battle plan, so to speak, as we move forward.
I will be asking, with time as a Regular Member here, for this department to look at the feasibility of a business case model where we can bring in potentially private P3, or private enterprise to come in and work with third-party adjudicators like CMA, third-party agencies that have the ability to use insurance so that we can offset those type of costs. Not having a program in place puts us at a high risk. We have lots of roads. We have very challenging roads out there, especially Highway No. 7 where I’ve heard of sinkholes that can swallow vehicles whole. That said, I’m looking for the department to consider highway ambulance services high on the priority list for this. We don’t see it in this budget, but I’m going to ask that it be looked at for future budgets.
Recreational Leasing Policy Framework. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside many of your teammates during a lot of the public consultation and I was very moved by the acceptance of the new policy coming on stream. One of the cautions that I have and that I again wish to share with the department if you haven’t already done so is people are looking for us for guidance and stewardship in terms of pushing this program along. I think the acceptance is there. We’ve heard loud and clear by many Members. I know Ms. Bisaro indicated about evaluation after a year to see how that works. We have an oversubscription of capacity for what we have on the table and I’m concerned that we have people who have been waiting for many, many years, some for decades, for the opportunity to acquire a lease in the legal format.
I challenge the department to foster an environment of completeness where we can move along this pathway a lot quicker than potentially is on the radar, just to get the capacity down so that we’re meeting the needs of not only the Yellowknife area but throughout the Northwest Territories, and more so to look at the future expansion of the Recreational Leasing Program. That was very loud and clear. We are looking at a very microcosm program that’s on the table right now, but I think people far and wide are looking for a broader approach to leases.
One of the other things that I know I brought up as a Regular Member in the House here are issues involving carbon monoxide detectors. I’m a very staunch supporter who is very concerned that we need to put a lot more emphasis on that, not only in our public housing but awareness throughout the Northwest Territories, including our remote areas of the territory. I would be championing and asking the Minister and his team to look at acquiring the services of the fire marshals to work in conjunction with MACA to make sure inspections are high on the priority list for this fiscal year. The last thing we would want to see is any issues involving carbon monoxide and any future unwarranted fatalities for our people of the Northwest Territories.
You heard today many Members speaking about water, drinking water especially. If the Minister hasn’t heard me speak about drinking water before, I’ll reiterate. It’s very, very high. You hear this from many Members, many concerns. Not so much that we don’t believe ourselves that the quality of water is very good, I’m not going to deny that, and that’s been brought up in the House and committee. You need to empirically validate that in a way that communities expect and the people of the Northwest Territories expect.
Stewardship of drinking water always falls under the roles of many departments and MACA is one of four departments here today. Unfortunately, guidelines are really what is the stewardship of the policy. Regulations are something, I think, we are in dire need of to make sure we can enforce that.
We need to have securities, knowing that the testing is done rigorously in all regions as part of the MACA results that have been brought forward in the House. Some of the MACA tabled results that we see in websites, some of them are incomplete. Some of the testing has not been done rigorously, especially in the Deh Cho area. We have some communities that weren’t tested for 29 of the minerals and chemicals that they’re supposed to be tested for, some that go back two to three years. This is a concern that needs to be rectified.
This cannot fall only on MACA’s shoulders. This has to be a cross-department issue, and there has to be a commitment to making sure that drinking water and adherence to guidelines – and these are federal guidelines – territorial work alongside communities, but we have to be stewards. We have to show leadership. If we have communities that are not towing the line, we need to support them, be it expertise, help, whatever it takes. We have to make sure that drinking water is at the forefront.
We need to create a baseline of drinking water standards so that when we complete the Stewardship Watershed Strategy and transboundary agreements, that we have a baseline so that we know that we can move forward with faith that our testing is being done and our drinking water is safe.
You’ve heard from the Member for Sahtu that there’s concern in the Fort Good Hope area with cancer. The numbers are there. They’re starting to show themselves. The issues that we have are not just on one. This is a lifetime of consumption that causes problems. We need to look not just at a moment in time, but we need those numbers moving forward.
My last comment is still dealing with water but it’s dealing with the source water situation that we’re dealing with here in the Yellowknife area, where we’re going to be changing the access point from the Yellowknife River to the bay.
As a newer Member to the House, I find it odd that in other municipalities and communities across the Northwest Territories, the Government of the Northwest Territories is playing an active role in offsetting costs for source water or water treatment plants, yet it appears here in Yellowknife that that doesn’t seem to be entirely the same case. I will be having questions later today as to why. Why is Yellowknife treated differently? We should be treated like any other community. We should be getting support. The municipality here should have access to equal support moving forward like any other community in the Northwest Territories.
That would be my opening general comments here for today. Thank you for your time. Thank you to the Minister and the team.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Further opening comments. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to have this opportunity again to comment on the Municipal and Community Affairs program. Thanks to the Minister for his opening remarks. Just going through them, I’m curious, in support of the 17th Assembly goals, MACA will provide technical advice and assistance related to the implementation of integrated community sustainability plans in the areas of energy, capital and human resources. I appreciate that. That is the role of MACA. Typically, we do provide advice. I’m wondering what the assistance is in this case.
Moving on to public service capacity initiatives mentioned three times in disparate places throughout the document, obviously getting some emphasis, which I appreciate. We did put exceptional dedicated funds into these initiatives, but I have not heard what those dollars have gained us in terms of results. And, you know, ongoing monitoring and evaluation assessment of the effectiveness of our dollars is an important role and responsibility, so I would like to hear what we are gaining with those dollars.
The Recreational Leasing Policy Framework has been more than adequately addressed by my colleague. This is important work. I’ve appreciated the department putting active leasing on hold until we get this policy firmed up and in place. That seems like a fair way to approach it. I know that new problems in terms of trespassing or squatting have continued to develop and may be exacerbated as people off of Commissioner’s land and onto federal land, something we will hopefully inherit soon. Recognizing the current limitations, which I think have been well demonstrated through this process of developing this policy, we need to be building our land management capacity and our enforcement capacity, especially as this other deadline approaches. I will look forward to any comments from the Minister on that.
The financial management in communities, it’s a huge capacity issue, and a very important one. It seems like we might be making some progress there and perhaps resulting from the Public Service Capacity Initiative. We have, as the Minister reported, more communities, we don’t know how many, but at least some have accumulated surpluses as opposed to deficits. That can also be seen in two ways. One is a capacity for delivering and spending the dollars. I have also seen that in communities. Maybe the Minister can assure me or provide some more information on that.
On the sports issue, I know there have been a couple of different comments on that. I fall into the area where we’re not there yet. These are huge programs, important programs for the development of our children and the health of our adult people, as well. They’re very important but I do see a large degree, I see, as do many people from across the NWT, as my colleague mentioned, expensive duplication and particularly in the area of administration. I think, especially for the top-heavy Sports and Recreation Council. I think we’re not there yet. There’s some work to be done there.
I guess my last one, and it will be no surprise to the Minister: Where is the NWT building standards act? Clearly, it’s needed. The communities are calling for it. It used to be that the GNWT delivered that service and now we have this New Deal, or we’ve shrugged off those responsibilities onto communities, so I will be speaking to that during the detail, of course. I won’t go on about it, but it’s long overdue and more and more professionals in the field are calling for it and so on. I’ll be talking to that later.
I’ll stop there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Further to opening comments, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just some comments that I kind of find myself reiterating, but it’s part of the process. I just wanted to speak in general terms on some of the aspirations of the communities that I represent; namely, the reserve, Kakisa and Fort Providence and, of course, Enterprise.
I think the communities there are very interested in trying to be more independent and trying to ensure that they provide the services to their residents that make their homes in those communities and they want to raise their children as well. So they aspire to trying to provide the services that other communities take for granted. For example, in Enterprise they’ve always been interested in trying to at least establish a water treatment plant for themselves, and they’ve made it clear that it’s something that they could do by themselves with the help of Municipal and Community Affairs. I think they’ve done some preliminary assessments and I think, if talks are ongoing, it’s a positive sign that things are going good and, indeed, at some point they will realize at least being one step closer towards establishing a water treatment plant.
Similarly, in Kakisa they, of course, want the same thing. I know there are constraints in terms of budgets, but understanding in terms of capital plans, it is possible for at least…(inaudible)…in the long range. In the short-term range that they could really put some resources aside and ensure that the department is on board and helping them to achieve at least the realization of water treatment plants in their communities.
There have also been some expressed concerns in terms of the intake pipes in Fort Providence. There have been some concerns and perhaps some hiccups now and then. I know there have been some initiatives in the past to ensure that the intake pipe there is, of course, something that’s workable and there have been efforts from all levels to ensure that it is, indeed, working to full capacity. I understand there are some issues that perhaps are kinks at the moment, but more likely could be worked out.
Of course, in Kakisa, as well, they talked about some ideas that they wanted to undertake, of course, with the assistance of the department. One of them is they periodically have family gatherings there or funeral services. They’re quite restricted in terms of where they can have it. Their present little office sometimes is, you know, full capacity, especially when you have surrounding communities visit their community to try and pay their respects for a funeral service or weddings, like that, of that nature. They’re very interested in trying to work with the department, and I believe the department is making gains to try and work with them and meet them halfway.
On some other stuff, in Fort Providence there are some ongoing discussions with the community in terms of how to remedy the situation of the swimming pool. I think I’ve raised that to ensure that we do follow up with the building. I know as it was constructed and it’s intended awhile to provide at least a medium for our youth to use and it’s been there sitting idle for the past two or three years. I think a concerted effort needs to be made from all sides, including the community, to ensure that it’s realized to its full capacity and it’s used. Hopefully, the department will carry on with the work they’ve been doing thus far.
Another area of concern that has been brought to me is just in terms of lands available for residential purposes, whether it is ultimately going to be a lease through Commissioner’s land or if it is going to be maybe owned privately, at least some provisions in terms of allowing people to have an option of purchasing land. It could be constrained by current negotiations of various tables happening, but I think people are aspiring to have a level of certainty so that if they buy a house, the land is theirs as well. This is just an aspiration that people have at the community level.
Finally, I think sport and recreation are key in terms of trying to bolster the advances of our youth. I always believed that the youth are the spirit of our community. If we can provide very good recreational services, then by all means our youth develop themselves to their full capacity. I think thus far we have seen some very positive indications in some communities. Hopefully, the department will continue to work with our communities in trying to realize some recreational initiatives that they would like to undertake.
Finally, perhaps I have raised it before, but I see it as an opportunity to maybe try to build at least an understanding of how it is that this department could play a role in trying to help out communities. I know down the road, the biggest community is Fort Providence, the realization of the bridge happening to be completed at some point is more likely going to increase traffic in the vicinity. There is going to be a need, most likely, for a timely communication system so that if you have an emergency situation, then it is right now that an ambulance could be made available or planes dispatched. I would like to suggest or at least recommend to the department if perhaps they could work with communities, small communities especially that are interested in establishing similar services if perhaps there could be at least an assessment or a feasibility study on how that could be done, at what cost and whether it is really a matter of the private industry that really decides the fate of whether they provide those services. It would be helpful if at least one department could step up to the plate and assist small communities if they aspire to or to establish cellular service in their communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Opening comments. I have no one further on my list. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is just one of the items that haven't been mentioned as I listened to my colleagues. I won’t spend a lot of time repeating the other items already mentioned, but there were some pretty good ones.
The issue that I noticed had been missed – and if it had been spoken on, I apologize for that description – is hotel tax. We all know it goes through this department. The Hotel Association has been working quite diligently to bring this initiative to the forefront. The fact is the hotel tax, if implemented properly through our Municipal and Community Affairs in partnership with communities at large, that would enable communities, if they felt it necessary and it meets their objectives, some flexibility on raising some money for tourism or added value services in their community.
Quite often, as we all know, communities will put in requests for recreational coordinators, event coordinators, et cetera. There never seems to be enough money, but the Hotel Association, from the Yellowknife point of view, has articulated a concern and said, well, whoa, we would like to do some conference planning and some development over the long haul. This would enable source money to be able to do something like this.
There are other communities such as, if I understand it correctly, Fort Smith. I think there has been talk now, muttering around the idea of a community event planner. It is meant to be a dynamic way of allowing communities to meet some of their objectives and certainly their goals, which again, enabled through MACA legislation, that would allow a particular community to choose to take on a type of authority and implement it.
The important key element of this hotel tax is it becomes a situation where a community itself may want to decide, well, this is what we want. This is not prescribed. Every community wouldn’t have to follow suit. They would be allowed to do it at their will.
The only particular issue, as I mentioned, that I think has been missed is the hotel tax issue. I think that we have now progressed to a point where the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs should be working its hardest to help enable our communities to do the work that they want to do and not find ways to restrict them.
Madam Chair, that is the only issue I plan to raise at this particular time. However, I may be stirred to raise concern on other issues as we approach those pages. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Opening comments. There are no further. I will go to the Minister for a response if he so chooses. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am sure we appreciate the comments of a lot of the Members. Obviously, the issues are the same right across the Territories, because we have heard the same issues from practically every Member.
We appreciate some of the positive comments we have had surrounding the youth funding and the sports and recreation. That is always a good thing. We will continue to invest in our youth. That was a huge priority of the 16th Assembly. I think we have seen that in a lot of the money making it into the mains. We saw this as a huge priority of the 17th Assembly. We are looking forward to carrying on with some of the good work in that regard.
Again, the Rec Policy Framework was mentioned a couple of times. We have been really pleased at the input that we had in that. Our lands department has done excellent work as far as that goes. They have done a lot of on-the-ground exercises.
I think one of the Members talked about going further down the road and taking over all the federal land when devolution does happen. We recognize that. I think the lands department is proposing to do some re-profiling and possibly bring in some enforcement people to help with that. We are trying to meet with certain people and get their input as to some of the uses of the land and some of their traditional uses so we can incorporate that and help us finish it and get a real good quality product out there, but I am really pleased with the work that has been done.
We did have an opportunity to brief committee. I think committee has seen a lot of advice that they were giving and advice that we were taking from outside and all the work that we did was incorporated into this particular one. We had committed to taking it out one more time, taking the last little bit of feedback before we roll out the final product. That is where we are at right now. A lot of really good work has been done. I commend the lands department. I have to commend the people out there for the input that they put in, not only here in Yellowknife but up in Inuvik. We just recently signed an MOU with the Town of Inuvik and the Gwich’in Tribal Council, Nihtat Gwich'in, because they have all expressed interest around Airport Lake in Inuvik. I think all their boundaries border Airport Lake, so we have a Land Use Management Plan Working Group which is huge. I am looking forward to some of the good work that is coming out of there.
The ground ambulance, we have heard committee and then we have seen the motion from NWTAC, so I think you will see coming forward in the supp that we are asking for that $200,000 to be reinstated into the budget. That I think responds well to the wishes of the committee and to NWTAC.
Funding to communities, community capacity building, we have seen some really good work. Obviously, we are still faced with some challenges, but I think overall we have seen a lot of good work that has been done by the communities with the responsibilities they have.
I mentioned that we have communities with surpluses now actually, but they are doing some really good work. They are actually able to get product on the ground probably cheaper than we could as a Government of the Northwest Territories because they have that ability and flexibility to shop around and get the best prices possible. We are seeing some good results. Of course, it is to the community’s benefit to incorporate some of the best energy practices that are out there. I think we have seen a few examples of that where, in Detah, they used pellet heat to heat their new community complex and some of the other communities.
I think I made a commitment to Mr. Bromley to do some exploring as far as the Standards Act. I remain committed to that. I am trying to line up a few meetings and get some input from a few parties out there that have a vested interest in this. Of course, I want to hear from the communities, because if we make adjustments to the Standards Act, that’s obviously going to have a huge financial impact on them.
I believe they’re building all their buildings according to the National Building Code, which is the right thing to do. If we have to have our own building standards on top of that, say two by twelve walls instead of two by six, which is standard across the country, then you know we may have to look at that. I have committed that I would explore that.
I do know that the MACA building code had been open for some public consultation for the last few months. They were looking for some feedback for people across the country because they were hoping to make some amendments to the current building code, so I’m looking forward to some of the results of that. I’ve been following that quite closely. My understanding is they are looking at later on in 2012, more likely closer to fall, to come out with some proposed amendments. So I will wait to see how that rolls out. Hopefully, it will take into consideration some of the challenges that are faced in some of the colder climates across the country.
Drinking water is another big one that’s been mentioned a few times by practically every Member. Of course, we continue to monitor that. We have a very good training program and the Member for Sahtu mentioned the good work of the School of Community Government, and that’s another area where they’ve done some really good work. I didn’t realize they had so many different courses in the School of Community Government which helps communities with their capacity and does really good work with HR, LGANT and...(inaudible)...as far as community capacity goes. We’re always looking for mentors or retired SAOs that we can use their expertise and maybe put them in a community for a few months and they can work with that community. We’ve had some fairly good success with that. If there’s any retired SAOs that are really good that are out there listening, we can always use your expertise, but we are looking at all options possible to work with our communities and try to help them build capacity.
We’ve had some good uptake. We have people from the community and are going to be from the community more than likely for the rest of their life, unless they move on. They are taking a really good interest in this and I think it’s a good investment as far as we’re concerned, because they are committed to their community and they’ll do the best job possible, but we still continue to seek professional advice from where we can get it.
I strayed off from drinking water. We continue to work with communities. I’ve been doing some checking after Mr. Dolynny raised this in the House here a couple of weeks back earlier in the session. He talked about the drinking water and the testing and that, so I’ve been doing some follow-up on that and working with my colleagues, four departments. We actually just had a meeting last week. It’s probably one of the first meetings of all four departments that are involved in the drinking water part of it. So we’re looking at trying to get some work done there.
I think I basically covered most of the issues that were raised again. They were a common theme right across all Members and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss this in detail. I’m sure we’ll have more questions and I’m not going to take up too much more of committee’s time. I’ll have more responses when we get into detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I’m sure there will be more questions. We will resume after a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
Welcome back, committee. We will come to order. We are done with opening comments. We are on page 6-7. We’ll defer page 6-7 until we have considered detail. Does committee agree? Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m sure I must have missed the Minister’s response to my question about hotel tax. I’m just wondering if we can get that on the record what I asked during opening comments. What’s interesting is it’s the only subject I talked about. I’d hate to think that 100 percent of my comments were ignored.
We could cover that in detail when we get to the page.
There is no page for hotel tax.
Minister McLeod.
Thank you. I apologize to the Member for overlooking that. We are looking to the hotel tax. We need to develop an option paper for consideration. We’re not quite clear of all municipalities’ and hotel operators’ support. So we are looking at it, Mr. Hawkins. It’s one that if we get the opportunity, we’ll develop an option paper and go from there.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Anything further, Mr. Hawkins? Okay. Thank you. We’ll try this again. Page 6-7, Municipal and Community Affairs, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $95.533 million. We’ll defer until we’re done with detail. Turn to page 6-8, information item, Municipal and Community Affairs, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?
Agreed.
Page 6-9, information item, Municipal and Community Affairs, revenue summary. Any questions here?
Agreed.
Page 6-10, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, active positions summary.
