Thank you. I appreciate that. I guess in my former life, I had a lot more experience dealing with the NWTAC versus LGANT so I'm more familiar with what they do. And I know that the NWTAC has provided technical advice in some ways to the department, specifically around infrastructure, aging infrastructure, permafrost melt, etcetera. I can't think of an area where we would need actually to be increasing those resources. And I'm wondering, you know, what the department is doing to support the NWTAC in building out those types of resources. And succession planning. I can think of some key people involved there that should they decide to not continue on, a huge amount of wealth and knowledge and networking, because I know like I said, they've always worked really well with NAPEG and the engineers, so. Maybe the Minister or the deputy minister could speak to that. Thank you.
Deputy minister of MACA. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so MACA deals very closely with both LGANT and NWTAC. We do core fund both organizations. And, you know, they are they are very concerned with issues such as succession planning at community governments but also for their own organizations. And, you know, I'm not sure what plans they have but I'm assuming that they would have those plans in place for succession planning. But they are both both organizations really do represent work to represent the interest of community governments and work work very closely with MACA on a wide, wide, wide variety of projects. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you for that. And again, sometimes I realize I probably should know how some of these things work, but there's a lot of details floating around in my head.
I guess I'm wondering if perhaps through the Minister and the department that we could maybe have a I hate to say this to my colleagues but a briefing or have a meeting with both of these community organizations in order more to because I know we've had them come and present to specific committees on on certain items, but I think, for me, it would be useful to understand them as an organization as a whole or how they interact and where their wants and needs are as another sort of stakeholder in the game that we don't really have a lot of access to. And because we don't sit on the any of the intergovernmental councils, for us to meet those types of people and hear from them could maybe be difficult. Or they're not aware that we're looking for information. So maybe the if the Minister could speak to that. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you. If committee wants that, we're more than willing to work with committee and NWTAC and LGANT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. No? Member Minister.
We still have three presentations to committee that we still haven't figured or scheduled yet. So I apologize, I just want to make sure people are aware that we have three that we're trying to get done. Thank you.
Thank you. You hear that, Member for Yellowknife North? Member for Great Slave.
Yeah no, and I appreciate that. And I don't think that this would be one of those ones that I would even say it needs to be done before the next session or anything. So maybe something more just on the radar, or even perhaps information provided to those if they're not already aware, to those groups that of the feedback loop to the standing committee so that they are maybe more aware that they have a role or an avenue in which they can approach us to provide information. And I think sometimes, I just say that in general, we a lot of people don't know that they could reach out to a committee clerk and provide information on any topic they want. I think this would be two good organizations to target with that kind of messaging. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. No further questions? School of community governments. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Firstly, I would also like to apologize. I'll get a hold of the Minister, and we'll schedule those briefings as soon as possible.
I'm looking at the contract services budget here, and I'll note that last fiscal's actuals we spent $97,000 out of 868, about 10 percent, of the budget. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's because that was COVID and we didn't deliver a lot of the school of government programming in person as we intended.
Can the Minister just tell us about this upcoming fiscal and whether we're going to spend all of those that contract services money? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Yeah, so the Member is correct, because of COVID we tried to do things online and that, and some of the biggest challenges is people like in meeting or in person meetings, hands on. So, yeah, we feel that we're going to be able to achieve what we said we that amount of money moving forward. Thank you.
Thank you. School of community government.
All right, no more further questions? So Municipal and Community Affairs, school of community government, operations expenditure summary, 20222023 Main Estimates, $2,955,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now move on to Municipal and Community Affairs, sport and recreation and youth on page 360, with information items on 361, 362, and 363. Are there any questions?
Seeing no questions oh, Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I know that this activity's usually near and dear to the heart of the Minister but it's the only activity within MACA that we actually see a decline in funding over time. Look at 2021 and, you know, to 20222023, and it's a decline of money. Maybe there might have been some bump up for COVID, I don't know. But this activity, the money's actually declining. Can I get an explanation for that? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Yeah, so if you look at it, COVID relief was at $1.8 million. It's not being available moving forward. So that's where our numbers are. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, okay, when I look at page 361, I can see the COVID relief funding for 20202021 but there's nothing after that. So, you know, why then I'm going to go back now to page 360 and, you know, the main estimates for 20212022, $5.507 million. And then for 20222023, $5.38 million. Why is there still a decline even though the COVID relief money is not being there's none in last year or in 20222023, why is this declining? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you. For detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. So the figures on page 360 show the full details of this activity. So the compensation, the O and M, and the grants and contributions versus page 361 just shows the grants and contributions. So it doesn't include the salary and O and M. And as the Minister pointed out, the main the 2021 Actuals include that onetime almost $2 million from Canada. So that's the major change in funding, was that onetime funding we received in the and it shows up in the prior year actuals. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks. Maybe I'll take another try at this. Okay, so there are staff presumably in this activity, and I'm just going to turn the page over to seven. So I would have thought that there would be at least a collective agreement increase but what we actually see is that the budget for this activity actually going down at a time when a collective agreement increase should be here. So where's that money being found, and why is it this activity getting less money in 20222023 than the year before? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Sorry, so I'm looking at the budget here in the 20222023 Main Estimates, we have 5.38, and under the revised one was 5.342. So we've seen an increase of 38 from the revised budget. So the but for that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Maybe I'm missing something. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. So the the change from the 20212022 Main Estimates to the 20222023 Main Estimates main estimates, so going from that $5.507 million to the $5.380 million is a combination of collective agreement increases, but there was also a budget reduction applied in this activity for the travel reductions. So there was a total reduction, I believe it's around $168,000 in travel in this activity. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Well, I guess I just will put on the record that it's disappointing to see a decline in funding for sport, recreation, and youth from what we had in our main estimates last year compared to what we're going to do in 20222023. At the same time that there should have been a collective agreement increase, we're spending less money on sport, recreation, and youth. And I just don't think that that's sends out a good signal. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Any further questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Yeah, Madam Chair, I'd like to echo what my colleague for Frame Lake is saying. These are our mental wellness dollars right here, especially for small communities that may not have access to the same facilities or same programs here in Yellowknife.
And just in reference to the travel dollars or travel restrictions that have gone down, I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to the impact of the reduction of those travel dollars and what travel was reduced from this key activity? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. So this activity does show a total collective agreement increase of $38,000 in the compensation and benefits line. The budget for travel in this activity has decreased by, I believe it's $165,000. And so you'll see it went from $456,000 in 20212022 Main Estimates to $291,000 in 20222023 Main Estimates. So this is a goingforward budget reduction.
In terms of the impact of that, the staff are having an in person meeting. The sport, rec, and youth staff are having an in person meeting in April to start doing their work planning and to plan on how they're going to continue to deliver the services that we've historically provided.
You know, COVID has shown that we can do some of our meetings virtually; however, the priority will be on the travel the regional travel to be able continue to you know, to help get back in the communities and help and start getting going again on our sport, rec, youth activities. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my concern is that the intent of travel reductions were to I guess remove dollars from a budget item for southern travel, not for northern travel. And so my concern is a greater impact in the North here. And we always understood that there was still going to be some travel needs, especially travel needs that were required for access to programs and services for youth. And so my question is does this have an impact on the ability of children or youth in the territory to travel for sport? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
No. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I appreciate that very clear and concise answer.
My next question is in regards to multisport games which we see had actuals of 650, and then is no longer in the budget. I'm wondering, given that it was funding to support NWT or Team NWT participation in major supporting events, is that removed because it's not on Arctic Winter Games year? Thank you.
Thank you. Member for or Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
