Thank you. Minister of MACA.
I'll start and then I'll turn to the deputy minister.
So when we first started talking about it, we were talking 20232024. As I said in the House here, this is 20222023. So we'll be done this upcoming fiscal year. We are a year ahead of schedule. We are working on it. We are trying to address the challenges there.
And for the second part of the question, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. Yes, as the Minister said, we are updating all three of our large funding policies in 20222023.
We do provide informal notice to community governments about what their funding levels for the upcoming year will be. And if there are reductions, which there have not been in the life of this Assembly and actually the prior Assembly before this, we do give them a heads up. The so from that perspective, you know, we do advise community governments use the same funding amount you received last year as the basis for your budgeting. We do have the ability as well to enter into multiyear agreements to provide some stability and predictability around the funding, but. And in prior years, we often published public communications to community governments to let them know at a global level that there were no funding reductions and we'll be starting that process again this spring once the budget is once the GNWT budget is passed so that communities have that information for their budgeting purposes. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions under the Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations? Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of questions. One of them is the $825,000 recreation funding. Is that proposal based or is it per capita based, the funding? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. Yes, that funding I believe the Member's looking at the funding on page 352, and that funding is proposal based. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
So if it's proposal based that means that any community could Madam Chair, anybody could any community or regional centre could put proposals in, anything to do with recreation or sport; right? Am I correct? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Madam Chair, I also wonder how come we had, in youth centres in 2021 Actuals, we had $30,000 and then nothing for this coming these mains. I'm just wondering, we're always talking about encouraging our youth. We're always talking about the youth are the future generations of leadership. Is there any reason why there was no allocation for youth centres in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That $30,000 is showing a onetime contribution we made in that fiscal year. It was not a regularly budgeted program. So that's why it just shows up one time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Also under the youth contribution programs that develops the youth leadership, in 2021 we only spent well, because of COVID, I am sure, but we only spent $45,000 of the actuals. Is that why we were keeping the same amount of $225,000 within that in that line? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA. All right. Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to our great research staff, I have a very wonderful chart in front of me that shows that the amount of funding to municipal governments for environmental services, that the gap is actually will increase this year coming up.
I'm just curious to know what the department's plan is to deal with the environmental liabilities in our communities. I'm aware of a few projects, without naming those communities, that, you know, there is some dispute over whether the GNWT should be responsible for cleaning them up. Some predate the existence of the GNWT so that becomes a bit of a struggle. And in the meantime, I'm worried about people that are living with contaminated ground and which can also have a soil vapour component. So it's not only hydrocarbons in our ground water; it can be hydrocarbons in our soils. And I can think of two three communities right off the top of my head where I know of sites.
So what is the Minister and the department doing to resolve that and address that, and is there a way that we can actually get more money into these environmental services that's a great way there's always a training or a community component to those RFPs? It's a good way also to just keep some money into the communities themselves. 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. Related to the environmental liabilities that may be still existing within the boundaries of community governments, there are ongoing discussions. Some of the as the Member said, some of the history to these sites is not always well documented or known. There are ownership issues. Sometimes the polluter may no longer be in the community or the territory. It is a long process to try to solve those issues, so there's no definite timeline to have those resolved. However, the GNWT is actively monitoring those sites. For example, you know, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources does do the inspections related to ensure safe water, safe soil and, if there's contamination, to make sure that everybody's aware of that.
Just to clarify, the environmental services is so traditionally, that funding pot has been for the provision funding for community governments for them to provide water and sewer services. One of the areas that it did not historically cover was things like landfill sites, solid waste sites. So that work is going ongoing to make sure that community government's costs related to those types of sites are eligible for funding under that policy. That's one of the policy updates we're doing to that formula. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, that makes sense to me. I'm assuming, then, when once we start that work or we have landed on that that there would be then an increase to this amount of money that's being provided? I also maybe would wonder if perhaps a rename might be a little better for it because it is, to me it was oh just environmental services, that's my world. But well, water and sewer was kind of my world too but we don't talk about that.
So yeah, will there be more money coming and when can we sort of expect to see see that plan and that work and will it be shared with committee before things are finalized? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy minister Gareau.
Thank you. Yes, all three policies, so water, sewer, which is environmental services; O and M; and community public infrastructure, which is the capital funding, all three of those are being reviewed right now and our goal is to have them finalized and through review by the NWTAC and LGANT by November/December after which time they would be the Minister would be bringing them to committee for review and input. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess is there and I apologize if that has been asked before, but is there the federal funding around as we progress through, like, disaster mitigation and adaptation, I know that often that funding resides with the Department of Infrastructure to go for, or it can be project based I guess from communities themselves. I'm just wondering is there any talk in with the feds that there is going to be more money coming for that kind of work? Like, I know a lot of our infrastructure I think of Hay River, for example, having lots of issues I hear currently with some water and such freezing and old systems that need replacing, and they can't build new subdivisions because they don't have water and sewer. So I guess how does MACA work with Infrastructure to access sort of those mitigation and adaptation pots? 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 Infrastructure and MACA meet on a regular basis. We do have some overlap with our federal counterparts but in some cases, we're dealing with completely different federal departments. So we do keep each other updated in terms of discussions happening at the federal level and where either them or us or any other government GNWT department may be able to access funding from them. So it's an ongoing relationship. And sometimes we sit at the same table, and other times we don't. But we are aware of the work each other is doing and the activity that's ongoing. Thank you.
Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Is the Minister and the department seeing any sort of uptake with the federal government and the recognition of how rapidly the North is changing? It was really impressed upon me being at COP with my colleague that, you know, this is happening at a much greater rate and accelerated rate in the North, and we had you know, had the federal government making all these commitments. So I'm just wondering, you know, is that going to change where maybe we are going to start to see 100 percent dollars here as well, like maybe the DND funding that we get for Arctic sovereignty and the Inuvik upgrade? I really feel that the federal government needs to recognize that this is becoming very critical, and we can't wait until they sort of come up with this Canadianwide strategy, I think. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Yeah, I can tell the Member and the House here we've been addressing this with our colleagues and with the federal government, addressing these are serious situations, giving them live situations, i.e. Tuk, as well as other communities, some of the challenges. I mean, I lived it this past springtime. So we have been bringing it with the federal government. We've, in our asks, one of them is climate change and how we are going to be able to do it. We've had the conversations with Minister Gibeault about the adaptation strategy and how it's going to be impacting the North and how we're able to achieve that. So we are working on it with the federal government, making them well aware of it, because this is the reality. And as the Member is aware, when we were at COP it was educating. Like, it was very much educating people about how climate change is impacting us in the North. Like, it's three times bad for us, and we've been living it a long time. So again, it was about education. And I apologize to the Member wasting all this time but, yeah, that's where it is. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I'm a pretty expressive person so you'd know if you were getting to the point where I wanted you to wrap it up.
No, I appreciate that. And I guess I struggle just that with the one voice and sometimes that we have a very of the 13 and you are know, that we're really not being heard at the table. And funny enough, it'll be when we're in panic and disaster that the rest of Canada might wake up to the fact that they're just going to be next, right. So I guess I don't know if I have a question. Just a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of MACA.
Yeah, I thank the Member for that. And yeah, when I was at COP, we had those conversations with our counterparts, the provincial counterparts. It's been in conversations we've had on PTFs. We've been making having those conversations and we've been very clear that these are we're living it and this is how we need help. And to BC and Ontario's credit, both Ministers were very receptive of that. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
I was going to ask we are on regional operations? Here, community government funding, it's 49 for this fiscal year and still the same in the new fiscal year. Does this reflect the current because we know that the inflation fluctuates and we talked about it before. I'm just wondering if it's added within this 49 for the next fiscal year?
