Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was talking about the appreciation night for the Town of Hay River today, but my questions are for the Minister of MACA. I’d like to know what training MACA provides to municipalities for the help of the employees.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the School of Community Government we have about 11 core courses that a lot of the municipalities take us up on. For example, in 2011-2012 we had 11 training events that were attended by 135 participants. We work very closely with the communities to offer them programs and training that will allow them to do their job a lot better and with a lot of support from MACA.
My next question is: What funding does MACA provide to the municipalities to do its training in the community itself?
The communities are given an O and M budget. When they feel that there’s training that is necessary in their community, then they will, for the most part, use their O and M money to offer training in their communities. However, as I said, again, we do have a lot of courses that are offered through the School of Community Government that a lot of municipalities take us up on, and they meet other people from across the Northwest Territories that are doing similar work and they can share experiences and best practices.
As I indicated, the economic benefit that the municipalities provide to their local economy is very strong and I’d like to know from the Minister if MACA is considering increasing some of the funding they provide to the municipalities to do infrastructure development.
The New Deal that was done about five years ago is up for an evaluation. It was supposed to be evaluated after five years to see how we can improve how we work with communities. I have to say that with all the infrastructure money that we’ve been giving to the communities, they have the responsibility for the projects that they want in their communities. It’s a program that’s worked very well. We’ve heard back from many of the municipalities that have done a lot of good work with the money that they’ve been given. However, we are looking at re-evaluating or evaluating the program and seeing how well it’s worked. In my opinion, it’s worked very well for the communities.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that there will be a review completed. Can the Minister tell me the expected date on that review completion?
We’re just starting the work now; however, I will keep the committee updated on the work as we go forward and hopefully have a finished product for them quite soon. I will keep committee updated on the work that we’re doing.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
