Debates of October 20, 2004 (day 24)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I just wanted to ask the Minister about another initiative that the local youth in Fort Resolution have taken upon themselves to try and get resolved. I am talking about the youth centre that has been sitting on the blocks and has been boarded up for the last year-and-a-half. The community is still struggling with dollars to open up the youth centre. They were given $80,000 about a year ago by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to buy a building, move it, and refinish it and open it up for a youth centre. Mr. Speaker, $80,000 doesn’t buy a youth centre in any community, especially when you have things like architectural costs which are required to meet government standards, taking out a big chunk of that money, leaving the community with a little pot of money which they really can’t do anything with. It is either you have all the money to hire a contractor to do all the work, or you just don’t do any at all. It seems like the youth in the community are basically taking on another infrastructure improvement initiative in their own hands, something that this government should be addressing. I just want to ask the Minister what his department is willing to commit as far as extra funding in the likes of $40,000 to seeing this youth centre becoming a reality in this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, honourable Minister McLeod.

Return To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the youth centre in the community of Fort Resolution is a project spearheaded by the community. We have made contributions to the community to the tune of $80,000. We had made previous contributions where, I believe, it was $14,000. At this point, if there is a problem, we would have to sit down with the community to see where the problem stems and where it lies. I am not aware where the problem is at this point. We would have to get our staff in there to meet with the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe I will just edify the Minister on what the problem is. The problem is that there is no money.

---Laughter

Basically, the money that was allotted to the community for this youth centre is not sufficient. Basically, their shortfall is to the tune of about $40,000, Mr. Speaker. With the government painting a bright fiscal picture with all of the new developments at the national level, I don’t see what the big issue is with scraping up $40,000 within Municipal and Community Affairs multi-million dollar budget to help the youth in the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the proposal that came forward to the Community Initiatives program involved other contributions. It was never intended for the youth centre in Fort Resolution to be built solely on MACA or government funding. If there is a problem, if other partners in this initiative have not been fulfilling their end, we would certainly have to take a look at it and to see where our contribution has ended up and whether or not our involvement is going to continue in this whole initiative.

There is a proposal that comes forward, there are criteria, and we have a limit on the number contributions we make in any given community, which is one per year. So we would have to review the situation and see where the problem lays, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Time for oral questions has expired; however, I will allow you to ask your supplementary questions, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make a motion that I move that we extend the question period. Thank you.

Agreed.

I seek unanimous consent to extend question period.

Mr. Villeneuve, for the record could you restate the motion please?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that we extend the question period. I seek unanimous consent to extend question period, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude question period. Are there any…to extend question period.

---Laughter

…to extend question period. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Question period will be extended. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to thank my colleagues for extending question period.

Mr. Speaker, just getting back to some of the issues that the local youth and the residents have been working on in reference to the arena facility. Over the last year, the youth and the community council have been requesting extra dollars to help make improvements in the arena facility, which the youth again have taken it on themselves to make these improvements. They have allotted many hours and evenings to doing construction work themselves in the arena, Mr. Speaker.

When I went back there and looked at the improvements that they have made, it was like night and day, Mr. Speaker. This is all done through volunteer work using the few dollars that they do raise in school through bake sales and small school events. But, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think that the youth should be burdened by the fact that they themselves are going to have to come up with something like $40,000, in order to have their youth centre become useful and useable by them. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, through the co-management agreement that has been put in place in the community, how they intend to meet with the Deninu Community Council, the First Nations, and iron out some kind of solution where everybody can make a fair contribution to the centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to the Member again that we are not the lead on the project in Fort Resolution for a youth centre. The community is the lead, there are other partners, it was the intention to secure industry dollars and other dollars. If there is a problem with raising their share of the money, we would have to take a look at it.

We have certainly contributed a significant portion to this project. We have contributed our funding through the Community Initiatives program for this year. If there is still a need, we would have to be considering it for next year; an application, for next year. At this point, if there is a request being made by the Member, we certainly will take that seriously and set up a meeting with the community. However, there has been no request from the community leadership themselves to meet with us on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Short supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the onus again would have to go back to the community members to file some kind of proposal, but I do believe that they have made numerous requests to the department to get the extra dollars that they are required, according to the government standards, building codes, et cetera. There are certain dollars that have to be allocated to make this a reality and, of course, they fell short, and they’ve gone out to industry and the industry came back with a few dollars, but really still fell quite short in meeting the final objective of $140,000, which basically is the number they are looking at.

So I just wanted to ask the Minister, if another proposal -- I’m sure it’s going to be one on a pile of others that he’s already received -- doesn’t get ignored and thrown by the wayside, and saying well, you got your Community Initiatives dollars already, there’s no use even talking about extra money. I just want to know how the Minister is going to address them this time because when they do….

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve, I heard a question there.

Thank you.

---Laughter

Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 267-15(3): Funding For Fort Resolution Youth Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the proposal that came forward for request, we did fund. It sounds, by the nature of the Member’s questioning, that there is a shortfall. We will certainly sit down with the community to discuss the shortfall. However, I would like to raise the point that we did fund our portion that was requested of us. It sounds like there is a problem with contributions that were to be made from other sources and we will have to revisit the whole initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.