Thank you, committee. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just request a moment of the committee’s time as we wrap up our final budget of Environment and Natural Resources. As we’ve been doing, we appreciate all the questions and feedback and support from Members. As I’ve been sitting here in the House and at the table again, I’ve been thinking I’ve been doing this, this is my 20th budget, my 14th as a Minister and my ninth as Environment Minister. I’ve served with some of you four years, some eight, some 12 and my longest-serving travelling companion, Madam Groenewegen from Hay River South, 20 years.
I just wanted to reflect that I’ve been thinking back over those years, the up and downs, the peaks and valleys, and there’s a Welsh word that comes to mind that captures this little moment, if I may request the indulgence of the House, and it’s hiraeth, a type of homesickness for somewhere you can’t return to, the nostalgia and grief for lost places of your past. I think back to some of the things that Mr. Bromley said and I can remember in my life up here when the days of caribou were plenty, when life was different. We’ve moved on to a whole new world and there has been enormous change over time. Sometimes we look back and all we can think about is some idealized version of what we remember about the places that really never were. I think if we look back through the lens of reality, we’ve done a lot of good work and I’ve always appreciated the support that ENR has got in this House. I wanted to express that gratitude on behalf of myself and the department. As we look forward to the 18th Assembly, I look forward to that continued support to the department when we next appear before this Assembly and this august body in this wonderful place of the people. Thank you.
---Applause
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger, for those fine closing remarks. I’d like to thank you and your department, as well, for your stewardship. Mr. Campbell, Ms. Craig, thank you for joining us. It’s always a pleasure to have you in the House. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort our witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.
Continuing on with committee’s wishes, we will start the Department of Lands. With that, we’ll turn it over to the Minister responsible for the Department of Lands for opening comments, Minister R.C. McLeod.
I am pleased to present the 2015-2016 Main Estimates for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $4.02 million, or 3.8 percent, over the 2014-2015 Main Estimates.
Highlights of the proposed estimates include:
funding of $48.3 million to provide for community government operation and maintenance costs and $17.6 million for water and sewer costs, a total increase of $2.27 million from 2014-2015;
forced growth funding of $2.939 million is comprised of $469,000 for Collective Agreement increases, $613,000 in community government operations and maintenance funding and an increase of $1.857 million in water and sewer operations funding;
a decrease of $474,000 as a result of departmental reductions. This includes the repeal of the Extraordinary Funding Policy and the reduction of water and sewer forced growth.
In addition, last fall the Legislative Assembly approved the commitment of infrastructure contribution funding for community governments totaling $28 million. The department will also continue to administer the Gas Tax Agreement on behalf of the federal government. These two programs will contribute $43 million towards community infrastructure in 2015-2016.
The proposed Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ Main Estimates continue to support the priorities of the 17th Assembly. Some specific activities in support of these priorities include:
$1 million in new funding to provide support for the community selected to host the 2018 Arctic Winter Games;
an increase of $350,000 related to the transfer of funding from the Executive for the delivery of the Non-Government Organization Stabilization Fund;
funding of $400,000 to enhance community capacity in the areas of ground ambulance and highway rescue;
funding of $1.275 million to provide for recreation, sport and physical activity programs in communities across the Northwest Territories;
funding of $1.425 million to provide community governments and youth serving organizations with support for various youth development projects; and
funding of $1 million to support the training and development of senior community government staff.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Minister McLeod, I am thankful for correcting the chair. We are doing MACA, so you’re on the right track. I said Lands, but it’s MACA.
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No, we’re not going to start over. We’re doing MACA.
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Minister McLeod, do you have witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber? Thank you.
I would, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the House, please.
Minister McLeod, please introduce your witnesses to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me from Municipal and Community Affairs, I have to my left Tom Williams, deputy minister; to my right I have Gary Schauerte who is our director of corporate services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Schauerte, Mr. Williams, welcome back to the House. It’s always good to see you folks. We are on general comments for MACA. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, I just wanted to touch on the way the department deals with the communities. As I said with the capital projects, it is up to the communities now to develop their own capital plans. From past experience, I really appreciate the way they operate now. I always say I’m glad the New Deal is moving forward. I hope we continue this practice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. I think we’ve all been to the communities and we’ve seen the work that they’ve done. With the responsibility they’ve been given they’ve done a lot of fantastic projects in the community. As the Member said, they have the ability now to make the decisions as to what their priorities are. I appreciate the comments and a shout out to the communities.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Before we continue with Mr. Blake, committee, I draw your attention to the gallery. We have Yellowknife resident Mr. Marino Casebeer joining us today watching the proceedings. Mr. Casebeer, thank you for joining us.
Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was about the only comment I had there. I’m glad to hear that we are planning to continue this practice and I look forward to the future projects the communities have.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. I’ll take that as a comment. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of comments and I don’t need a response from the Minister. I will have questions when we get to detail. I just wanted to say that I was really pleased to see that there was a review of the funding formula for communities in this past year. It was well overdue, and I think the process that the department undertook was a good one. My communications with the folks from the City of Yellowknife was that it was a good process, well thought out and lots of good discussions and that the end product was a good one. I was really glad to hear that.
I do have to say that I’m looking forward to hearing about 911 when we get to that page. I’m also looking forward to hearing about the advancements in regard to the hotel levy when we get to that page. I do have to say, and I will have questions when we get there, but I do have to say that I am extremely disappointed about the transfer of the NGO Stabilization Fund to MACA from the Executive. It doesn’t belong in MACA. It’s an all-encompassing fund that stretches across all departments, which is what the Executive does and MACA does not. No disrespect to the MACA staff who might be handling it, but it just doesn’t belong in MACA.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member asked to be just general comments without reply, so we’ll respect her wishes. She’ll be dealing with those in detail. General comments? Is committee prepared to go into detail?
Agreed.
Committee, we’ll commence with detail. We’ll defer page 351 until consideration of activity details for MACA. I’d like to turn your attention to page 352, Municipal and Community Affairs, revenue summary, information. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question on this page in regard to the number. It looks as though the revenue, for instance, in 2015-16 is $187,000, but then there’s a line underneath that total, and I need an explanation. The total for 2014-15 revised is $187,000 and then beneath that it has $2.561 million, and I don’t know quite where that other number comes from, so if I could get some explanation, please.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $2.561 million includes the Building Canada Plan, $2.374 million and the $187,000 detailed below that.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Chair, and thanks, Mr. Schauerte, for pointing out what I should have seen in the first place. I guess the revenue for Building Canada Plan for this year, ’15-16, is not there because we haven’t got it yet. Is that right?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; we haven’t gotten it yet.
Committee, we’re on page 352, Municipal and Community Affairs, revenue summary, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 353, Municipal and Community Affairs, active position summary, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Seeing none, thank you. Page 355, Municipal and Community Affairs, community operations, operations expenditure summary, $2.093 million. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note the last line of the text on page 354 says that this section is also responsible for coordinating MACA’s responsibilities for environmental liabilities. I thought that those environmental liabilities came either under Lands or under ENR, so could I get an explanation of what MACA’s responsibilities are under for, or under environmental liabilities?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. MACA’s role in the environmental liabilities is looking at all the sites and communities. Like, we have dumps that have closed, or sewage lagoons. We’re keeping the inventory. We bring it forward to the overall Environmental Liabilities Committee that is chaired by the Department of Finance. It’s more we track it, we work with communities and we do the first environmental site assessments, ESA1s that we’re responsible for, for those activities.
Thanks to Mr. Williams. Where is the money for this environmental liability work? Where does it show up in the budget?
We’re not funded for ESA1s. We have to find the money within. But any ESA2s or 3s, it’s funded through the Environmental Liability Fund.
Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little strange that the department is required to do work and doesn’t have any funding for it. Is this something that is minimal to no cost, or you’re overfunded and we don’t need to give you money for liability assessments? It just seems strange to me that if there’s work that the department has to do that there’s not an amount earmarked in the budget. Can I get a guesstimate of how much might be spent on environmental assessments in any one year?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. By far the majority of the sites that MACA has booked under their environmental liability listing are active, open sites that are in communities. For example, a sewage lagoon or a solid waste facility. As these facilities are continued to be used by community governments, there is no point in doing any assessment until the facility is closed and we’re preparing to decommission that facility. Accordingly, the only two significant environmental cleanups that we’ve been working on lately have been funded centrally through the Department of Finance Environmental Liability Fund, and that was one facility, I believe it was in Sachs Harbour, I think, and one in Norman Wells that we’ve been working on.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last question here. Can I ask the department, over time we’re going to get more and more closed sites and sites that need to be remediated, so is it the intention of the department to put money into their budget to fund environmental liability assessments?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now it would be great to have money put into the activity, but we do have staff that part of their job is to monitor the environmental liabilities at the community level. We do monitor it. We do bring ones forward that have to be brought to the attention of the Department of Finance and the Environmental Liability Fund.
Thank you, deputy minister. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my last question, but I have to comment that if we think that remediating the environmental liabilities sites is important, then I would urge the department to request funding to make sure it gets done.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll allow the Minister a final comment. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We appreciate that support.
As the work picks up, there will be opportunities where we will have to come forward to request more money to deal with all the work that we are doing. Thank you.
