Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the liability issue is: if somebody felt they were mishandled they could actually sue the community because they didn’t have the proper training, and so our challenge is to make sure the communities have the proper training. For us to say that we would take on the liability, I think we’re just opening ourselves up for potential lawsuits or anything along those lines. Our challenge and our goal should be to make sure the communities are adequately trained that they can respond, and then they can go the next step and get an ambulance if they choose to do so. But for us to actually co-sign as… For liability, I think that’s going down a path that we don’t want to take. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was my number one concern right from the start, once we started this fund here, because I’ve seen it, you know, growing up in Tsiigehtchic where we have no nurse and our people are the first responders, and we’re putting them at risk for these liabilities here. Like I said, we need a lot more training and I look forward to that in the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Would the Minister like to respond?
I agree with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Do I have any further comments or questions on page 335? Seeing none. Page 336, active positions, public safety, active positions. Questions? Page 336. Seeing none, we will return to the activity total on page 334. Public safety, operations expenditure summary. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is related to probably joint with the two pots of money here, or the two budgets here: emergency management and office of the fire marshal. I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s any allowance within that budget or that department there to assist the smaller communities to make sure that their fire marshal or fire department is up to standard and it meets the audit provided by this department through this budget. Is there funding available for that support? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, our regional fire marshal or assistant fire marshals, as they’re called, will work with communities to identify some of the challenges they face. If there’s some training capacity or capacity issues they’ll help them design a program or help them get trained so they can deal with that. If there’s an equipment issue or if it’s a capital issue, then they will work with them to identify exactly what they need, what they could use, and then the community has it within the money that’s provided by MACA to purchase the proper equipment. My understanding is our fire marshal, or the office of the fire marshal and the assistant fire marshals have been working with the communities. I think we’ve even had some of the larger communities donate some of their equipment to some of the smaller communities which really helps, and ensured that they were trained in the operation of the equipment, so there’s opportunities there. Again, the big thing is to have our assistant fire marshal work with the community and help them identify some of the challenges they face. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My last statement is more of a comment I would say. In many of the cases in the smaller communities it’s good to know that the finances are there and the support is there and I would encourage the department to randomly, I would say, go into some of the communities and do an audit on their fire truck, for example. In some cases we hear stories they can’t even get the fire truck going, or they go to the site and find out the water pump doesn’t work so they’ve got to call the private sector or the hamlet’s water truck, for example. Maybe that kind of audit support randomly might be suited here in some cases. Some. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRPERSON (Mr. Simpson): Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Would the Minister like to respond?
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know we have great faith in our communities’ ability to identify some of the challenges they’re facing. I mean, I take the Member’s point, though. Our assistant fire marshals will go work in the community if the community asks them to come in and help them with some of the challenges they face, it may have already been done, but we may have to have a yearly kind of inspection tour. I just don’t want to think that we can just march into a community and tell them what’s good for them because we’ve turned a lot of that responsibility back to the communities. We will work them and if they want our fire marshal or assistant fire marshals to go in there and assist them with identifying issues and how to deal with some of their equipment then we’d be more than happy to make them available. We may have to look at possibly an annual inspection where our assistant fire marshals go to all the small communities and help them identify any challenges they might be facing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Mr. McNeely.
Mr. Chair, thank you.
Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the 2014-15 consumer affairs had a budget of $155,000, at 2015-16 it was up to $240,000, and it’s now down to $150,000. Can the Minister explain the reasons for the increase in the last budget and why it’s been cut down? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was a contract, it was a $90,000 contract services and we heard concerns about the public wasn’t well aware of the consumer affairs division so we worked with a contractor to help us get that on the website to help get the message out there and make people aware that there is a consumer affairs division. A lot of feedback we got was people weren’t aware that there was one, so we’ve tried to make it more available to the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is the department of the opinion that the public is now well enough informed that it no longer requires that communication function and funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Yes. Thank you. Their job was done. They helped set the website up so it’s there now. I mean, they’re available to get into our consumer affairs website. Electronic, yes. Their job was done so we don’t need them anymore. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Just for clarification, Mr. Chair, the purpose of the spending was to establish a new website and it wasn’t tied to a communications plan or communications products, marketing collaterals that were developed for the consumer affairs division. Yes, we’ll just leave it there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. Some of the feedback we got was the communications part of it. The Member is correct; it was to improve our access to the website and to enhance our consumer affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Did the department conduct a survey of Northerners to ascertain if this spending did result in increased awareness of the consumer affairs division and the services it offers to Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
No, we didn’t. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Perhaps the department should. I will move on to program management. I notice there’s a decrease there as well, around… Well, I’m bad at math, so I’ll just leave it at that. What does that decrease represent in terms of program management and the services it offers to provide public safety to Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Do you want to go through me to go to him?
Thank you, Minister. I’ll direct this to Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This program management for contract services, it was an internal reallocation where that consumer affairs, that whole public safety division had no permanent admin support. It’s a small unit. What we did was reassign some of the contract dollars so we could hire a permanent admin coordinator for the division.
Thank you, Mr. Williams. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Where would that be represented in this budget, or in this main estimates document? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reduction in grants and contributions should not be… This is where, under program management, where the reductions to grants and contributions of the $215,000 appears. The detail on page 335 shows up in the program management line item.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m not sure that helps clarify this. The detail on 335 is a decrease, under contributions. The detail on 334 under program management is also a decrease, so I’m wondering, what I heard was that the decrease was to provide a permanent staff position, and perhaps the department can correct me, for an administrative coordinator for the division. I can’t seem to find where that expenditure is represented in the mains. That’s what I’m looking for. Under contract services, they’ve remained stable since the last budget, 2015-16. There’s no increase in contract services. There’s no decrease in contract services. There are decreases in consumer affairs and program management and in contributions. Where is this new administrative coordinator position represented in the mains? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it was actually a decrease of $125,000, and we’ll have to get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was hoping that we would have clarity at this time, but I appreciate that the department needs time to straighten this out. I will eagerly anticipate receiving that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Anything further, page 334? Seeing nothing. I will call the page. Municipal and Community Affairs, public safety, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $1,526,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to regional operations. We’ll defer page 338, the activity total, until we discuss the detail beginning on page 339. Pages 339 and 340 are connected, so we can discuss those at the same time. Questions on pages 339 and 340, regional operations, grants, contributions and transfers? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister about a function for the communities. I want to know if this is the area or this is where Municipal and Community Affairs is able to help the communities with the whole process of capital planning, including any borrowing abilities that the communities may have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
