Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. This is the area where we would be able to assist the communities with their capital plans as well as headquarters, and giving them advice on borrowing as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
No, thank you. That’s it, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Anything further, pages 339 through 340? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In assessing the community infrastructure funding, community water and sewer, there was found to be a gap of I think around $40 million with those three categories combined. This page has detail on some of those funding lines. How much has the department increased community funding to meet that gap in this budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we’ve contributed just over $2.1 million towards that. I think it was a $38-million funding gap that was identified through the work of the formula funding review, which actually was supposed to start at the beginning of the 18th Assembly, but it was decided in the 17th Assembly that we’d initiate that work, so it would help us to identify some of the shortfalls that we’ve been hearing about from the communities and find ways we can address it. This year we’ve contributed $2.1 million towards that, and as our fiscal situation improves, we would be able to help the communities address more of the funding gap that’s been identified. Communities are aware of that, and NWTAC is actually supportive of the work that we’re trying to do, because they recognize that our goal at the end of the day is to help address the gap that’s identified through the formula funding review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister for his answer. With the $2.1 million, using the Minister’s numbers, that leaves a $36-million gap. Is it possible to readjust some of those funding levels to expedite this process sooner than later? My fear is that this government will never have as much money as it wants to meet all of its funding priorities, services, programs, and capital needs. This will be a gap that remains unfilled for many, many years. Is it possible to readjust community funding levels based on the formula financing review to come closer to meeting this gap, this $36-million gap? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, of the $38 million that was identified as a shortfall, $23 million of that was actually capital and $15 million was O and M. With the money we’ve put in, the O and M has actually come down to about $13.9 million. The money we received from the federal government certainly helps us address some of the capital issues, and then our CPI funding that we provide to the communities has been at $28,002,000 for a long time. I can’t remember how long it’s been. Since 2007. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to access a lot of federal money. Then with the new federal government, we’re looking forward to accessing more of that money to help address some of the shortfall. If there are opportunities for us to make some adjustments where we can start trying to identify, or work with the communities to address their shortfall. It’s something we’ll have a look at. We have to make sure we’re very careful in where we’re getting the money from. Ideally, at the end of the day we’d like to see some savings through the process that we’re going through so that we can, in a couple of years, start to address them. Next year, we’ll help the communities. We may increase it again due to forced growth. At the end of the day our goal is to have the funding shortfall addressed and, once we’re in a better financial position, I think this government is going to be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that I don’t think anyone in this House has an interest in picking winners and losers when it comes to community infrastructure funding, and it is a cautious process. My concern with relying on federal funding is that fluctuates from government to government, from year to year, and it’s not a guarantee, whereas we can have more control over how the funding flows through this government. This is a real priority for our communities and it has real economic impacts, if infrastructure dollars are being spent in local economies. I strongly encourage the Minister and the department to be very proactive on this issue and get more of these resources flowing. Granted that we don’t want to pick winners and losers, but I hope the next business plan will see an increase over two per cent, and we can see of an impact on the infrastructure side of things. I’ll just leave that with the Minister, but I think we’re all in the interest of moving forward on this and getting stronger, healthier, safer communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Comments from the Minister?
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we don’t rely solely on the contributions from the federal government. We use that to enhance programs that we already offer to our communities. As Minister of MACA and being able to get to all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, I’ve seen the benefits of the money that we invest in the communities and some of the decisions that they’re making as to how best to use their money, on the capital side. It has reaped some benefits and rewards for the community. It’s not a perfect system, pretty close to it, but we’re continuing to try to enhance and improve this program. Any opportunity we have to access any federal dollars to help our communities offset some of the… Because if we can get money from the federal government, then they don’t have to rely so much on their CPI, or they can use part of their CPI to match the federal investment. We will continue to work with the communities, and we want to make sure that our communities are safe and viable. I know from experience that they are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Testart? Nothing further from Mr. Testart. I’m going to call a brief break. We will resume shortly. Thank you.
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We ended off with Mr. Nadli discussing page 339. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to commend the department, first of all, for being at least there for communities in terms of ensuring that the funding is made available for programs and services that they might be delivered. In most cases, what exists out there is that you have a band council and then you have a settlement council or a hamlet council. You have, more likely, two institutions running the communities. I’m just trying to understand the nature of some of the funding that flows from, say, MACA, to local governments. Is it in the forms of applicationbased funding programs or these are transfers? Mahsi. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Most of the funding that MACA delivers is done through transfer agreements to community governments, for example, our 1M funding, our capital funding. There are a few programs such as the ground ambulance one that we’ve just previously discussed that have been application based. In addition, some of our federal programs, it’s part of the program design by Canada that they are application based, subject to the approval of Canada. The majority of MACA funding is done through transfer agreements? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Young. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it’s good in terms of working with communities and trying to build that strong relationship, at least at the local level. I think it’s been made referenced that the School of Community Government and the local municipalities associations have a hand in terms of working with MACA down the road, of ensuring that communities are in a position to meet reporting requirements in terms of further their training and capacities so that there’s sound financial management plan in terms of ensuring that, at the local level, these funds are administered properly, at the same time that reporting deadlines are met on a timely basis. Is there plans for, perhaps, an initiative to make sure that more training and capacity is made available for communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are a number of manners in which we tackle this. The first I’ll reference is the accountability framework, where we work with communities to determine where they have challenges in some of their core areas. Financial reporting is one of the indicators that we do look at, and, if the community has identified challenges in that area, it becomes an area of engagement for us with the community to determine what might be appropriate to assist them to improve. It can be formal training, such as you’ve mentioned, through the School of Community Government. It can be handson training, with our staff going into the community and assisting with the preparation of a quarterly report. We are just starting to develop some video conference training materials to do specific training around specific types of reports to advance training, again referencing the federal programs where it’s a new type of reporting that will be required for some of the new programs. We will do some specific training to those programs in particular. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Young. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just recently, this government has entered into a memorandum of understanding with various regional groups. It’s part of the devolution process. On that similar basis, does the department identify a need perhaps to forge a closer working relationship with Aboriginal or regional organizations that have the capacity in terms of a tribal alliance, to maybe forge a strong working relationship to ensure that, you know, there is a system in place so that this reporting requirement, not only to the territorial government but, also, at the same time, is to the federal government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with the funding we provide to the band governments, we have requirements, as Ms. Young said, for reporting. I’m not sure if the Member wants us to include the regional government into that equation because we deal strictly remotely with the community governments to address some of the challenges they might face. I’m not sure if the Member is wanting us to include the regional governments into that, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply. To try and add more context to the point that I’m making is that, you know, perhaps there’s an identified need to try to bring MACA together in its regional operations with, say, the tribal council in terms of ensuring that communities are not only at the receiving end of large amounts of funding but ensuring that, you know, there’s a fluid reporting system in place, and that the local communities do have the capacity in terms of the financial management and meeting their financial reporting obligations on a timely basis so that deadlines are met and that we avoid, you know, the circumstance of thirdparty remediation or such a predicament that communities might find themselves in; so whether that’s been considered or not? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I’ll refer to Ms. Young. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there’s actually a couple examples of where we’ve specifically done this in the last year. We have worked with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to deliver finance training, both to the community corporations as well as to the community governments in the communities in that region. We’ve also entered into an agreement with Indian and Northern Affairs to develop some broader training materials that are appropriate to all First Nations governments, not just the nine that MACA works with. We’re just developing those to deliver in partnership with INAC to community governments. Then the third specific case I can think of is, in cases where a designated authority or one of the First Nations that we typically work with for MACA programs is encountering difficulties, we’ve had situations where we’ve engaged with INAC and the Dehcho First Nations, in this example, to work specifically with a community to support them with financial reporting and increasing financial capacity. We are absolutely looking for those opportunities to build capacity across all local levels of government.
Thank you, Ms. Young. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d just like to build on the questions Mr. Nadli talked about. You’ve probably heard my Members’ statements to some of the issues we’ve had. Has the department been able to work with INAC on fixing up potential training opportunities for the communities and address this? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are developing training manuals for bands in partnership with INAC. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. Can the Minister tell us when these resources are going to be available and the training can be out there to help these band communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we, I think, just finalized the draft, and we’re anticipating within a month or two that we will be able to have developed materials. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. It’s good news. I can, hopefully, and it will work well for the designated communities. Who will be paying for the courses? Is it going to be similar to the School of Community Government, or will there be funding available from the department to access these courses? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, INAC provides a contribution of about $240,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
