Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister clarify, is that money for the development of the courses, or is this money to allow the communities to access the training? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the money is for program development and training. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the training, is the cost or the money part of to get the communities in, or is that just to pay for the instructors and delivery? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would have to follow up to those particular details. I don’t know if we have that information handy yet or it’s even been developed yet. Once we find out exactly who’s paying for what or if we’re bringing them in or if we’re going in there, we will inform Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. I’m looking forward to seeing this opportunity to help these communities, hopefully so we don’t have to do co-management in the future. I thank you. That’s no more further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Would the Minister like to respond?
No. No, thank you, Mr. Chair, just that we’ll keep committee updated as to the work we’re doing as we go forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under the community government funding with the formula funding, a couple, well, one of the communities anyway, in my riding, Tsiigehtchic, is under the impression that there’s a cut to the actual core funding there. I want to verify that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there will be no reductions to community funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure communities are aware of that because I just got a couple emails saying that, you know, they are making some, taking some measures to fit with their reductions, so thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can assure the Member that there will be no reductions. I think we have regional staff going into the Member’s community next week to work with the community. I just want to assure Members that our Premier has stated, I think before the NWTAC, that there was going to be no reductions to community funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, and I hope that included capital, as well. I know there are plans on reducing that, as well. I’ll bring that up later on in the pages here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Further comments, questions on page 339 through 340? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Further to community government funding, I’m wondering if the department… Well, first of all, I want to commend the department in their efforts, along with NWTAC and the communities and community governments and a number of individuals that were involved in a group that took the time to assess the communities’ infrastructure gaps and needs for further formula funding. I appreciate that. I also appreciate the government’s two-per-cent increase with regard to this pot of funding. I’m just wondering if the department can maybe speak a little bit around the communities’ ability to use these funds for the purposes of borrowing to help reduce their infrastructure gaps. There is, you know, interest rates are at an alltime low but, yet, these infrastructure gaps are at an alltime high. Maybe this is a time in which communities can and should be encouraged to some degree to use borrowing as a mechanism to help reduce their infrastructure gap. Can the department explain about how these funds might be able to be leveraged? Can they be used for down payments and/or payments, in fact? Does the government have the ability to provide guarantees on these types of thing? And is this a time in which we could potentially use these funds for borrowing to help reduce that gap? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have borrowing regulations that establish the limit that they can borrow. They can use the dollars that we provide to them to leverage… We actually have a couple of communities that have borrowed money to help with their infrastructure. Using the money that we give them in CPI funding to pay off the loan, they were able to put a project on the ground probably a little quicker than they would have if they had to wait and save up their money to put this particular project on the ground. We have had a few communities take us up on that. MACA works with them to give them advice and help them through the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
That is it on that matter. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. No one further on my list for page 339. Comments or questions on page 341, regional operations, active positions? Seeing no comments or questions, we will return to page 338 with the operations expenditure summary. Questions on page 338, operations expenditure summary for regional operations? Seeing no questions, I will call the page. Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $84,842,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Committee agrees. We will now move on to School of Community Government. The activity total is page 343. We will first discuss information items starting on page 344. Grants, contributions and transfers under School of Community Government. Questions on page 344? Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just briefly, I know it is paid programs under the School of Community Government. Does the community have to request it, or does the department just come in, especially when we have new councils. Many new councilors don’t really know the role of the council. Is it requested, or do you just come in and provide that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do try to promote the training that we have to committee councils. Our preference is that they request our folks to come in and do the training. As well, I believe, during the NWTAC AGM there is a training component to it for elected officials. There are opportunities for them there too. At the end of the day, our preference would be that they would request some training for elected officials and then we will provide it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that was this spring, I know at the last community meeting at McPherson, I know the community had requested having these, especially the role of the councilor and mayor provided over the summer or even the fall because there are plans for election in December. Give the community an opportunity, or whoever is interested in running, to see what is all involved in the roles and responsibilities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in one particular case, the Member’s riding, we are planning on going there this fall to help them prepare for an election that they are going to be having. We believe, in this particular case, it is probably wise of us to go in there after the new council is elected to provide some training. I think we even heard the comment about providing training to any potential candidates that might be wanting to run in an election. That might be an option too. We haven’t gone through what we went through with this particular community. We want to ensure that all of mayor and council understand the roles that they are going to be getting into, go in to a role with the proper training or an understanding of what is expected of them. We are planning on working with this particular community quite close as they head into their elections this fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. More of a comment maybe, but this is a great program that the department is doing because I took it in, I believe, 2007. It really opens your eyes to the roles and responsibility. A lot of people don’t realize that the council is the number one authority. I thought it was the mayor when I ran, but, you know, they make the key decisions. It is really important that people know that. I hope it continues. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Would the Minister like to respond?
I agree with the Member. During the NWTAC AGM, when they do have the training that is made available, we give out a number of certificates in the last few years of people that have actually taken the training, so they understand their role. I agree with the Member. People that are running for elected office, such as mayor and council, should understand the role or what is required of them. We will do our part through the School of Community Government to make sure they get the proper assistance and the proper training. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am glad to see the wording, “improve community capacity.” It is really common in these smaller communities that they lack financial bookkeeping skills. Within this budget, is there allowance for somebody from the regional office with financial management skills and preferably auditing skills to go in and support the communities and their bookkeeping systems? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we agree that our folks in the communities need to understand their roles as well and the responsibilities they have to ensure that they have the proper capacity to deal with the lot of money that they are having to deal with because they do have a lot of responsibility with us giving them all their CPI money and with their O and M. Our role, we see, is to assist these community governments. Through the accountability framework, we believe that, as I said earlier on in the session, that gives us the opportunity to identify any red flags and pick out any issues before they become big issues and they affect the communities’ ability to govern themselves. No, we totally agree with the Member that with the proper training and that building up the capacity of communities can only benefit the communities and the department as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely. Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. I see no further comments or questions on page 344. We will continue with page 345, active positions. Any questions on the information item, active positions? I see none. We are done with the detail. We will return to page 343, the operations expenditure summary. Comments or questions? Seeing none, I will call the page. Municipal and Community Affairs, School of Community Government, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $2,970,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Committee agrees. We will now move on to sport, recreation and youth, beginning on page 347. We will discuss the detail on page 348 and 349. Questions on page 348, 349, sport, recreation and youth? No one? Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just noticed on page 348, there is a $25,000 reduction in youth contributions. Could the Minister explain what this cut is about? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
