Thank you, Minister. I have no one further on my list. I will call this section. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just going to go back to the position in Nahendeh there and those three positions. The Minister said if it is not broken, we are not going to fix it. Well, is this program broken now and that is why we are fixing it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
We looked at this program because, like I said, we did not have this position in every single region. It was already an inequality amongst the regions, and when we looked it over, we decided that we could provide the services more effectively with the two positions versus having an extra position in the one region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that. Can she please tell me if it was broken or not broken? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my opinion, I try to be as fair as possible within reason. When I look at the whole of the Northwest Territories, and I see that within five regions, we are only providing support to three regions, then yes, the system is broken. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for her answer. I guess we are going to have to disagree on this. Unfortunately, she makes the decisions, and I do not. We will have to live with that.
In regards to the recreation funding, the honourable Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh talked about it. When was the last time this program has been evaluated? In other words, the funding that is being allocated per community, when was the last time it was evaluated besides when it was implemented? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, I do not have that information on hand. What I can state, though, is that we are meeting with the five sports and recreation organizations, and at that point, we will be looking at every single sport and recreation program that we have. We will be putting them on the table with the funding levels to determine if they are still relevant, if we are providing overlap, if there are areas that we need to increase or decrease on, so we are going to be doing a full review with the five organizations on our sports and recreation programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. She is talking about the five organizations, and I totally understand that, but this is community municipal funding contribution that is going to the community. It is not going to the regional associations. If they are going to be putting this on the table, will the Minister invite to have the communities sit at this table as well? I know they have regional associations that represent, but we are talking about money that is going directly to the communities. Will the Minister confirm that if this money is on the table, will they make that commitment to have the community people there as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just in consultation, we have figured out that we have done recently an evaluation of the recreational funding. We have done reviews in the youth areas, and we will be willing to do a review of the recreational funding to the municipalities, so we will actually work with that with the community governments to get their input on that as well. Not to say that I'm going to give an increase. I mean we will take their input. For me, it is more about finding out, are the services and the programs still effective and still efficient because if we have not reviewed them in years, it is time to do a review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I greatly appreciate the Minister and the department looking at this. I know in my smaller communities are getting $14,000 from this pot of money, from the smaller communities, and it goes up all the way up to Yellowknife. The smaller communities are suffering from this. Fourteen thousand dollars, it sounds like a lot of money, but it isn't a lot of money in the smaller communities. I look forward to this. Will the Minister make a commitment to, once this review is done, to share it with the committee? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I am trying to be as inclusive of the Regular Members as possible, so once we have done this review, any work that we do with the stakeholders, we will actually bring forward to the standing committee to provide a report. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Committee. I will call this section, Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, activity total $86,755,000. I see Mr. Testart has his hand up. Mr. Testart.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the activity of regional operations under the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Main Estimates 2017-2018 on page 330 at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion to defer. The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
We will defer regional operations. Thank you, committee. Now, we shall continue on to the next activity, School of Community Government, which is pages 334 to 337. Does this committee have comments or questions for School of Community Government, pages 334 to 337? Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I notice a reduction in the program management service for School of Community Government. Can the Minister or the department explain why this reduction? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the reduction of $115,000 is a reduction from the public service capacity initiative, but we are now getting external money from Indigenous and Northern Affairs of Canada arguing as capacity building funding that we are using for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that. I just noticed on page 337, though, it is a reduction of one position. Is that where this $112,000 has come from, or is it something else? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that was a master trainer position. It was a two-year term that sunsets, and it was never filled the whole time. That is why you are not seeing the difference. The money from that sunset was returned to Brilliant North, so we returned $100,000 to Brilliant North. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that clarification. On page 336, I see a reduction of $15,000 for Brilliant North, so we're turning money to them, and then, but it is a reduction. If you can clarify that, please? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, the money that we had for wages for the public service capacity initiative was $115,000, and then, we are returning the master training funding to Brilliant North of $100,000. Yes, there is a decrease of $15,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. Thompson. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate all the work that the School of Community Government does, however, the capacity issues since the New Deal have been noted by various reports and constructive criticism over the years, and we have another body in LGANT which is also working on the same thing, developing capacity. I note that in other jurisdictions they have developed similar organizations to LGANT, but have taken over this activity's functions and have been able to deliver that programming for a reduced cost comparatively and to greater success.
Is the department willing to consider finding efficiencies by transferring some of these functions to LGANT and supporting LGANT as the dedicated delivery model for capacity development and move it out of the department? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we are not looking at turning it over to LGANT. Currently, LGANT only provides support services to their membership, whereas we provide supports to all municipal and Aboriginal governments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do understand that, but is the Minister willing to look at those kinds of solutions as a way to increase efficiency and improve service delivery? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll take that into consultation. We'll take that under advisement. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. I'm sure that LGANT would have a better capacity. So will the Minister commit to sitting down with LGANT and evaluating whether or not that they are in a position to take on these activities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are not willing to do that. We received funding from the federal government to develop some online workshops for Aboriginal governments, and so we are in the middle of that process, and so at this point, no, we are not going to disrupt our services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister. That's a much clearer response. The workshops that we're providing to Indigenous governments or Aboriginal governments, whatever terminology we're using, are those designated authorities or are those self-governments? Thank you.
