Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is both. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So where would I find that federal contribution in these mains? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It can be found on page 343, work performed on behalf of others. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not to belabour this, but I assume that there are strings attached to this money and how it is used, or has it been given to us with broad latitude to develop the programming as we see fit? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to be able to say that they just gave us the money and said, do what you want, but the reality is they do have pretty firm guidelines on it. We are working closely with the Aboriginal governments to develop an online training program relevant to Aboriginal governance specifically. So it's a partnership between the Aboriginal governments, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just vis-a-vis my suggestion that LGANT might be in a better position to deliver these services for less, how long will this funding last and when could this government start considering making changes to the delivery of these programs?
Are we locked in for four years or are we locked in for one? What is the length of this funding and how long is it limiting our ability to make changes to the school community government activity? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, the federal funding is on a yearly basis, but they have shown a commitment and voiced a commitment to actually work further in this area towards supporting Aboriginal self-governance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. Then perhaps in next year's business plan, we could evaluate whether or not LGANT -- could the Minister make a commitment to including that kind of evaluation in next year's business plan, then, after we've seen the course of this funding expire? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, I'm not willing to commit to that. It would take a lot of thought. At this point, we wouldn't be looking at LGANT to do, for example, city council training, those kinds of things. Also within our 18th Legislature, we have a mandate that talks about the online support services. So in order to meet our mandate we want to make sure that we do it appropriately and we want to make sure the community governments have the services they want and actually have a say if we were going to turn that programming over. At this point, the community governments have had nothing but positive comments in regard to the support that Municipal and Community Affairs is giving them, so I would not want to make a determination without asking them if they wanted to drop our support and take on another entity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will leave this issue, but I will say I appreciate where the Minister is coming from. This government has made unilateral funding decisions, not necessarily in this department but in other departments, without necessarily talking to our partners. So I think, if we can provide the service for less and find greater efficiency, which is what my suggestion is we can do with LGANT, then it's beholden on us to look at that opportunity and see if it can be made a reality if it doesn't compromise service delivery.
So I'll just leave that with the Minister and hope that one day we might see a more enhanced and effective service delivery for this activity. Thank you.
Thank you, for that comment, Mr. Testart. Seeing nothing further I will call this activity. Municipal and Community Affairs, School of Community Government, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $2,855,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Moving on to our final activity: sports, recreation and youth on pages 338 to 342. Seeing no comments or questions. Mr. Thompson
In her opening remarks, the Minister talked about providing youth ambassadors across the territory once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for volunteers, and that. So can the Minister please advise us exactly how many opportunities our youth will be getting this year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That actually is very difficult to break down. We have a number of different programs that provide supports. Some of them are under $5,000, some of them are over $5,000, some of them are school-based supports, some are where people can even apply for support, so it's really hard to actually put a number down on how many supports we will actually be providing in the year when the pots are so varied and so many and people can apply for so many different amounts. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think what I will do is a colleague once told me, if you didn't ask the question, ask it again properly. So the question is: the youth ambassadors program is being offered; this is in your opening remarks. So how many youth ambassador programs are being offered for this fiscal year coming up? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specifically for the Youth Ambassador Program, recently we just had the 2016 NWT Association of Communities 50th Anniversary Conference in Yellowknife. We have also just done the 2016 Arctic Winter Games in Greenland. Upcoming events include the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg in July and the 2018 Arctic Winter Games in the South Slave in March. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for taking me down memory lane. I understand that. I was looking for this fiscal year coming up, but she did answer that. Can the Minister explain why they are not looking at the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto as an opportunity for the youth, as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are going to the Indigenous Games. We are just not taking the Youth Ambassador Program there. Different programs will be utilized for that event. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. Will the Minister then provide us with what the department is doing for the youth at the North American Indigenous Games? Besides the team going, what other opportunities the youth ambassadors are able to go? I am not talking about Team NWT. I am asking about the youth ambassadors. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
At this point, Mr. Chair, we don't have that level of detail. We can get back to the Member on specifically what supports for youth will be provided through that event. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
I thank the Minister for that commitment. I am looking forward to that information which brings us to the multisport games. Can the Minister please provide us with the rationale of why they are cutting $150,000 from NWT Games? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we have noted earlier, part of the exercise that the department went through over the preparation of the main estimates was looking at where we had opportunities to seek some efficiencies and be able to operate our programs and contribute to the overall financial stability of the GNWT. As part of that exercise, each of our units was challenged with taking a look at their operations and taking a look at the proposed needs over the next couple of years to see where opportunities may exist.
In looking at what is planned for the next couple of years in multisport games, it was felt that this was an area that we could contribute to the overall financial stability but also that we have demonstrated experiences in the past where, if resources are required above and beyond what is budgeted, that the department can meet the call and that that would be the manner in which we would manage this, that we would identify this as an area that we can operate with less but also be aware that, if the situation changes and our "crystalballing" is not accurate, that we will rise to the challenge and be able to address that concern.
Thank you, Ms. Young. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, if I understand this correctly, the next games, we have the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto, the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, and the Arctic Winter Games in Hay River Fort Smith to which Team NWT is supposed to be going. So you are saying that, this $500,000, they can do that with these three games coming into place. Is this correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way we approach the multisport games program, including all of the events that the Member has identified, part of the funding includes the money that is provided in our main estimates. There is also a component of lottery dollars that has historically funded multisport games, as well. Up until the time that this line item in our budget was identified about 10 years or so back, the lotteries exclusively fund our multisport games commitment. At that point, we identified that it was inadequate to do so over the long term, and our government made the investment into the multisport games contribution budget that we have there.
So, as we look at our commitments in the coming years and we budget it, based on historical levels of funding, both from our main estimates and from the lottery, we are able to make our commitments in this area. As the deputy minister suggested, if our budgeting is in accurate, the department's full intention is to fund this from within our main estimate envelope and not to take this from the lottery thereby compromising contributions to other organizations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Mr. Schauerte for his answer. Just to understand this correctly, I am looking at the Western Canada Lottery program funding framework they are looking at, and they are saying that anything after over $5.1 million, 80 per cent of this is going to multisport games. So is this the way the government is going to use the lottery dollars now, after it's over the $5.1 million, to fund multisport games? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have the details of the lottery expenditures in front of me at this time. Our lotteries right now are a program that is outside of the main estimate budgeting process. Eventually, when the Western Canada Lottery becomes part of our operations formally within government and we re-describe them in our main estimates, we will be able to provide those kind of actual details over the long term.
It is the department's intention to bring a presentation to standing committee during the term of this sitting to give more detail about the Sutcliffe Report, the Western Canada Lottery legislative initiative, and where our investment through the lottery fund is going to go towards stakeholders that currently receive funding. I am hesitant to comment on specific numbers as it relates to investment through the lottery fund without having those details in front of me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
