Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs did a Minister's statement on designated authority council training. It is very exciting, and I am happy to hear this. I guess my first question for the Minister is additional funding to support delivery. If this delivery is going to be done by the internet, what additional costs are we looking at for this delivery of the program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The availability of the training online is one method of reaching people to access their training needs. The reality is that online training does not work for all residents in the Northwest Territories. We also want to make sure that we can also provide face-to-face training and community group-based training as required, so that we meet all of the different learning styles that people have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That kind of leads into my second question with limited access and the ability of councillors to actually access the internet program in order to take this training. In regards to the face-to-face training, are we going to actually bring the MACA staff into the communities, or is it going to be like the School of Community Government's other courses, where they hold a regional one and people have to come in there?
At this point, we are just negotiating with the federal government to see if they will provide funding for the delivery of this support, so it is a little bit premature to report on what exactly this delivery would look like. Once we have the information and a partnership, then we can look at how we deliver it.
I thank the Minister for her answer. I am pretty disappointed that we do not have a plan in place. We have built the program, done a pilot project, and now we still do not know if we will be able to implement it right away besides the internet access. In regards to the courses that were developed, what is the difference between the courses that they provide to other organizations? I am looking at the list, and this is the same thing that you go to councils with before, so what are the differences that is going to make this unique to designated authorities that happen to normal hamlets, towns, facilities, and villages?
They are a little bit different from the municipal government courses that we provide through the School of Community Governments. There are two types of community governments. They are governed by different legislation, they have different authorities, and the reporting arrangements, as well, are different to deliver their programs and services.
Bands generally perform services in the areas of governance, culture, language, membership services, and areas in health, social services, and justice. Municipal governments, on the other hand, generally perform services in water distribution, waste collection, road maintenance, capital infrastructure, land use planning, and recreation. Although sometimes the bands do municipal-like services, they also have a distinct difference in their services and supports that they provide to the residents in their communities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, and I thank the Minister for her answer. Four of my communities are designated authorities, and four of these communities actually provide all of the municipal services. Again, when we are talking about this, this is a concern for me. Again, when we look at job descriptions, a band manager is the same thing as an SAO. What is the difference between these job descriptions? Are they similar? Are we utilizing existing resources to modify these resources that they are going to provide to the designated authorities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Respectfully, a lot of the bands and designated authorities actually do provide municipal services. Not all of them do. We do have 33 communities within the Northwest Territories. However, municipal governments are different, as stated before. Although job descriptions will have similarities, municipal governments are not responsible for promoting the language or the culture within their communities, and so job descriptions will have to be changed. They also are not responsible for some of the health and social services and the justice supports that designated authorities get access to. There will be similarities, but there will also be differences within the job descriptions.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
