Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I may have provided the wrong information to the Minister there. I was talking about the North Slave regional office. You kind of answered my second question. I will go ask the North Slave question, then. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
Same answer for the South Slave. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
That is the answer. In regards to the South Slave region and that, I did have a meeting with the Minister and a commitment to get information on certain positions. When will that information be brought forward to myself? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know I have had meetings with the Member on certain concerns that he has brought forward. We did get our staff to start working on addressing those positions. As soon as we do have a plan, we will share that with the Member so that he can share it with his constituents and the communities that that office represents. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are all my questions for this section. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that, pursuant to Rule 6(2) of the Rules of Legislative Assembly, that Committee of the Whole continue to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment for the purpose of concluding the item under consideration, Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates, 2019-2020, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
We will sit beyond 6:00 p.m. to conclude this item. Comments or questions? Regional operations. Seeing none, I will call this activity. Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $90,899,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Moving quickly to the final activity or, rather, activity six, school of community government, pages 351 to 354. Municipal and Community Affairs, school of community government, operations expenditure summary. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell us whether there are any new courses, programs, modules, whatever, related to access to information for municipal governments as part of the 2019-2020 budget for the school of community government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As previously said, we are still waiting for the bill to pass through and working with our municipal governments on an implementation plan. We've got to look at the resources. We've got to look at the types of training. We are going to be playing a pretty major role in this, and we want to make sure that we do it right, so we have been having those discussions, and concerns have been brought up by specifically the City of Yellowknife. At this moment, we don't have one right now, but we are going to be looking at creating an implementation plan for this act. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I sort of wish that I could be a fly on the wall at the NWTAC meetings this weekend, where I think this is going to be raised. I am a bit surprised that the department hasn't sort of done some pre-planning around this. Is it safe to say, then, that the Minister will be bringing forward or requesting a supplementary appropriation to put some additional resources into the school of community government with regard to access to information for a little later this year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As this is a new piece of legislation, like any other new legislation or program initiatives that we are doing, we are going to be evaluating and monitoring. As this might take over a couple or a few years, we will be looking at that. Right now, I don't think we do need a supplementary appropriation. We will be working with our municipal governments to see how we can support them and support them within the department. Who knows what kinds of requests we are going to get through ATIP, and that is something that we are going to monitor to ensure that we do have the resources available for all of our municipalities and to provide the training and, on our side, providing the proper resources to get that passed through. Thank you, and through you, Mr. Chair, maybe I will ask my DM for a little bit more detail.
Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to clarify that the way the act is drafted, the communities don't have to come under immediately. We would be creating an implementation plan with a timeline for when communities would come online. So, in preliminary discussions, we don't anticipate that to be in 2019-2020. We do anticipate that to be a little further out so that we can plan for the needs for resourcing and training as part of that implementation plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Those are all my questions. I just think that the department is going to have to seek some additional resources to assist communities in terms of the implementation of this important piece of legislation, and I look forward to dealing with a supplementary appropriation later this year. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Municipal and Community Affairs, school of community government, operations expenditure summary, $2,860,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Please turn to page 356, the final activity, sport, recreation and youth. Seeing none -- oh, Mr. Thompson.
Almost, almost, almost there, Mr. Chair. I will just stand up and make sure I get recognized. Thank you. Mr. Chair, talking about the NGO Stabilization Fund, I would like, first of all, to thank the Minister and Cabinet for the significant increase in the funding, of which has been seen, you know, it was doubled, so I think that is an amazing feat. I thank them for that. I understand that the department is going to undertake an evaluation of the NGO Stabilization Fund to ensure that the funding is being distributed accordingly to the policy, including seeking input from past funding recipients when work is done. When does this department intend to undertake this work? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The evaluation process for the NGO Stabilization Fund would and will include interviews with and input by previous applicants, whether they were successful or unsuccessful. That is something that we heard clearly during the business plan review. We are hoping that this review will be completed by early summer, and any changes, potential changes, to the policy would obviously take effect in the next fiscal year. We did hear committee's concerns. We appreciate that committee did support and supports the program and that you are happy that we did get an increase for this fiscal year. The evaluation, we will be working on that, and, like I said, hopefully have some changes to present the committee early this summer, and then they have those changes made in the next fiscal year, the next government, really. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department, are they going to do it internally or externally for the evaluation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It will be external. We will be going through an RFP for this work. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. I believe the Minister has already committed to bringing the findings back to the standing committee and any proposed changes. Can I just get that confirmation again from the Minister? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I will commit to bringing that information to committee as soon as we receive it, and it will probably be something that the next government is going to have to deal with, in terms of applications for the next funding. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, my favourite topic with this department, multi-sport games, I think I have asked this question every business plan here. Again, it is disappointing to see that there is no appropriation for multi-sports games in this budget. Will the department be providing any funding in this moving forward? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Earlier in the session, I did answer questions from another Member in terms of multi-sports funding and games, and we did say that we did earmark funding for the Arctic Winter Games as well as the Western Canada Games. I know there are other multi-sport games within the Northwest Territories that do need to be addressed, and I have brought it up to my Cabinet colleagues. Any other funding to address those games would be brought forward through a supplementary appropriation.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. Just to clarify, it's going to be a supplemental, but then it is going to be a budget line every year afterwards? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For a little bit more clarity, obviously, we would try to look at finding the funding within our department to address those games, first of all, before we went to a supplementary appropriation. Really, it's year-to-year, and that is a discussion that I would have to bring forward to my Cabinet colleagues and cannot make that commitment at this time.
As the Member knows, we both work together with sport, recreation, and youth, and we know the importance of these games. It is something that we will be moving forward with, and if we do need to bring a supplemental forward for games going forward, that is something that we will do. I can't commit the next government. Because this is 2019-2020 budget, I can't commit the next government to dollars moving forward.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. I understand that you can't make a commitment, but I was hoping that it would be a budget line in future years moving down there.
Can the Minister tell us how much is going to be moving forward with the supplemental, or is it going to be in a calculation going forward? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
