Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation at this time.
The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. Sergeant-at-Arms, you can escort the witnesses out. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour. All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
We will now take a five-minute break so that we can switch over to MACA. All right. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Committee, we will call committee back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 30-19(2), Main Estimates 2020-2021 under the activity Municipal and Community Affairs. Does the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs have any opening remarks? Minister.
Thank you. I am here to present the 2020-2021 Main Estimates for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Overall, the department's main estimates propose an increase of $6,074,000 or 5.5 percent over the 2019-2020 Main Estimates. These estimates support the fiscal objectives and priorities and responsibilities and strategic spending while matching the modest expected revenue growth over the coming year. Highlights of these proposed estimates include:
an increase of $5,186,000 to provide funding to tax-based communities in accordance with the grant-in-lieu policy;
an increase of $960,000 to reflect the impact of costs associated with implementation of the 2016-2017 to 2020-2021 collective agreement with the Union of Northern Workers; and
an increase of $158,000 to provide relief from property tax to seniors and people with disabilities.
These estimates support the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly. Specifically, the department will advance the following actions:
Provide resources and support to community governments. The department will continue to support community governments with community planning; legislation and policy; financial agreements; infrastructure management; and climate change and disaster mitigation funding.
Support the development of an implementation plan for municipal Access to Information and Protection of Privacy. The department remains committed to working with the Department of Justice, community governments, and stakeholders to identify a responsibility and achievable approach for the implementation of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Privacy of Protection Act with respect to bringing community governments under this legislation in a phased-in approach.
That concludes my opening remarks. I look forward to the detailed discussion with Members. Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes.
Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses in. Minister Chinna, would you please introduce your witnesses?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Ms. Young and Mr. Schauerte. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Chinna. I would also like to say happy birthday to Ms. Young. I will now open the floor to general comments on Municipal and Community Affairs. If there are no further comments, does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary, beginning with community governance, starting on page 320 with information items to 323. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that this is the area regarding responsible assessment. I recognize we provide some funding to the City of Yellowknife to do their assessments, and we have recently had this issue with the Yellowknife hospital. There have been a lot of different interpretations of exactly how that money got missed. Could I just have the Minister explain what exactly occurred there and how we are going to ensure that we budget for assessments going forward?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. When this project did roll out, there was a timeline that the numbers weren't ready, and they weren't forecasted at that time for the grant-in-lieu. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on the response. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With assessments, in this part of the budget area, we have a number of assessment staff who conduct most of the assessments in the territory. As noted in this area, we do have $125,000 that we provide to the city to hire their own assessment contractors or staff, but we still have, through the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, oversight on their assessment role. Then that information is used for the calculation of grant-in-lieu for the properties that are GNWT properties within the community. We are in the process of putting to paper all of the processes used, with the checks and balances, and we will be able to bring that back for a briefing to committee in the future, since we have that together. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Young. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to receiving that information in committee. No further questions.
Thank you. Any further questions under community governance? Seeing no further questions, we will move on to page 321. Municipal and Community Affairs, community governance, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $2,118,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will turn to community operations, beginning on page 324 with information items up to 327. Questions? Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that this is the right area for talking about the municipal funding gap. Can I just confirm that?
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That would be regional operations. This is community operations. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Yes, thank you. I will save that question for that area. In this area, I would like to talk about the follow-up to the OAG report that happened in 2017, I think it was. Can the Minister tell us whether all the commitments that the department made in response to the OAG report have been fulfilled? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have received the report. We will be working towards the initiatives going forward. I will just have Mr. Schauerte elaborate on the response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The department has completed two activity reports related to the action plan that the department had published in response to the OAG audit. We are pleased to report that we think that we are in the area of about 80 to 90 percent of the recommendations have been addressed. We would be in a position to provide a further update on that, in addition to the two that we have already provided and tabled in the House. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that response. Could you tell us which items are not yet complete and when the next update will be ready for us to look at? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Mr. Schauerte elaborate on the report. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The department made significant progress in the area of public safety, which was one of the focuses of the audit. In that area, we advanced a number of priorities around emergency management with community governance, which is timely, given what our territory is facing today. We also made a significant improvement with fire protection services in terms of addressing assessments of fire departments, developing action plans, working with community governments around priorities that were identified through the assessments, things like training and standard operating procedures, and making sure that communities were acquiring the right kind of equipment and those kinds of things. Certainly, in the area of emergency management, there was significant movement forward.
One of the areas where we think we need to continue to do some work is around the area of accountability framework. As we have positioned the accountability framework, this is a living, breathing document and tool that we use to work with community governments to assess performance and work with community governments on business planning to help address some of the things that would come out of the accountability framework. As part of our work, we had intended to move into some areas around amendments of contribution agreements and those kinds of things to be a little more definitive, I think, with community governments in terms of what may happen when things go sideways. We still have to do some of that work in terms of modifying those kinds of things with community governments, and that work will continue into the next funding cycle and beyond. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to Mr. Schauerte for that information. What is the timing that the department is looking at now to complete the recommendations of the OAG report? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We would be bringing that report back by the fall. I would say September; I'll give it a definite month. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions under community operations? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 325. Municipal and Community Affairs, community operations, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $2,277,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now turn to page 328, directorate, beginning on 328 with information up to 331. Questions? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Can the Minister tell me when the Consumer Protection Act was last reviewed? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
