Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Member, for your question. With all of the planning that we had put forward and looking at the capacity that we do have within Municipal and Community Affairs to looking at our policy and planning, I do feel confident that we do have the resources to see those legislations and policies coming forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am wondering if there are timelines associated with each of the first three acts that the deputy minister referred to, that being the property assessment act, the Fire Prevention Act, and the seniors and disabled property tax act, if there are deadlines that the department is working towards in order to have those through to this side of the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I hate to go back to COVID-19, but it did have a significant delay in our legislation coming forward. I will just have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on that a little bit because we did end up with some delays, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, there are timelines worked out for each piece of legislation. I don't know how much detail you would like me to go into here today, but for example, with the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, we are working towards a legislative proposal by February of 2022. That's our timeline to do the initial work on phase 1 of that act. Under the Fire Prevention Act, the revised legislative proposal on that one has the same timeline, February of 2022. We can provide more detail on the steps to get to those timelines if committee would like. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Young. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is around the assessment or legislation to do with the property tax for seniors. I have had several constituents reach out to me about what the department is going to do to help them should the municipality assess their properties at a higher value than they have in the past, whether or not there is going to be some help there or some control. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the specifics of the changes of this act and that we will be working with the town specifically, not looking at the communities right now. We are looking at all municipalities throughout the territory, but just recognizing that the municipalities do have their own bylaws and how to administer looking at the mill rate. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on the response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We will actually engage organizations, such as the Seniors' Society, as we do part of this work. One of the real focuses of this work is to get fairness and equity across this act and across different types of communities. As it currently stands, there are some significant differences in the way that the act is applied in different types of communities. That is one of the big things we want to do is make sure that the act is both fair and transparent but also equitable across the types of communities. We will be working with community governments, seniors organizations, et cetera, to finish this work so that we can strive to that kind of support for our seniors population. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there a move to be implementing income testing for seniors across all MACA programs or a variety of MACA programs in the upcoming year? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not too sure if we are going to be looking at income testing, but I am looking at the mill rate. I have been concentrating on that, but I will have Mr. Gary Schauerte just elaborate on the response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As we continue our work on researching options for the seniors and disabled property tax relief act, it would be our objective to try to be as consistent as possible with how seniors programs are being looking at across the spectrum within the Government of the NWT. There is considerable interest in supporting elders to age in place within their own homes. We are live to the issue that we want seniors to stay in their homes for longer periods of time. Ultimately, at the end of the day, any discussion about means testing for the tax benefit on this would be done within a comprehensive review, consistent with other seniors programs within the government. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Would the department or the Minister characterize that the trend is going, across all those programs, towards income testing, or what is their feel about what is going to happen?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Member could clarify "all programs," is that just for the property taxation for seniors? If she could just clarify? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member, can you clarify?
Yes. Let me rephrase. I'm sorry I don't have your position right, but the departmental staff indicated that it would be consistent with all of the other seniors programming across the Northwest Territories government. Is the trend across all of the Northwest Territories government towards income testing for seniors, and is that something that the Minister is looking at for her department specifically? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Within the lifetime of this government, we are looking for consistency throughout the programming that we do offer. I also want to say that, looking at the other portfolio I carry for the Housing Corporation and looking at the priority to have seniors age in place, I am going to have Mr. Gary Schauerte elaborate on the response. For income testing, for all programs, that would contribute to our changes within our property taxation for seniors and people with disabilities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think our department objective would try to be as consistent as possible with seniors programming. I think the seniors want that from government. They want predictability in terms of how they are going to be treated with respect to different programming. As we go forward with the review of this legislation, we are also going to talk to seniors and seniors organizations, and I am sure that they are going to have opinions on whether means testing should be part of a legislative proposal.
We are not at that stage yet with our legislative proposal or our research. I wouldn't want to say definitively whether or not that is something that is going to be part of our legislative work going forward, but we are going to talk to people. We are going to listen to them and hear from them and inform our legislative proposal accordingly. At the end of the day, the bill would be before the House for their consideration on those kinds of matters. I wouldn't want to suggest that that is going to be part of the bill at this stage, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Great Slave.
I don't have another question, but I am just going to take a moment to plug for the seniors. I don't think that we should do the income testing because I think they contribute in so many other ways, and we do want them to stay. As one pointed out to me, we get $37,000 a year for them, so I will just leave it at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I am just looking at the directorate on page 338 and some of the activity descriptions on this. We have the municipal funding gap we have to deal with, and it just feels like we are constantly finding ways to pivot and to find some solutions to close that gap and find ways to get funds out to our 33 communities. Aside from doing things on this side of the House, what has the department been doing in terms of finding ways to streamline and to get more funds out to the communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I prepared for this briefing. I am thinking I have read everything that I have and everything is in the top of my head, but we did get some additional funding this year. It did go towards sports and recreation and operations with the contribution, as well, of $2.5 million towards the municipal funding gap. However, I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on that because we did do a distribution out to the communities this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If I am understanding the question correctly, you are looking at, beyond the mandate money, what else are we doing to get money out to communities. Am I understanding the question correctly?
Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yes, Madam Chair. That is correct.
Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I could talk about this quite a bit because there are quite a number of areas, but I will try to highlight a few areas that we have really focused on. For operating expenses within communities, we have put a lot of effort in the last couple of years in an asset-management strategy and trying to support communities to put policies and procedures in place to extend the life of their assets as long as possible and try to turn focus from emergency repairs and emergency maintenance into investing in and extending the lifespan of their assets as long as possible. That helps reduce operating costs, but it also helps extend the lifespan of the assets and reduce the amount of capital investment as quickly. That is one area as an example.
Another area that we have spent a lot of time in is trying to help community governments access federal infrastructure funding, and we have been very successful at that over a number of years. We are currently operating roughly five different federal infrastructure programs to communities and supporting them in every way possible to achieve the cost-share, write proposals, and get to as much federal support as possible so that they can take their CPI investment from the GNWT and stretch it as far as possible. Those would be two examples. However, when it comes to operations, we have tried wherever possible to look at what are the cost drivers for community governments and what can we do to support them to mitigate those cost drivers, extend the lifespan of their assets, reduce their operating costs, or access additional funding. I would say it covers all of those areas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response. It gives me a little bit more. It gives me a better idea where I need to go with this next question. We have 33 communities, and a lot of the communities are not like our larger centres where you could just consult with the mayors and whatnot. I know we have a lot of smaller communities, First Nations, for example, that the chiefs usually are the heads in that capacity. Has there been a lot of consultation stuff? I am thinking in terms of the business plans for MACA or the long-term business plans. Has there been a lot of consultation with the chiefs in our small communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, there has been a lot of consultation. We do meet with the chiefs and mayors. Since COVID-19, that communication has increased, looking at what the significant need would be at the community level. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick comment: hopefully, we could just get ahead, this being one of our mandate items, to keep picking away and keep persevering. Like I said, our goal should be to try to leave the state of our house in a better state than it was in before, so hopefully we can make lots of headway on this. Marsi cho.
Thank you. I will take that as a comment. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get a timeline on when the department started work on the Fire Prevention Act? Thank you, Madam Chair.
