Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get a bit more information on page 348, the water and sewer services funding. Could the department explain: is that for operations and maintenance of water and sewer services, or are there any new projects or any capital that ends up out of this budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The department had upgraded a majority of the water treatment plants. I will have Mr. Gary Schauerte elaborate on the water and sewer funding. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Schauerte.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This funding goes to community governments to help support the delivery of water and sewer services, including water treatment plants and sewage lagoons. More recently, we are looking at expanding this envelope of funding to also include solid-waste facilities. That would be part of that. The funding that is provided to community governments goes into a restricted water and sewer fund, so the money can only be used for the purposes of delivering those services. Municipalities will also collect rates off of residents to help offset the cost of delivery of that service, so in effect, the money that the government is providing helps to reduce the cost of the rate on the ratepayer or on the residents. This does not include capital. Capital is included in the community public infrastructure budget, and that is where that funding would come for the replacement cost of any of those facilities, be it a water treatment plant, a sewage lagoon, or a solid-waste facility. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Schauerte. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I am really glad to hear that. Good luck with getting the solid-waste facilities in there. I think it's a good move. I look at the numbers for this item, and it is a constant number so far in the last couple of years. Does the department anticipate having to increase any of this funding in the next while? Is there an aging infrastructure issue at all with the water and sewer services that would sort of fall under this line item? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young answer the question. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As Mr. Schauerte has represented, this is operating and maintenance funding. As Members may remember, on the community funding gap, there is a gap in all three of our funding areas, so there is a gap currently in the water-sewer funding envelope. As we work on closing the gap, we do expect that there would be an increase to this program as part of those efforts. When you see the community mandate funding up in the line up above, there is funding planned for 2021-2022 for an increase to the water-sewer budget as part of the upcoming year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Does this fund apply to all of the 33 communities, or does it have a tax base, regional-centre-type distribution? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This, the funding is for all 33. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just sort of back to my question one before, I know that there has been a lot of replacement of the water treatment plants over the last while. I know there has been an issue with training workers and at times communities have stayed on boil-water advisories, not so much that the water is actually bad; it's more that the testing in order to prove that the water is good does not get done. I know maybe a little bit out of this, but is there a need to increase, maybe, this budget line item in order to do more training or to increase or to deal with any aging infrastructure? I cannot imagine all of them got switched out. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young answer the question. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This budget is the operating cost for communities, and they may choose to use it for training if they wish, but the department also provides training through the School of Community Government as well as what we call a circuit-rider program where we do hands-on training in the community appropriate to the type of plant that the community operates. We try to keep the burden of the training costs as minimal as possible on the community and do that through other means. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just looking at the line item, just to follow up, just to continue on with the Member for Great Slave, for water and sewer services. I know water is such an important issue. A lot of First Nations communities across the country and stuff and I know in my hometown, in Deninu Kue, that was an issue for quite some time, and they finally started to come around and get their water filtration and using UV to get the water where it's drinkable and to get rid of some of the bad stuff, like to prevent E. coli, that sort of stuff. It was passed on to me by some of the staff, that, yes, they got all that stuff in. In terms of O and M, there are still some issues there with coating pipes and whatnot, so I am just wondering. My question for the Minister is: in communities like Deninu Kue, how are we doing for the O and M side of things? Are we going to be continuing? Once you get that capital in there, it can continue on with helping to maintain the equipment regularly, to make sure it's up to standard. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I hear the Member's comments. MACA does support the training for the operation and maintenance of the water facilities, but also, I just want to make the Member aware that we do not build the facilities and have the communities plan, submit this ask through their capital plan. We support them for the operation and the maintenance and making sure that the training is current and up to date. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Even for sewer services and stuff, that's all done through the community. Places like small communities, like Deninu Kue, we do not have a lot of mains, water mains, like waste water like we do in a lot of the larger centres. A lot of this stuff is all trucked in. Even in places like Ndilo, water is trucked in. I am not sure how that is going to go, but I think it's important to know that that is how our communities work. We need to understand that it's not like here in Yellowknife where you can just turn on a tap. You have to worry about your water; you have to worry about your sewer. It gets even worse in colder weather. That's more of a comment. I just thought I'd say that. I also want to change my questions here for the senior citizens and disabled person's property tax relief. This is an issue here I deal with quite a bit in Deninu Kue, as well. I wanted to get an update from the Minister where this program is and which direction it's going, and give us a brief update, and I do have a couple of questions about that? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on the response. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the program we were referencing a little earlier. We were talking about our legislation work. This is the funding that's used to reimburse seniors and disabled in both tax-based and non-tax-based communities, and we are in the work, as Mr. Schauerte mentioned, of engaging with stakeholders, including seniors, to talk about changes to the program to make it more fair and equitable and consistent across all of our communities because we have heard concerns that it's not delivered the same way in all of our communities, and it causes a lot of confusion and frustration. That's part of the work that we're doing currently on changing that legislation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
My one question I did have on this is: this seniors and disabled person's property tax relief, what age would I be eligible to qualify for a program such as this? Is it 60, 65? Sorry. I'm looking at her. She's pointing at herself. It made me laugh. That question's for the Minister.
Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sixty-five. You have a long way to go, Member.
Thank you, Minister. Did you have any further questions, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, Madam Primier, I tried. Can you just give me, also, an example, of what the parameters are for a disabled person, what are the parameters for that to qualify for that program? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on the details of the qualifications for persons with disabilities, tax relief. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is actually one of the big frustrations with the program is, currently, you have to provide some documentation through something like a doctor on an annual basis in order to be eligible for the program, so that is one of the areas where we are seeking to get something so it's not requiring an annual application process. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that response. I couldn't imagine if I had to deal with something like that and have to constantly go through the whole red tape. I want to go back again about the senior citizens. I do have a couple of constituents that constantly have to deal with property taxes. I think that, if you are running a business or if you're paying taxes all your life, once you hit a certain age, I think you've paid the house, for lack of a better word, throughout your life. I think they've earned it. They've earned that right to get some of these tax breaks, and it goes to that mandate item. I think someone mentioned about aging in place, dignity for our senior citizens and our elders, our knowledge keepers. I just thought I'd make a comment, and I have no further questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Do we have any further questions or comments under regional operations? Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for the recreation funding, I guess it's all in the children's, youth, regional sport, youth coordination programs. What are we doing in regards to doing something? Since COVID-19 started, are we doing anything different to give communities funding for recreation sport or sewing programs? I know that the federal government's really stepped up. Where did we step up into these categories for the communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. I think we have a whole, 349, yes. Okay. Minister for MACA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We did receive a contribution from the federal government for sport and recreation that was distributed to the sports organizations. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on what we've been doing internally within our department. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, in addition to the budget that you see in the main estimates here, in total, we also distributed just over $1.8 million in additional federal funding to support sport and recreation in the COVID environment, but in terms of what we've done differently, we have worked with communities to look at what kinds of programs can be offered safely in a COVID environment. We've also assisted communities in applying to have their facilities opened, reopened after COVID, so what they needed to put in place to properly put their safe restart program in place for their specific facilities, as well as working with the NWTAC, Association of Communities to share ideas about unique ways to do things in the COVID environment. Many folks will remember last spring, with jamborees, folks were sharing information on what could be done safely, how to use some of this money to operate jamborees or community events but do it in a COVID compliant way. That's where a lot of our staff's efforts had been focused to help communities to ensure that programs can continue to operate but be operated in a COVID safe manor. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Nunakput.
