Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to make a comment because just some of the comments that are being made is - you know, flowthrough money from the federal government just comes to the government, it's flowed through. Many times, even when I was chief of Salt River First Nation, monies that came to - that we got from Salt River First Nation flowed through the Government of the Northwest Territories, okay. It has nothing to do with the Government of the Northwest Territories. That's the way the federal government gets the money out the door to go to the First Nation or to the community or - it's not the fault of anyone in this House. That's just the way it's done.
And if the community at that time is not ready because there's something that happened or - it could be many things. Like now we're into wildfires, we're into climate change. Like everybody always brings that up all the time, you know. I just - I don't - I am used to defending how money flows through governments. But I mean, that's just a standard - the practice that's been done for years and years. As far as I know, from - since I've been in leadership and way before that when my husband was mayor of Fort Smith, that's the way that it's done, even for the municipality of Fort Smith. So going on to say that there's something being done wrong when you - when the money's flowed through here, or making it sound like it's not right, is incorrect information. And I'd like more clarity on that if that's the way it's done. And you know, you can't fault people for if someone's not doing the other part on the other side because there might have been change in leadership, there might have been different standards now, there might have been a criteria that they cannot - they cannot follow, because there's all these criteria that have to come into play before the money is asked for. It doesn't - you just don't flow the millions through and then it just comes. That's not the way it is. I know that because I - I've had to do that many times when I've gone to the federal government and the flowthrough money comes through the territorial government. It's all about timing. And most of the time you can extend it and extend it until it's time. So that's just a comment I want to make. I don't expect anybody to answer any questions. But, you know, you can't make it sound like there's something not right here because nobody wants to have anything happen to a community or a municipality or for the capital for that - for any reason. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Yeah, thank you, Member for Thebacha. And, you know, it's what we're doing here is we're able to ask questions and get answers from the Minister and everybody's doing that and, you know, that's why we have this time. So, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask the Minister a question. Of this $27 million that's being carried over, for municipalities - or communities to access this money, is it applicationbased; do they have to fill out forms, do they have to provide proposals, etcetera, to get this money? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, there are - well, this is a funding that is entirely applicationbased, but it is applications for federal dollars, not for our dollars. So, again, you know - again, and I do want to make clear, I certainly wouldn't want any community governments or municipal governments thinking that we're not happy to be able to help and that MACA certainly would be able help. I can tell you there are 84 projects that are at least have - you know, moved forward. Five of those now, mind you, are waiting again for approval from Canada so not the GNWT. I'll stop there, Madam Chair. I think I'm going beyond the Member's question. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister's answer. So in its capacity with this type of money, is MACA providing technical advice to the communities, and are they helping with the preparation of the federal application process? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I shot a glance over to the Minister of MACA and he has nodded over as - to assure me that, indeed, they do provide that information. And I can say the information I have regarding the projects and their stages of completion does come from MACA, so they do monitor that along the way. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So would it not be fair, then, to say given the amount of emergency work and extra work that MACA has had other the last few years, given the number of disasters, that perhaps capacity within the department is stretched which then maybe would impact some of these projects from going forward? Also, I'm assuming that this is not the first that's lapsed and it probably lapsed through COVID. I know for a fact it did as well. So with COVID having shut down a lot of the Government of the Northwest Territories, can the Minister speak to how much the overtaxing of the Department of MACA may have led to the lapsing of this money. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I would certainly put the hat on as being Minister responsible for the Public Service to say that I know many, many public servants in all departments have faced a great deal of challenges over the last few years and, frankly, have, you know, performed, I would argue, very admirably well under those circumstances nonetheless.
Out of the projects here, there's 20 that are complete or over 50 percent completion, another 31 that are underway and moving forward. There are others that have not started, or we aren't quite sure where they are in process. So it's that cohort of projects that I think would warrant a further look from folks at MACA and see if there's a particular barrier that needs to be resolved. You know, again, the overall spend in 20222023 of $285 million is higher than what was spent over many years in the last ten years. So whether the community projects are at all different from that or not is not an analysis I have in front of me. I can certainly take that away and take a look at it. If there's no difference between what the communities have been able to deliver versus the $285 million that the GNWT has, then I'd suggest that we are actually all collectively, as governments, in the Northwest Territories doing all right. If there's a distinct difference between what the municipalities have been able to advance and what the GNWT is, then I agree, then we need to look at what those barriers and see if we can support communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. When speaking about a department being overtaxed, I in no way implied that the people working in that department are not working hard. My point being that there has been numerous unplannedfor disasters over the last several years, and this is the smallest department. In the Minister's words himself, in an email, has told me that his staff could not did not have the capacity to deal with the flooding that happened in Fort Simpson so I would assume that, given the flooding that happened the year after in Hay River and now forest fires, that that would continue on.
When the Minister speaks about the $285 million being more than we've ever seen before, well, all I've heard this government talk about and blame is inflation and supply chain issues. So looking at a final number of $285 million and comparing it to preCOVID years and saying oh well, we're actually doing quite well is not really the full situation. To me, a lot of that would probably just be about cost overruns, money back more to contractors as they've had to bear more costs, the lack of prompt payment by the GNWT, the lack of awarding of contracts, money being spent on RFPs by people that are then not awarded that the GNWT doesn't seem to be too concerned about private sector having to spend money and time preparing those. So I don't think that that's a really fulsome look at what is going on there.
I'm going to stop there but I think that this, again, I would like to reiterate, that our government holds all the keys and the strings to the municipalities and communities, and to then turn around and act like it's the municipalities and communities that did not get this money out the door when the government was stopping people from coming into our territory and impeding business is not something that I can sit and just listen to. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. I didn't see or hear any question in that. So did you have any further questions for the Minister? Thank you.
Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, community operations, not previously authorized, $29,473,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $29,473,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, please now turn to page 9. Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Legislative Assembly, capital investment expenditures, office of the clerk, not previously authorized, $59,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Legislative Assembly, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $59,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Please turn to page 10. Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, not previously authorized, $15,159,000. Does committee agree? Member for Nunakput.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I want to talk about Mangilaluk School, a major project I have in my riding for the $10.8 million carryover. I guess that means that we didn't spend it last year. I just want to let the Minister know that I am supporting this budget here in regards to - for this project. But can someone tell me what's the revised schedule and timeline for that project in Tuk? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have a schedule here before me but I think I'll want to be cautious. I know that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has been in Tuktoyaktuk recently and that representatives from infrastructure have been in Tuktoyaktuk recently looking at the school, looking at the progress that's being made, and what I'd like to suggest here, because there's active work happening and there's work actively happening to try to resolve some delays, so rather than reiterate information that might already be dated, I would like to work with the Member and the Department of ECE, between Department of Finance, Infrastructure, and ECE and perhaps meet with the mayor as well and see if we can come up with the most uptodateinformation. I know Members of Cabinet are in Inuvik next week, and it might be an opportunity for us to meet with representatives so that we can then at that time provide information. I'm happy to make that public as well. I'm not trying to avoid that here. I just want to ensure that what information we put forward is the most up to date and ultimately solutionoriented. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
No, just in regards to that, Madam Chair, I have 227 students in Tuk; I have 38 staff that have been out without a gym for the last two years. I worry about my youth in regards to not having a gymnasium and working on a construction site. I need our Cabinet - you know, I brought forward - I sourced out property in the community when I was asked to in regards to the portables. I need four portables. They're not $5 million. They're about $2.3 or $2.4 million. That has to happen before September 1st.
We need to get this sorted out because we need the gymnasium back in the community because it's not healthy for youth. And how many kids are not going to school? I take that Minister's offer in regards to - I already spoke to my mayor today and I spoke to my TCC chair to come down to Yellowknife to see if they could come Monday but now if they're going into Inuvik, that saves us coming to Yellowknife. So I take that offer up, and I look forward to meeting with her with an update on what's the plan and meeting with the contractor as well and to get a timeline, a solid timeline on a goforward for Mangilaluk School and the youth and my teaching staff in the community. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, the Member has spoken to myself and Minister Simpson as well just yesterday so I will prepare to discuss that further next week. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further questions?
Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, not previously authorized, $15,159,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $15,159,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Please turn to page 11. Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Environment and Climate Change, capital investment expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $581,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Environment and Climate Change, capital investment expenditures, environment management monitoring and climate change, not previously authorized, $581,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Environment and Climate Change, capital investment expenditures, regional operations, not previously authorized, $281,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Supplementary Estimates, (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, Department of Environment and Climate Change, capital investment expenditures, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $4,761,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024 Department of Environment and Climate Change, capital investment expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $6,204,000. Does committee agree? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a few questions about the previous line item. I guess the $1.6 million for the Fort Smith Territorial Fire Centre, I believe this is the first time that the Legislative Assembly is approving any money for this project, which is exciting news. I remember we all went and got a tour of the old fire centre but I guess I just have some basic questions. Do we have a cost estimate of what a new territorial fire centre will cost us? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, let me just briefly again, I - I'm sorry, I don't have a o'clock in my line of sight but I - the reason this is the first time coming in is prior to now, what we were anticipating is that this would actually ultimately be an operations expense and it would have gone as a design and build to an external proponent. If that had been the case, then the work would have been undertaken this summer by the external proponent. And it would have shown up later in operations budget of the GNWT. Now that said, because it hasn't gone that way, which is fine, we will be taking it on as a capital project for the GNWT. It would have been paid from one budget or paid through the other but it's going to be paid by a capital budget.
And so by advancing some money here in the supplementary estimates, we avoid losing this construction season. Part of that work actually is to develop a final budget for the project, was to do some of the final design work that is required. There's some land available. There's been some initial technical work done but the final design work is required, and that is part of what we're looking to have this advanced to complete that with a view to then having the project in the capital estimates in time for August. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
