Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think I said five earlier so that may have been the source of some confusion. There are these nine. This is what this appropriation is for. This is required for the Department of Justice to fund the positions. This is our 48 percent. Thank you.
Thank you, I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
It's okay. No, thank you, I think I understood it now. It's this $841,000 is intended to pay our 48 percent of the overall funding for that fiscal year for the nine new members. And I'm seeing a nod. That's fine, okay.
That said, are these permanent positions, just to clarify moving forward? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
That's correct, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
Are they currently staffed or anticipated to be staffed? I know it's this year fiscal money, but I also am aware it's very difficult to get boots on the ground in that industry considering the shortage, so I'm curious if they're actually in the position or are they anticipated to be funded for this fiscal year?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't say for sure. RCMP themselves do the recruiting out they are responsible for training obviously I shouldn't say obviously. They are responsible for the training. That does not happen here in the territory. And for then recruiting and for then determining the placement of officers. So I can't say for sure. We can try to find that out. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
Okay. So these are permanent moving forward positions, and the Minister said she'd get back to us with respect to if they're currently staffed or not staffed in that sense.
The other aspect of questioning here is if we're staffing nine new positions, that's great. That said, how many have been requested? And I assume these are the nine that are proved moving forward. So how many in total have been requested? And obviously the difference is the number that are unfunded or not being funded. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm, again, not aware of there being a denial but I certainly can't say that for sure as the supplementary appropriation comes forward for the one that are approved. So I don't have any information here on the sup as to things that weren't that aren't being put forward for a request. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. For the approval process, it would be nice to know because, I mean, the government brings forward what they decide to accept to fund but, you know, there's no input on the Members with respect to these types of things. So in other words, if the RCMP institution said we need, for example 18, and the government said we'll fund nine through partnership obviously, all we know is the nine that has been funded, and you're not hearing from the Members or input from the Members saying no, no, no, we would like to see the 18 because, for example, there might be more needed based on the needs prescribed by the RCMP, not Members. Again, Members aren't in this position of staffing or pointing out where RCMP people should go. But, you know, be excited to hear that those needs are being met. I mean, we are well aware of what happened today, or most of us are aware of what happened today in Tsiigehtchic, and we can understand the strain of the resources, you know, be it the support services in the regional centres. So that's why it's kind of nice to know what their request was and are we meeting their needs as well, which are the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's probably an excellent question to raise during the business planning process when you'd have the Department of Justice in front of you there defending their decisions in terms of their annual appropriations and annual business plans. And I'll certainly convey to the Minister that that may be a question that they should be anticipating. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to YK Centre Member.
Is there any reason why the Minister of Justice couldn't answer that today considering he's literally a very good folded paper plane throws' away? I mean, I could, you know I mean, he's right in front of me. Is there any reason he couldn't answer that question?
I think at this time we're just going to continue on with the questioning to the Minister on the subject line item. I'm going to go back to YK Centre. Do you have a question for the Minister of Finance? Thank you.
I think my question was is can she provide that information, then, if she's not willing to pass it on to the Minister? Thank you.
I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Yes, Mr. Chair, we'll certainly look into it and seeing if we can find out from the Department of Justice what the history of this ask is and whether or not there was any denials. Mr. Chair, it is a supplementary appropriation request, so I am trying having been admonished many times to stay within the boundaries of what the parameters are by the Speaker and now by yourself, I'm simply trying to think to the boundaries of the supplementary appropriation requests. But I made quite a lengthy number of commitments to give additional departmental operational information to Members, and I certainly can add this one in to determine whether or not there were any requests for more officers that were not agreed to by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to YK Centre to the line item. Thank you.
I'll gladly accept that update. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know lately we've been hearing lots from small communities. We know there's lots of addictions and lots of crime happening in many of the small communities. And I know that a lot of these communities do not have a detachment. Even in my region, Gameti and Wekweeti, they really need they want a detachment, and they've been talking about it for quite some time. I just want to know how did these community get got selected for to have nine positions allocated? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, Members, just say thank you at the end so our tech people know.
I'm going to go to Minister of Finance. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, it is the RCMP that determine the policing standards and that put forward their policing plans that then go to Department of Justice. They are the ones that would be driving the determination of need that then gets put forward for funding appropriations. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member for Monfwi.
Yes, well thank you. Thank you for that information. It's good to know because I think it's good information to know because I think now we know where to go if we're going to be to add two positions in one of the two communities that don't have a police detachment.
I just another one too is that okay, for next fiscal year, I think somebody did mention that if this is a onetime funding, is it a continuous funding for this program?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so in December of 2023, it was a nineyear agreement that was fully executed. So, you know, in that sense, can I say it's permanent I suppose not. It is nine years, though. So that's far into the future and certainly creates an expectation that and that includes these positions for the nine positions for 20232024 and the four additional ones for 20242025. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Monfwi. Any further questions? I don't see anything, any hands up.
Okay, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Justice, justice policing services, not previously authorized $841,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Justice, total department, not previously authorized $1,365,000. Is there any questions? Don't see no hands. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we will now consider Department of Municipal and Community Affairs on page 13.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, directorate, not previously authorized $55,153,000. Is there any questions? There's a question. I'm going to go to the Member must be getting tired. From Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You'll learn my region eventually; it's fine.
Could the Minister please provide more detail about what this funding is comparative to the I assume it was the evacuations for flooding and fire? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That assumptions is correct. There's an amount here reflecting the 2022 flood as well as an amount here reflecting the 2023 wildfires. They, just to be clear, don't include necessarily or they don't include the firefighting suppression costs that would have been incurred by ECC, which is part of a separate request we've seen. But this is for the emergency amounts that were incurred under, as I said, both 2022 and 2023 for those two events in MACA. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister please delineate those two amounts for those two years of 2022 being flood and 2023 being fire? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in 2022, the well, the actually, these aren't the detailed I have right in front of me here. Let me see, if I could just have a moment.
Sorry, so we're looking at breaking the amount down here that's before you, Mr. Chair. $475,000 is the request that's still remaining under the 2022 flood. There's been a number of previous budgetary requests. I should back up for a moment and note that the department isn't they're not appropriate as a base budget in order to do disaster response and recovery because obviously historical, you know, events vary wildly. That's the nature of a disaster and of an emergency. So they're basefunded to support emergency response in terms of organizing the emergency work but not necessarily to respond to the individual event.
So as I was saying $475,000 is helping to clean up what was remaining from 2022. 2023 wildfires, right now the request is at 45 54,678,000 I'm getting tired too. 54 million $54.6 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Thank you, I'm going to go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this is pretty an insignificant detail but when folks look at this in the public, it helps. So it's my understanding, then, that the emergency management organization sits on the directorate and that's what this funding is for? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to Minister of Finance.
Yes, I believe that's correct. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member of Great Slave.
