Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that clarification. So when will residents see an increase in the fees on their phone bill? And do we know what exactly that increase will be? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Again, I'll pass this off to director Young.
Thank you. I'll go to the director.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The fee increase, we anticipate, will be for April 1st, 2025. Sorry, I forgot the second part of the question. Oh sorry, yes, and the increase will be $3. It currently is $1.70. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's important people have the head's up and know what's coming there.
On another aspect of 9-1-1, I know there have been difficulties in terms of working out a collaboration with the city of Yellowknife that makes sure that resources overall are used most efficiently. Obviously, there's -- you know, there's a dispatch service that 9-1-1 provides, but the city of Yellowknife has always provided its own dispatch service. I wonder if the Minister can speak to whether those sort of disagreements and conflicts have been worked out with the city of Yellowknife and whether he thinks the system is now operating as efficiently as it can in Yellowknife to make sure we don't duplicate dispatch services. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like anything else new, there's always growing pains and that was no secret here. So there was a review done, and there was recommendations that were suggested. Those were implemented, and it's continually being worked on with the city of Yellowknife and the department to make sure that the review's been implemented and recommendations are followed through. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to Yellowknife North Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Final question here, is that review public? And can it be made public, if not? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it's not a public document.
Thank you. Was there any further -- okay. No further, I'm going to continue on now to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 360, you're looking at the ground ambulance highway rescue. I mentioned this in a while back I wanted an ambulance in my community, and I'm so pleased to see that it's on this books here. So where is this ambulance going? Thank you. This ground ambulance.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm kicking myself in the butt for bringing this up when I was a town council member in Hay River.
This funding here is to support services that are already being provided. It's not a funding per se. It's more or less to assist services that are already existing. And it's not a new ambulance service or new ambulance for anybody. Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Okay, so it's not coming to my region? That's where I thought it was going to. Anyways, how do I go about getting an ambulance in my region for safety on the highway? Currently we don't have an ambulance in my community, and that was something that the residents had brought up to me. So how do I do that? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently there's no legislation or anything behind ambulance services in the Northwest Territories, and right now it essentially resides with your municipalities to set up those types of services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Okay, that's good to know. Thank you so much. I don't have any further questions.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? No further questions, please turn -- are we sure now? Thank you. No further questions, please turn to page 359.
Municipal and Community Affairs, public and safety, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $2,959,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to regional operations, beginning on page 362 with information items on 365. Are there any questions? No further questions -- oh sorry, I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here, my questions to the Minister in this chapter or activity is landfills. A landfill in one of the communities that I represent is actually terrible. It's at the point where it's probably a fire liability with the amount of debris that have compiled over the years. And there was some efforts to recycle. And is there any willingness there from the department with the programs that are identified in this activity, or on regional operations, to have a vehicle compressor station to compress these old relics and get them cubilized so they can get shipped out of the community? And there's other objects there, old appliances, old vehicles, that sort of thing. But I just ask that one question to the cleaning of the landfill.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The community can do some of their own work on the landfill, obviously like any other community; however, like in my Minister's statement the other day, we have the hazardous waste project going on, which is collecting some of the hazardous waste and compiling it and, at some point, hauling it out. So, yeah, I guess right now a lot of it lies with the community for the maintenance of the landfill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from the Sahtu.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. I was more or less asking if there's any outside type services here. As the Minister knows, the NWTAC that represents all the municipalities is experiencing a gap, and this gap or a shortfall has been going on for several Assemblies. So is there any additional funding that would help these communities, in particular mobilize a compressor that would compress that's old vehicles from community to community, similar to what the government had years ago in the DOT days here. They had a crusher that went from community to the community and stockpiled crushed material. It was a government-owned piece of property and got circulated around. Is there something in the department or some funding to help purchase this compressor that could do the same thing, going from community to community, to compress these old relics and get them ready for shipment to a designated landfill or recycling depot down south? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I guess what this kind of lies into is the -- as in my Minister's statement, we were speaking of the funding that was out there for the five regions for collecting the hazardous waste and basically compiling it and getting it ready to ship out. So what I can do is we can get the department, we can find out what activities are being done in those regions in regards to what activities are currently being done for the cleanup of those things, like more detailed stuff, I guess, like the cars. So we'll get back to you on that. But right now it is being worked on through the hazardous waste cleanup. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Sahtu.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's a good positive starting point. I thank the Minister for the reply. Mahsi.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? Thank you. Moving on to the regional operation beginning on pages -- oh, sorry. No further questions, please turn to page 363.
Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $104,051,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to sports, recreation and youth, beginning on page 366 with information items on page 370. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page 367.
Municipal and Community Affairs, sports, recreation and youth, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $8,459,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. There are additional information items on page 371 to 373. Are there any questions?
Pages 371 to 373, are there any questions? Thank you, Members. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, is this an activity of information item as identified on top, or is it an activity for approval? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for clarification, it's just for information. Thank you.
Members, please return now to departmental summary found on page 335, with information items on page 336 to 338. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions, committee, I will now call the departmental summary.
Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditure summary, total department, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $156,327,000. Does the committee agree? Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the main estimates for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Show of hands or ayes. Show of hands. There we go. Thank you. All those opposed? The motion is carried. Consideration of Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, total department, is deferred.
---Carried
Thank you to the Minister. Sat down already, that's quick. And thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us. Our sergeant already took those guys out of here; you guys are fast.
What is the wish of committee? Member for the Deh Cho.
Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress.
All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
