Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on a statement made by the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs earlier today and on some of the questions posed by my colleague Mr. Krutko.
I need to say that I’m extremely pleased this agreement has been signed. It allows us to go forward and get started on many of the projects we know this territory needs.
Part of the Minister’s statement was that some $140 million was going to critical transportation infrastructure. He also stated the government plans to make $6.5 million per year available to community government.
My question to the Minister is: is that all the money that’s going to community government — $6.5 million per year? That’s the only funding that’s available for community government?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, that’s correct. The money will be distributed on an annual basis over seven years. It comes to about $26.5 million annually. It was decided that $20 million will go toward transportation projects and $6.5 million would go toward municipalities.
Thank you to the Minister for the clarification. I guess I need the clarification, then, on the money that is going to the communities.
The first priority is water treatment plants, and I have no problem with that. It then says the balance of the funding will be made available to communities to address their own priority projects. If I could get some clarification on how communities are able to use the $6.5 million they are going to get annually.
Mr. Speaker, there are a number of projects that were left over on our capital plan when we transferred the dollars to our communities. These projects are all in the area of water plants. We have met with the NWT Association of Communities and have discussed with them. They have indicated we should have these projects completed, and that the remainder of the money, as it comes forward, should be distributed to the communities on a formula basis, similar to what we’re doing with our capital money and our gas tax money.
There are a number of different areas that have been put forward as national priorities, and those are water and waste water, public transit, highways and green energy.
We really negotiated strongly for flexibility in this agreement. We also have local priorities put in place, and those are in the area of sports and culture, disaster mitigation, solid waste management, local roads and airports. Within these broad categories, each jurisdiction has to then negotiate the details of what projects will come forward.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister. It’s good information. That was the kind of information I was hoping to hear, the response that I think…. Obviously, he has worked with the communities, and that’s the response they want to hear.
To the money that’s available for transportation infrastructure. I know we have huge needs in that area, but how will a community get their projects on a list, if there is going to be a list — that famous list we all know about. If the money is being handled through either MACA or Transportation, how are communities going to be able to indicate the urgency of transportation infrastructure needs other than that of their local roads, which, I gather, come out of their own community funds?
Mr. Speaker, the methodology that is being used right now is to have each community develop a capital plan, an undertaking that has been already started. We require that information as part of our Gas Tax Agreement.
We also have transferred all the capital dollars to the communities, and they now decide what projects they want to see in their communities. It’s the same plan, the same capital projections that will come forward and will be utilized as we have the discussion with the federal minister to sign off on community projects. It will indicate what portions of dollars will come from where, and it will also indicate…. We’ll have a plan to see which ones come forward. It will be a process we don’t expect to be very complicated. Each community will have a plan. Each community will decide what projects. We have the criteria already, so that’s how we plan to move forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the information. I’m gratified to hear it, and I think it’s going to be a workable process. I guess I would like to ask the Minister: if there are communities that don’t feel they have the human resource capacity to develop their own community capital plan, will the department be able to help them to finish off these plans in a timely manner so they can get their priorities known to the department?
Mr. Speaker, that’s a commitment we’ve already made through the New Deal initiative. It’s a commitment we made to all communities — that we would work with them. Some communities, however, have really been able to grab this whole initiative and move forward rather quickly. Others are struggling, and we still have to work with a number of communities. We will continue to do that. We are already doing that with some of the other funding sources that are coming forward.
Of course, there are still a number of challenges we have to continue to work toward solving, and that is in an area of capacity. Especially now that there are large amounts of capital going to each community, we really have to ensure that all the planning and all the legwork is done.
