Mr. Speaker, this 16th Assembly has identified healthy, sustainable communities as a high-priority goal. Yesterday I spoke about youth. They make up an important part of these healthy communities. I’d like, in the absence of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if his department is planning to continue its support for the Northern Youth Abroad program.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve been a supporter of the Northern Youth Abroad program since 2005. We partnered up with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We’ve been providing financial support and meeting on a regular basis to see some of the outcomes and have been very satisfied with what we are seeing. We’ve had a number of meetings and recently had some further discussions. We have decided that we will continue to support this program.
Thank you for that response — very good news. This organization is doing incredible work, and I think we’re already seeing the returns.
Another aspect of the sustainable communities is, of course, the economic, the social and the environmental components of sustainability. I’m wondering if, in that aspect of sustainable communities in the new deal, all three components of sustainability are being profiled in the requirement for community energy plans in the integrated sustainable community plans — for the capital plans. I see this as an opportunity to highlight those three aspects of real sustainability. So if we’re going to carry out a sustainability plan, let’s make sure those aspects are in there. Can the Minister assure me that those aspects are in the exercise?
I see we’ve moved away from the youth abroad program and we’ve entered another line of questioning.
Mr. Speaker, the integrated communities sustainable plans are something we’ve worked on together with the federal government. We felt in order for the communities to be able to become sustainable and to become self-sufficient, they need to develop a number of plans. They are working on energy plans, capital plans and innovative initiatives within the communities. I’d certainly be glad to share the information, and possibly share some of the models we’ve come out with, with the Member, Mr. Speaker.
