Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about municipal services infrastructure needs in small communities like Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. I’d like to follow up with questions to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Can the Minister tell us how the department allocates money to the communities during the budgeting process?
The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We provide money to the communities through a number of key programs in three key areas. Those areas, of course, are operations and maintenance, community/public infrastructure, and water and sewer services. Eighty per cent of our budget in Municipal and Community Affairs flows to the communities. On top of that, we also have a number of federal programs that we have joint, co-management agreements with. That is the gas tax program, and we’re still working on the Building Canada Fund, of course. That comes in at around $82 million that we provide to the communities on an annual basis.
Does the department have a long-term plan to improve standards in smaller communities during the budgeting process?
Historically, a number of governments have worked on improving the standard of living in the communities and the programs to the community governments. I can recall being involved in a committee in the 15th Assembly, the Committee on Non-Tax-Based Community Affairs, and we made several recommendations at that time. Whenever we work with the communities to develop formulas, we take into consideration the unique circumstances that face, especially, the smaller communities. Our O&M formulas include the northern cost index. We have a commitment to review programs on a five-year basis. We certainly take into consideration the special needs of communities.
I thank the Minister for part of the response. I was looking to see if they actually have a physical long-term plan that Municipal and Community Affairs works out with municipalities. I’m asking the question: does the Minister have a long-term plan for the communities?
As I indicated earlier, we do have reviews built into most of our formula funding and most of our program-delivery funding that require us to review the allocation dollars. We have more recently embarked on an initiative to have all communities provide us with long-term sustainability plans. These include a number of different areas where they would provide us with information on their capital needs. For example, rather than us as a government providing a five-year infrastructure plan, the communities would compile theirs, including how they plan to finance it. Energy plans are part of that. Capacity-building plans are also part of that. It’s a more comprehensive approach than we’ve taken historically, and most of the communities have embarked on it. A number of communities have completed portions of it. A number of communities, for the most part in the capital area, have identified their priorities, and we continue to work toward getting all the communities done.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Will the Minister agree to have his department do a comprehensive evaluation of programs and services, the budgeting process and infrastructure needs in small communities?
I think we’ve been doing quite a bit of that over the last couple of years as we have undertaken the New Deal initiative. We would certainly be happy to share our information with the Member. If there is anything he feels we’ve missed, we certainly can look at providing that information. It’s difficult to say that we would embark on another complete review of all the communities at this point. It’s something I would hesitate to do.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Krutko.
