Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The 17th Assembly’s vision is to work towards individual well-being and empower communities. With that in mind, my question today is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Why has the department chosen to truck water to Enterprise and Kakisa?
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been the goal of the Legislative Assembly in the past to empower the communities. It’s one of the reasons the New Deal for community governments was brought about in 2004, and that enables the communities to make decisions affecting their communities a lot better than we can. One of the decisions that they could make is on the provision and distribution of water supply services.
What are the nearest potential sources of drinking water for these communities, in particular Enterprise and Kakisa in terms of looking at potentially establishing their own services for their residents.
We work closely with the communities to identify potential water sources as parts of the funding that they receive, especially under the Gas Tax Agreement. They do have the ability under that program, and I know Kakisa gets probably about $160,000 for that program. That is for water treatment and distribution. They can utilize that money. As well, they get over $600,000 in community infrastructure money that they receive every year. They’re able to utilize that money to help with building a new water treatment plant. There have been some cases in the past where communities have worked together and done bundled water treatment plants. Economies of scale bring the price down a bit. The communities have that ability now to determine if that’s the direction they want to go. As MACA, we will work very closely with the community in coming up with some solutions for them.
Has the department, at this point, considered trying to move these potential projects for the communities forward? Looking at perhaps entertaining the idea of planning to work with the communities and perhaps the Minister could highlight some of the problems in that area. Have there been talks with both Enterprise and Kakisa?
The communities usually identify a 20-year capital plan and we work closely with them on that. If the communities of Kakisa and Enterprise are exploring the idea of building a water treatment plant, then we would be more than willing to work closely with them. We usually wait for an invitation from the community saying they want to look at these issues, and we would go in there at their request and work with them to come up with a solution that is best for all, including possible financing options. We’ve had some communities use their infrastructure money to access loans from the bank and that enables them to get their projects on the ground, because they do know that they are going to be getting a fair sized chunk of infrastructure money every year and they can use that to secure bank loans.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s very encouraging that the Minister has indicated that there is a willingness to work with the communities. My question is: What are the possible barriers to both Enterprise and Kakisa operating local water treatment plants?
The only possible barrier that I can see to these communities not operating their own water treatment plants is because they just don’t have the desire to. All the other tools are in place to enable some of these communities to work with our department to identify potential sites, help them with the planning. The only barrier right now is their lack of willingness, and that can be reconciled.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
