Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I raised the issue about the broken CKLB radio transmitted in Nahanni Butte. I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if this was taken in account during the flood damage and ultimately, as well, how does Municipal and Community Affairs assist communities with local radio stations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that I think there were issues with that particular radio station before with the towers or the infrastructure before the flood and I’m not sure if there was a claim made, but the Member’s second part of his question he asked how we can assist. They are able to use some of their O and M funding for infrastructure. However, if the costs are quite high, then they can use some of their infrastructure money to assist with the infrastructure for radio delivery. As well, my understanding is that there is some monies available through ECE to assist with the O and M of the radio station too. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Also, is there any way that this government can help a community like Nahanni Butte with the capital costs? I’ve got an estimate. We met with CKLB officials and they said Nahanni Butte replacement infrastructure would be about, I think it was almost $6,500, including the technician to travel in there. So I wonder if there’s any capital dollars within MACA or within our government that we can look at addressing this need. Thank you.
Thank you. As far as capital dollars go, MACA has absolutely no capital funding dollars. We give all the capital funding dollars to the community and they can make a determination. If they want to spend the $6,500 on this particular piece of infrastructure, then they have the ability to do that. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Is the Minister aware, when working with his colleagues, of any other places where the community can access some infrastructure dollars to address this specific need, and in fact, while the Minister is in charge of, as well, emergency situations, and having a local station will greatly enhance our emergency services in all the small and remote communities? Thank you.
Thank you. I would have to have discussions with my colleagues on any potential pots of money that might be available. Again, I reiterate the fact that we do provide a lot of infrastructure money to the communities and the Member raises the point about the emergency side of it.
Again, there was an old federal program where we were able to access some kind of money for that. That’s gone now. We’ll wait and see what the rules are on the new pot of money that the feds are coming out and exactly what our share may be. So there may be opportunities there for that too.
I think, at the end of the day, in a situation like this where it is an emergency, the community has well within their means to pay for the infrastructure and then the O and M, there are some monies available for that too. But I will commit to the Member that I will work with my colleagues to identify any kind of pots of money that might be available to the community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you. The Member is correct; we do have an interdepartmental working team, and one of their duties is to identify all types of services that might be available in the communities as far as emergency goes. A radio station would fit under that, but they are looking at all the different types of emergencies and how we can assist communities. Once we come up with our initial findings, we’ll be sharing them with standing committee and then we’ll get some input from them, and we’ll go from there on a go forward basis. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
