Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about the need for capital projects in the community of Lutselk'e and the inflexible policies of MACA that has not allowed Lutselk'e to access this funding for several years. Can the Minister tell me what the department can do to rectify this situation to ensure capital projects are delivered in Lutselk'e soon? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s actually a federal act that prohibits the community from owning real property under the federal Indian Act. We have been working with the community and other communities to try and find solutions so the communities would be able to deliver their capital plan, and we would continue to try to work with the community of Lutselk'e to come up with some options for accessing the capital money. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, since this can’t continue or shouldn’t continue that the community is unable to access, can the Minister outline some of the options that are available or some of the options that they spoke to the community about? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the options is the community can seek hamlet status or they can incorporate an interim corporation that would be able to hold real property on behalf of the community until the land claims are resolved. We have seven of the eight band communities that are already in that process, some have formed their interim corporations and some are just in the process. If you go to hamlet status, that process could take several months to get completed. If you were to form an interim corporation, that whole process could take as little as a month. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, should the community of Lutselk'e not wish to seek hamlet status at this time or have their infrastructure held by an interim corporation, would MACA consider delivering Lutselk'e capital plan directly before another construction season is lost? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, since the introduction of the New Deal we really don’t have the capacity to deliver capital projects on behalf of the communities. The department has been restructured to support the communities that want to deliver their own capital plan and if we were to do that in this particular case, I would see that as a step backwards in not being able to develop community capacity. But, like I said before, we continue to want to work with the community so they can set up an interim corporation so that they would have all the authority to make the decisions that affect their communities and not have those decisions made by the government, which is what the whole idea of the New Deal was and we’re trying to get away from doing that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister discuss with Cabinet to see what can be done within the provisions of the acts, like within provision of the Indian Act, within the provisions of the NWT Act, to allow the community to receive interim appropriations for capital projects for this coming construction season? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can commit to having that discussion with my Cabinet colleagues; however, I will encourage the community to take the responsibility, take the first step in forming an interim corporation, then the money would be able to be flowed to this interim corporation and they would look after the projects on behalf of the community until land claims are settled. But this would give the community the authority, so I would encourage them to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
