Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to refer to an e-mail tabled yesterday from Mr. Lovatt, who bravely provides a painful description of how he and his mother suffered a loss of his younger brother and struggled to call emergency services without knowing the proper numbers. My question is for the Minister of MACA. What does this Minister have to say in response to this young man’s call for the GNWT to play an important role in establishing 911 service here? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Well, Mr. Speaker, I received the same e-mail and I’m sorry for their loss. We’ve all lost, at one time or another, and a lot of them were accidents. Whether 911 would have helped is a different question.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve said on numerous occasions that 911 is a service that some communities have identified as one that they want, and they do have the means within the monies that we’ve forwarded to them to implement 911 services. Mr. Speaker, there are some communities that have decided that it’s not a priority at this particular moment and they are looking to enhance their ability to respond to emergencies before even considering 911, because what’s the point of having it if you can’t respond to it properly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Indeed, I have heard those comments from the Minister. Of course, we have our neighbouring capital city of Whitehorse, which the territorial government set up 911 service just for the city of Whitehorse. I had a meeting with NorthwesTel here this week. I found out the cost of establishing a service in Yellowknife and indeed in all communities, but starting with Yellowknife and our larger communities, 70-some percent of our population is indeed affordable, with participation of this government and municipal governments, and then could be maintained thereafter by municipal governments. So does this Minister not consider that this call and this opportunity is something that this government should play a role in directly?
Everything is affordable with some input from the government and, again, it would be quite, is my understanding, an expensive undertaking for the company to provide service throughout the Northwest Territories and how long it would actually take. So, Mr. Speaker, I continue to go back to the fact that -- and I know Members are tired of hearing it – if it’s a priority for the communities, then they do have the funds to help bring this priority about. Thank you.
Indeed, I have heard these comments many times before from this Minister. We are trying to penetrate those comments and get him to consider new comments. The infrastructure deficit is something we have heard many, many times from this Cabinet. We seem willing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into highways, building highways and maintaining them. Does the Minister not see the need to balance that with some much more modest contributions to some of the other needs that our citizens are pointing out are a priority, including Yellowknife, as the Whitehorse citizens did? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. You are kind of leaning towards asking the Minister for his opinion on this, but I will allow the Minister to respond if he would like. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr Speaker, we have as part of the New Deal given money to every community in the Northwest Territories to deal with their infrastructure priorities, and if 911 is an infrastructure priority to the city of Yellowknife or the other six communities that want 911 implemented as a phased-in approach, they have that ability to bring that about. We’ve heard from two communities. I haven’t heard from the rest yet. I am hoping to get their input. I heard from two communities that have said that it’s not a priority with them right now. It may be in the future and when it is in the future, they also understand they are given the money to help bring this about. Thank you.
The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a final supplementary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I tried to find out what other provinces in Canada, what practices are followed there. I looked at all 10 provinces. I am able to confirm that one, two, three, four, five of them, the 911 service is provided by the provincial governments. Three I was not able to determine and two they leave to municipalities. So obviously the majority of jurisdictions are provincial 911 services. So again, Mr. Speaker, I am wondering why this Minister won’t consider what most of the country is doing and certainly our neighbours to the west. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would have to confirm those numbers, because my information might be a little different than the Member’s. Again, Mr. Speaker, this government made a conscientious decision to devolve a lot of responsibilities to the communities as something the communities wanted. So if they decided the implementation of 911 is a priority of theirs, then they would have the financial ability to do so. If we start funding infrastructure projects, then we’ve defeated the whole purpose of capital formula funding and then we may as well go back to the old corporate formula funding where we decide what’s best for the communities and I don’t think communities would want that. I would like to hear from all 33 communities to see if they would want to go back to the old corporate plan and then have to wait years for their particular piece of infrastructure. Thank you.
