Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As indicated in my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
I’m sure the Minister is aware that we have a full-time fire chief in Hay River right now and part of his mandate is to perform some of the duties that would normally be performed from the office of the fire marshal. So when there were inspections or work required in Hay River, it would require the fire marshal to travel from Fort Smith to do that work, and so the government is obviously saving some money there. I’d like to know if that correlates to a contribution of any kind to the Town of Hay River for the support of this full-time position undertaking these duties.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding allocation is to the communities and the communities will decide how to allocate that funding and how to budget for them, and if they feel that they have the adequate funding to budget for a fire chief, which in this case they did, they bring on a full-time fire chief, and I commend them for that. But as far as correlating to extra funding to the community from our department, we have pretty well a set figure. I can advise the Member, though, that we are working on a review of O and M funding for the communities and we’re hoping to have that work done, working with LGANT and NWTAC to see if there are many changes, if any have to be made, to the way we fund communities. Thank you.
I would like to ask the Minister if there are any precedents in the Northwest Territories for communities that would find themselves in the same situation as Hay River where they would have a full-time fire chief on the municipal staff, if there is any specific funding earmarked to support that position in view of the tasks that person can take on that relieve pressure on the fire marshal’s office. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have a few communities that have full-time fire chiefs and they’re paid for by the municipality. Again, as far as them taking up some of the duties or doing some of the work that would normally be done by the assistant fire marshal, once we do the review of the O and M if we find that there’s some merit to that, then I’m sure it’s a situation that the department will have a look at. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if the Town of Hay River could quantify a certain amount of work of that nature that is being done and were to submit a proposal to MACA for an offsetting contribution to support this position in Hay River, is that something that Municipal and Community Affairs could support? I’m just thinking it would be more information if there were an actual detailing of that type of work that’s being done that would normally fall under the mandate of a territorial government employee. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m sure all the communities come forward and make their case to MACA on the amount of funding that they receive, and if the communities make a good enough argument for funding for a position such as the one the Member is speaking of, I’m sure the department will be more than happy to have a look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to ask the Minister if he sees this as a good model. We see this in other areas such as economic development where a municipality or a community will hire an economic development officer and it will be funded by the territorial government to work… There will be a contribution from the municipality and a contribution from the territorial government for a position like that. I see this position of a full-time fire chief as similar in the sense that this is work, a lot of the work that could fall within the mandate of a territorial government employee. So I see it as a cooperative and joint effort with communities. I think it deserves special recognition in that way as a special category of funding and I’d like to thank the Minister for considering a proposal of that nature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Again, communities that do their budget, they will budget if they want to bring on a full-time fire chief or whatever other staff they want to hire in the community. As I assured the Member, we are always working with communities, LGANT, and NWTAC just to see how we can improve services that we provide to the community. Again, the whole O and M funding process will be reviewed to see, working with all these different groups, if any changes need to be made. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
