Mr. Chair, I move that the committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories take immediate action to develop and deliver a small community chipsealing program;
And further, that the departments of Transportation and Municipal and Community Affairs take cooperative and concrete action to ensure small communities are able to access sustainable funding levels and technical expertise to achieve meaningful progress in regards to the local road surfacing in small communities.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. There is a motion on the floor and is being distributed now. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Krutko.
Mr. Chair, I believe, for one, that we do have to find a way to work with the smaller communities. I think that through the program that was previously in place, which was to work with communities to find a concerted effort between the Department of Transportation with their expertise and Municipal and Community Affairs working with communities to find a way to deal with dust control in a lot of our communities. I think that unless you actually have to live with dust in your communities, it’s not really an issue. I think that it really does have an effect on the health and well-being of the elderly people in our communities and also in regard to the cleanliness of our communities. I think that’s it a stigma that’s left on these small communities that we have to find a way to deal with this dust problem.
With the motion, I’m hoping that we’re able to pass this motion in support of working with those communities that don’t have the capacity and also develop a program that can work through the departments of Transportation and Municipal and Community Affairs so that we are able to find a way to deal with these problems with dust in our communities.
With that, Mr. Chair, I would like all the Members to take this seriously because I believe it is an issue that in this day and age, in this 20th Century, that we should not be dealing with the issue of dust in communities. If anything, we should be improving the quality. I think by simply chipsealing the main street of a community makes a difference in those communities. I think it brings pride to the people in our communities and, more importantly, they do feel that the quality of life has improved in our communities. With that, I look forward to other Members supporting this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, would like to just add a little bit to what Mr. Krutko is saying. In addition to all of the aspects that Mr. Krutko spoke of, also for the way the government is moving, in essence devolving a lot of the municipal responsibilities through the new plan to the municipalities, this is a major step towards increasing what I’d call market value of the community. I think anybody is aware that if you have a paved street in front of your property, your property is worth a lot more. I think this is a step in the direction where we will be increasing actual property values of individual homeowners in the smaller communities, which is actually a very good thing for everyone. It gives the ability for individual homeowners to borrow money directly themselves through some creation of a market in the community, then they are able to have a lot of the programs right now that are delivered by the Housing Corporation. A lot of that comes from the inability for the banks or the unwillingness for banks to lend in communities where when you don’t have streets paved and so on, sometimes they don’t see a market value. I think that when the dust is gone, then you will see the property improvements, which also adds to the market value of the various properties around the community and that. As we move in that direction, this government begins to devolve responsibility to the communities. I think it is important that this government do what it can to assist communities to increase market values. I think this is the first big step in the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chairman, I also will be supporting this motion. I think this motion here speaks to sort of clearing the dust on these issues here. You have a program. You have the communities and municipal funding. You have expertise within the Department of Transportation and also they have studies done by the Municipal and Community Affairs office here. You think what we are asking here is through this motion here I am looking at it in terms of implementing a chipsealing program for the communities where there is expertise from the Department of Transportation which has the expertise, has the resources, and has the knowledge. With MACA, you have the studies. They have the funding in helping the communities implement a chipsealing program, small communities, so they can utilize their resources to develop a good program.
For so long, Mr. Chairman, in our communities, especially with the elders that Mr. Krutko talked about, the amount of dust that collects on their windowsills, in their houses, on their furniture, it is unbelievable where we don’t do a proper job in terms of suppressing the dust in our communities. Twenty years ago, Mr. Chairman, I talked about this, that there weren’t very many vehicles in our communities. Today there are over 60 vehicles in Tulita itself and then with the amount of driving that happens in that small little community the road sure takes a pounding. When that happens, the amount of dust in the people’s face, the amount of dust that is collected in the houses, even in our health centre. It is close by the road there. It is outrageous, in that a very good program should be able to help our communities.
I fully support this motion here. I think about my Aunt Julie who is asthmatic and that she has to keep her windows closed during the summer months because of the amount of dust that is in her house and she is complaining. She is an elderly lady who complains to me every time we go in Tulita in terms of the dust that is happening in and around her place in the summertime. She has to almost change her air filters once a week. She has to get it here at Wal-Mart. It costs a lot of money in the summer months. I think more of her and the older people and the younger kids that have to breathe in the dust when there is no dust suppression or any dust control in our communities. I look forward to something from this department, from the other departments to see how they can work with our communities and how do we implement a chipsealing program for all of the communities that Mr. Krutko has alluded to in terms of this committee motion. I look forward to some results from this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. We are moving on to Mr. Menicoche. To the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to speak in favour of the motion. I think it was a good program. We used to have it before with our territorial government. I would like to see the department try to make the resources available to make this manageable to deliver small community chipsealing program. I think that it is something that our government can do, one little small thing, that will help make lives better in the communities.
Quite often there is a larger chipsealing program going by one of the communities who can utilize that and to take into account the smaller communities. For some of the more remote ones that might be more challenging, but still, all our communities should be treated the same. They should be part of the big plan as well. I would just like to say I will be supporting the motion, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Mr. Krutko for bringing it up in Committee of the Whole.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the issues here we are really facing is the fact that this used to be a MACA program and then MACA transfers the community gas money and the gas tax money, and then they say sorry, we don’t do this anymore. That is sort of one of the problems that we are faced with. That is why these motions keep coming up.
I have often said that there is a policy problem here, where the government used to do this but then they decide that now they are not in this business. I don’t think that there has ever been a heart-to-heart deciding on what government should be responsible for and what communities should be responsible for. I often question, is that money that they used to do things like chipsealing, was that transferred over to the communities? I would have to say I don’t think so. I think the windfall of things like the gas tax money that the department will be pointing at and say, well, now it is your business. You have money. I think that was a windfall above and beyond the existing funding pot that would have covered this in the old days. I think there’s a policy problem. I am not suggesting the Executive Council will see this motion every time this page comes up in every budget going forward, but the reality is that it is coming up in the last few budgets. The fact is no one seems to want to be addressing the policy problem we have here. It is about who is ultimately responsible for chipsealing. Is it the community or is it the government? In some cases, I think it is probably both. It is a shared responsibility.
I think that work needs to be done. I would say, if you heed one message from this motion, at least hear that, that between the Department of Transportation and the Department of MACA, the two departments need to be sitting down with the municipalities and start working this out to figure out who should be ultimately responsible for this. Just because one department is working as a flow-through for things like gas tax money, that was meant for other things.
Mr. Chairman, I will be supporting this motion. I suggest that someone should start having that conversation on the policy of this issue, which is ultimately who is responsible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Not having any further comments, I will ask Mr. Krutko to conclude the debate.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I would like to thank the Members that did speak in support of the motion. Again, this motion is directed to the small communities. I think that this issue has been around since the 14th Assembly. I know that special committee, that first small communities, filed a report and this was one of the recommendations which instrumented they put in place main street chipseal program for small communities and which it only served basically in one Legislature, which was the 15th Assembly. I think because of it only having to take place in one Assembly, other communities are saying that this issue is a health issue. It is not a question about …and also having the capacity to deliver this program in a lot of these smaller communities. The small communities do not have the capacity to basically hire engineers, start doing the evaluation in regards to the survey that has to take place, looking at the gravel needs, looking at the equipment that you have to bring in to do this thing. One project you are talking about a community’s $1.6 million. I think that for that kind of money for small communities, sure, they get a little bit of gas tax money, but you are only talking about $150,000 if not less.
With the motion, it does direct the Department of Transportation and MACA to find a way to deliver a program that will meet the unique challenges in small communities dealing with dust control. Again, I will be requesting a recorded vote on this motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Are we ready for the question?
Question.
