Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs recently commissioned in the Sutcliffe Report to review MACA's mandate and goals in support of recreation and physical activities, and to make recommendations about how to manage lottery funds and operations in support of our revised mandate goals. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please provide some information about who the Sutcliffe Group consulted in the development of their report and recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Consultation to develop the Sutcliffe Report was actually done fairly comprehensive in my opinion, so it included two rounds of consultation with sports and rec groups and other stakeholders from across the Northwest Territories.
The first round of consultations consisted of 17 people in person and telephone interviews with representatives from Municipal and Community Affairs, sports, rec and youth division, territorial and regional sports organizations, the NWT Association of Communities and local government administrators of the NWT.
In addition, interviews with representatives from similar sports and rec divisions in the Yukon and Nunavut took place. The second round of consultations provided stakeholders with an opportunity to review and comment in writing on the set of draft recommendations and proposal developed by the Sutcliffe Group with several submissions that were received from that feedback. Finally, the consultant led an online webinar as well as a one-day policy workshop to support the development of the policy statement on recreation, sport and physical activity for the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for her answer. Mr. Speaker, one of the recommendations of the report was to establish an NWT sport recreation and physical activity/physical literacy policy. Has the department developed this policy? If so, what is it meant to do?
Yes, a draft NWT Sport Recreation and Physical Activity Policy has been developed that will be used to guide the funding and operational decision-making for the department. This policy is an internal document though and doesn't represent the whole NWT Sectorial Policy which we'll be looking at on a later date.
I again thank the Minister for her answer. Can the Minister explain how the department has been able to engage stakeholders, specifically Sports North, as a means forward with the implementation of the Sutcliffe recommendations and the development of an NWT physical activity/literacy strategy?
So moving forth with it and actually getting more consultation, we've actually already met with Sport North organization. We've talked to them about how we see their role. They've decided where they see their role as well. They'll be providing a business case to us within the next month or so.
As well as that, we've also committed to meeting all of the five sports organizations to come together, and so we can actually talk more broadly on what are the results in the Sutcliffe Report, where they see a policy going, some of the limitations and the assets of the current policy that we use for the funding and operations.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for her answer. The Sutcliffe Report had 18 recommendations and one of the recommendations was about the funding relationship. When will the department begin implementing recommendations as listed in the Sutcliffe Report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So the Sutcliffe Report was actually received in January 2016 and it was shared with the affected organizations for their comment on April 2016, so not that long ago. Between April and July, the department took a comprehensive review and analysis of the report. On August 19th, the former Minister of MACA announced that the department's modified approach to western Canada's lottery funding and the creation of a new NWT Sports Recreation and Physical Activity Funding Policy which will be used to guide our funding allocations and our operational components.
The department is also moving forward now to make the required legislative, contractual and human resources changes to bring the operations and revenue of the Western Canada Lottery Program inside the Governments of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
