Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs talked about Western Canadian Lottery in the Sutcliffe Report. In there, she goes on to give us a bit of information about recommendations, and recommendations that weren't followed. Can the Minister please provide us: what two recommendations from the Sutcliffe Report were not adopted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The two recommendations that at this point the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs are not implementing are the second recommendation. The report recommended that the department include all of its programs in the Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity Policy, including youth and volunteers. The second recommendation that we, to date, have not implemented is recommendation number 15. The report recommended that the department establish a separate lottery commission to oversee the Western Canada Lottery program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister kind of answered the second question I had, so the rationale on why these two recommendations were not followed. I thank her for that. I will move on to my third question: with respect to the proceeds of all the lotteries going into the sport and recreation programming, can the Minister confirm that proceeds will cover the new staff who are moving into the government?
Presently, the funding for lottery staff come from the lottery dollars. The department, though, is going to work with the Department of Finance to describe in our main estimate process beginning in 2018-19. The funding of these positions will need to align with the legislation which will be developed in 2017-18 with an intended implementation of April 1, 2018, and the management of the lottery revolving fund. The details around the legislation and the management of the revolving fund have not been developed at this time.
I understand that the policy has not been developed yet, but is the government looking at actually using lottery dollars to pay for the staffing? Is that one of the recommendations or idea that they are looking forward to?
At this point, yes, the lottery funding will be used to pay for lottery staffing; however, this will be reviewed with the Department of Finance to ensure that it is the best action moving forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for her answer. That gives a clearer picture in this. In this Minister's statement, she talked about how all the proceeds from lotteries will continue to be directed towards sport and recreation programming. Does that include multi-sport games? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The multi-sport games, actually, we still have it in our mains, and the budget is $500,000 that we have in our mains, separate from the lottery funding.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
