Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my statement on the principles of oversight and public interest and accountability, I support the actions taken by the Minister of MACA in placing an independent administrator to run the Town of Norman Wells. My first question is: what is the process going forward for the Town of Norman Wells? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to start by saying that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs really does honour our municipal and our Aboriginal governments, and we do the best we can to provide support to them. Sometimes it does come to a place, though, that we have to look at providing either additional support or actually taking over council. It was with regret that we actually stepped in and went into administration with the council. How we are moving forward, over the next couple of weeks I am going to be appointing a long-term administrator for the town. This person, there are quite a few bylaws and policies that they need to review and revise, policies around procurement, around code of conduct, around just how the governance of the council works, so that will be their main priority at this point.
The problem with this town council is that they have an election coming up in October 2018, which is a year away, so, once the temporary administrator goes in and deals with the policies and bylaws that we need to amend or put in place, then we will have to make an assessment on whether we do an interim council or if we actually hold off until the legislative requirement for an election in October of 2018.
I thank the Minister for that reply. People really want to know what is happening, what is the moving-forward plan. Communication is a vital instrument. Once the administrator is appointed, will the public be made aware through, say, a public meeting? Will there be a public meeting to show the schedule of events and timeframe with the general taxpayer public community?
We do want to engage the public, the community members of Norman Wells, as much as possible within this process, so, yes, as soon as the decision was made and we relayed it to the municipal council that we were going into administration, we did hold a public meeting. We will continue to hold public meetings ongoing to keep the public aware, also to get their feedback into how we should be proceeding. So, yes, we will do as much public consultation as possible throughout this term.
I thank the Minister for making that comment for the listeners out there in the community. My next question is: leading up to the events and the process leading to that conclusion on the decision, there was a municipal inspection report done. Is that report going to be made available to the public residents?
The municipal inspection report was actually done on my direction as the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. That report in its entirety will be held in confidentiality, although we do have a summary of the report that is available on the Municipal and Community Affairs website if Members are interested in accessing that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: will the Minister make my office aware of the schedule of events and public meetings and so on so, if I am available in the community, I can attend also?
Yes, it is absolutely critical that we keep the MLA for the riding as informed as possible. He is the person who is on the ground. He is the person who will be getting the complaints and the questions from the public, so I will commit to keeping him as informed as possible throughout this process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to visitors in the gallery. With us is the chief of Detah, Edward Sangris. Welcome to our Assembly. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
