Debates of November 27, 2007 (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about the fact that block funding under the New Deal does not meet infrastructure needs for smaller NWT communities. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a community like Lutselk’e to build infrastructure, like their recently completed arena, under the New Deal. Can the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs inform this Assembly how a small community could build a large piece of infrastructure, like a swimming pool, under the New Deal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 23-16(1): Community Infrastructure Block Funding

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the New Deal is proving to be a very good deal.

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The whole concept of the New Deal, Mr. Speaker, was an initiative to promote greater autonomy of the community governments and allow communities to set their own priorities. The calculation that was used for the formula took into consideration the replacement value of a basic package of infrastructure for the community and looked at replacing all of that infrastructure over a 20-year period.

We’ve worked really closely over the last while with the communities to develop long-term goals for infrastructure and also a plan to meet their short-term goals. We’ve really worked towards being very flexible and creating opportunities for governments to provide funding. The community governments have now more opportunity than they did historically. They have the ability to borrow money. They have the ability to create partnerships, and they also can use some of their capital dollars as leverage to access other funding, such as funding from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Supplementary To Question 23-16(1): Community Infrastructure Block Funding

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everyone here is aware there are many unforeseen factors that affect budgeting from year to year. Competing priorities relating to health and safety of residents will always trump recreation infrastructure. In better words, if the water truck breaks down before it’s supposed to, it will be replaced. Does MACA help the communities that are facing unforeseen capital costs through no fault of their own through the New Deal?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 23-16(1): Community Infrastructure Block Funding

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member brings forward concerns that have been raised to us by community governments and we have committed that we will work with community governments as we move forward with this initiative. We have to recognize, of course, that capital planning and capital projects are in need of constant evaluation and are changing on a daily basis. As part of this process, we encourage our communities to set up reserve pools to replace infrastructure. We’ve also created a lot more flexibility in the capital budgeting by way of if there’s a surplus, for example in operating and maintenance dollars, they could use that to replace the water truck. However, Mr. Speaker, having said all that, we still have our extraordinary funding policy that allows us to deal with emergencies and situations where there was no anticipated cost and the community is struggling to recover the cost. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Supplementary To Question 23-16(1): Community Infrastructure Block Funding

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister let the Assembly know specifically what his department does to help communities access funding from different sources, like the federal government, for their infrastructure needs?

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 23-16(1): Community Infrastructure Block Funding

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In recent years, Mr. Speaker, we worked very closely with the NWT Association of Communities. We’ve also worked with LGANT, the Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories, and we’ve also worked with the community governments themselves to look at leveraging dollars from different resources. The federal government is a good example. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has the Green Fund that we’ve helped communities access. There’s also the impact and benefit dollars that flow to communities that communities have been using to help with some of these projects, including Lutselk’e. They’ve used half a million dollars of their own money to spend on the arena. Detah is doing the same. A number of communities are doing that. Thank you.