Debates of October 20, 2020 (day 40)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier in my statement, I am grateful for some of the work we have started on closing the municipal funding gap. However, we are a long way off. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, I believe we need to increase the capital funding this year by $5 million. In the grand scheme of things, this is approximately a quarter of a percent of our $2 billion budget. Mr. Speaker, if we can't find a quarter of a percent in our $2 billion budget, then we're truly not in charge of our budget as an Assembly. My question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs: can we increase the capital funding to our community governments by $5 million? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As previously, I did announce that we do have $2.6 million that will be allocated to municipal communities and, also, that we will be meeting with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities to identify how we will be distributing that funding. Right now, that's the funding that is going to be available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did not expect it to be that easy, but I will have a lot more questions for the Minister during our Capital Estimates tabled today. My concern right now is that the way we fund our municipalities lacked any certainty. We agreed to a formula, but we haven't given the money. I believe the right comparative here would be how we fund our education authorities. There're guidelines in the education, there're guidelines in regulations, and then finally, there're guidelines in policy. No one is in doubt that we are not within those parameters. There may be a debate about whether we should give more to our education authorities, but we're following a clear and predictable authority such that they can plan. We have not given that benefit to our municipality. My question for the Minister of MACA is: will she bring forward legislation that sets out how we fund municipalities in the life of this Assembly?

According to what we have put forward for Municipal and Community Affairs, this was not identified as one of the legislation policies that we would be looking at, but it doesn't stop me from working with my department to look at further solutions. I will return a response back to the Member.

I look forward to that response. One of my concerns is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has a large legislative backlog, and they need the resources from the Cabinet to make sure they get ahead of that. One of the mandate commitments is that MACA will work with NWTAC to update funding policies and options. However, this mandate commitment is to be completed in 2023. Whenever I see a mandate commitment completed by 2023, alarm bells ring as these are the commitments that will be at the end of this Assembly. I'm not at all convinced that MACA will get this done, let alone review the policy and bring forward legislation to provide that predictability. Is the Minister willing to speed up the mandate commitment to review the funding policies before 2023?

My comment to the Member and to answer the question that we are working under unusual circumstances with COVID-19, and it has really burdened a lot of our processes that we are initiating right now. This will be something I will bring back to the department, and I will follow up with the Member.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final concern is: the last Assembly made a concerted effort to close the gap, but it barely kept pace with the pace of inflation. Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that this formula needs to be at the will of subsequent Assemblies. I recognize the budget is always fundamental to our approval. However, there needs to be some more certainty. I believe legislation is the tool to do that. Can the Minister speak on her plan to make sure that the gap does not re-emerge for any progress this Assembly does make on it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Looking at making the commitment to work with this is quite complex, and it requires a lot of different initiatives. I will follow up with the Member, as well, because as I said that Municipal and Community Affairs has already identified their legislation. We have already put money towards the funding gap, and we are working within COVID-19. This will be a discussion that I will have with my department, and I will follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.