Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. Can the Minister provide a reason why the Act hasn't been followed by his appointed administrator in Fort Resolution with respect to public meetings and community engagement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we did put a Minister in there, I did contact the MLA and explain that we would be doing this. Mr. Speaker, the first thing that the Minister had to do was find out about the deficit. Right now, we're at $2.5 million, and we're still looking into the situation. So that there is part of the situation. The other part of the situation is this past summer, we've had, you know, fires, evacuations. The South Slave staff has been pretty busy dealing with that, but we now have them back in and we will be working with them on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. Will the Minister direct his administrator to follow the Act and to ensure meetings are in the public and public documents are being disclosed to residents and to work with chief Louis Balsillie, DKFN, and president Arthur Beck, Fort Resolution Metis Council? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now we're still doing the investigation on the financial stability of this hamlet. Like I said, $2.5 million right now, and we're still looking into things. What I can do is I can make a commitment is that with once we're able to, we will get our staff in there to have a public meeting to meet with the residents there. So we will make that commitment moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also update the House, this House, on the status report on the issue that led Fort Resolution being placed under administration by the Minister and when will the hamlet of Fort Resolution return to the local government by local leaders? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I apologize to the Member. I may have missed his first part of the question. But I believe what he's talking about is asking when will we get the hamlet back up to be elected council.
As soon as we can address this deficit as we move forward, get the governance and everything in there. We want to be able to have an elected council that is actually on a clean slate. So once that is done and we're able to do that, we will make sure we have an elected council representing the people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Fort Resolution, we have a very high young population and we also have a beautiful arena that hasn't been opened for years. The GNWT and MACA spend a lot of money in the late '80s to tear down the Pine Point arena and to relocate it to the community of Fort Resolution and only to shut the doors to the young population years down the road.
Mr. Speaker, right now the hamlet in Fort Resolution are storing heavy equipment in the arena, and that may be hazardous and also a liability to the hamlet of Fort Resolution. Can the Minister commit to look at I know that he mentioned that we there is a deficit but at the same time, like I said, we have a high population but we really need help in that community to keep the kids busy and that kind of thing. So can the Minister commit to also to hire maybe a recreation coordinator and to open the arena in Fort Resolution to the public, maybe in November/December 2023, to keep the young population busy through minor hockey, recreation hockey, broomball, public skating, and to be used by the local schools in Fort Resolution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now we're just trying to provide the basic services for the residents of that community. As the Member said, the arena was closed for a long period of time. To get it up and operational, there's some work that has to be done. We will work with the administrator to see if we can get the money and funds to have a position in there. We used to. But the biggest challenge right now we're also facing is the ability to find people to work. That's one of the challenges that we're facing. I've got numerous phone calls about water delivery and stuff like that, so. And I'm pretty sure the Member's received those phone calls as well. So we will look at this. We will have those conversations with the administrator as well as with the regional staff working with the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
