This committee will come to order. When we concluded on Friday we were discussing the 1993-94 Main Estimates. We were on the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, page 11-15. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Koe.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will be continuing with the budget.

This committee will come to order. We are dealing with Bill 17, Appropriation Act, No 2, 1993-94, main estimates. We are on page 11-15, municipal operations and assessment, total O and M. Mr. Allooloo, do you wish to bring in your witnesses?

Yes.

Can the Sergeant-at-Arms please escort the witnesses? Thank you. Mr. Minister, for the record would you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Al Menard, deputy minister and Mr. Jim France, director of finance and administration.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. For the record, I am informed that page 11-14 of the main estimates, sport and recreation was deferred because one of our Members wanted a breakdown on the grants and contributions

. Does the Minister have any information relating to page 11-14? A request was made for a breakdown on the grants and contributions.

Sport And Recreation

Mr. Chairman, I believe the Member wanted information on two items, the agreement between our government and Sport North, and also the breakdown of Sport North contributions. I am prepared to give you both of them, the breakdown of Sport North contributions, as asked by Mrs. Marie-Jewell, and the impact of the $250,000 reduction in Sport North.

In 1991-92, the department provided a contribution to Sport North totalling $725,000; $400,000 was for the 1992 Arctic winter games, $30,000 was for the Canada games, $106,000 in grants went to sport governing bodies and $129,000 went to general administration. In 1992-93, the department will contribute a total of $225,000 to Sport North, $150,000 for the 1994 Arctic winter games and $75,000 in grants went to sport governing bodies.

GNWT funding for Arctic winter games is $150,000 in off-game years and $400,000 during a year in which games are held. The Sport North Federation was able to offset the GNWT contribution reduction in 1992-93 by utilizing lottery revenues. The federation's preliminary 1993-94 budget is projecting a shortfall of $400,000 for 1994 Arctic winter games. The department is investigating new revenue options through lotteries to offset this project shortfall.

For the outline of the agreement, the program areas Sport North will manage on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories include: Arctic winter games, Canada summer and winter games, winter regional games, national coaching certification program, sport governing body and annual general meeting funds. In exchange for running these programs, Sport North is provided funds by the Government of the Northwest Territories. The agreement outlines that the programs must be managed under agreed terms of reference. Sport North also has their overall budget approved annually under terms of agreement. Finally, the agreement has a sister agreement, which gives Sport North the responsibility to run western Arctic lottery. These revenues help pay for programs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The information that was requested, I believe, is being disclosed. On page 11-14, sport and recreation, total O and M, $8.057 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Municipal Operations And Assessments

Thank you. We will move on to the next page, 11-15, municipal operations and assessment, total O and M, $47.213 million. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since the Minister will not be in the House tomorrow, I presume from his statement today, I would like to ask some questions about the implications of the government's long-term staff housing policy on municipalities, while the Minister and his officials are here.

What impact is the addition of sizeable new residential customers going to have on municipalities where government tenants become responsible for paying their own water and sewer and thereby become individual ratepayers, as far as water and sewer bills are concerned? Will this have an impact on municipalities in terms of their administration requirements? Will it have impacts on municipalities in terms of their requirement to pay subsidies to residential customers that they would not have had to pay to government users? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister, what are the implications on the question by the honourable Member for Iqaluit?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Preliminary assessment by my department indicates minimal impact, both on the municipality as well as the subsidy which the government provides. What is going to happen, though, is that the municipality will bill the home owners residential rate, which is determined by our government through subsidy programs. The municipality will receive the money from the home owners. As well, the municipality will bill the government for the subsidy. We foresee no substantial administration costs to the municipality. At this point, we are forecasting there will only be about 2,000 more invoices by eastern Arctic municipalities.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Iqaluit.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe there are some communities where municipalities are going to be suddenly faced with 300, 400 or 500 new residential customers for water and sewer. Will this not have an impact on the municipal administration, and will that not in turn affect the funding formula that is now in place and thereby affect the level of operational subsidy that municipality is entitled to?

Minister Allooloo.

I will let Mr. Menard answer the question.

Mr. Menard.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The funding provided to the municipality from the government will not be impacted. There will be an administrative impact on the municipality because, instead of placing all of the bills into one bill and sending it to the government, they will have to issue individual bills, but it is a cost that is recoverable from the program. The largest municipality which will be impacted will be Iqaluit. The other ones will not be impacted that greatly in the east because it only represents ten or 15 more bills which the municipality has to put out. They have to do the water tickets for each house anyway, so it is just a matter of taking the water ticket and sending out a bill to an individual and applying for a subsidy. Financially, it is not going to impact the municipality. The impact on the administration will be minimal.

Thank you. Mr. Patterson.

If I understand the deputy minister correctly, the additional cost of administration will be recovered

from the program at the community level. Does that mean the additional cost will be passed on to all water and sewer ratepayers in the community?

Thank you. Mr. Menard.