Thank you, final

supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, the Honourable Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker the terms of reference for this working group were approved on August 25th, so I do not know in what timeframe they are supposed to report back. I would think that it would certainly be within the next few months, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Henry.

Thank you. Madame Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Member clarify his question again, please.

Thank you, would the Honourable Member clarify the question before the Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly try to do that. I understand that there are many initiatives that are being transferred to communities. Can you give us a brief explanation of what those are and how you propose to go about them?

Thank you. There were a couple of questions. Madame Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done presentations on community empowerment to regional meetings across the Territories. It has been well received at the regional level and also at the community level.

I have visited over 23 communities across the territories and there has been block funding agreements with Hay River, Yellowknife, Fort Smith and Inuvik because they want more flexibility with their capital dollars. We have progressed very well with communities that want to have block funding in their communities and some communities have also taken on GLO, those are the government officers in the communities they have, we have transferred those over to the communities that want that responsibility.

We also have transferred the land administrators into the communities in Nunavut because of the land claim, we needed these lands programs officers at the municipal level. So, we have transferred those over also and there are communities out there who are willing to take on more responsibilities.

It is progressing well with the communities and we have told all of the communities that we have presented to all the regional meetings that we have presented to, we have told them that this is an option, we are not forcing it down on them, they do not have to do it, it is up to them. Hay River had wanted the block funding agreement because they want more flexibility with that and Yellowknife has also done that, it has done well with the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Honourable Minister. Second supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I understand that a comprehensive review of municipal finances is due to begin very shortly and that the Minister is expecting a report with recommendations for reforms by April 1, 1997. Could the Minister confirm that this is indeed factual?

Thank you. Madam Minister, Ms. Thompson.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Yes, this is happening along with the municipal legislation review, that I will be presenting probably in November. We are reviewing the financing of the municipal governments. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister also confirm that the recommended reforms from this review are due to be implemented by April 1, 1998?

Thank you. Madam Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Thompson.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I do not have that detail right now, but I do believe it is progressing very well and when we did the presentation to the infrastructure committee, that is probably the date we gave them and that is probably right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Oral questions Member for North Slave, Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in light of my Member's statement today I feel compelled to ask the Minister responsible for Department of MACA. As I am sure you are aware, the community of Rae Lakes is very frustrated by a lack of correspondence regarding these capital projects and therefore are requesting to have a meeting to present their proposal to the Minister to find out direction they go.

Would the Minister be willing to set up a meeting with the community of Rae Lakes in order to get a fair direction to taking part in these important capital projects they are concerned about? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The Honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the options that the communities have is block funding and before the block funding agreements the GNWT used to provide communities with lots of little pots of money for each program and lots of little rules on how to spend it, because the communities might not be educated enough to look after their own funding, but after the block funding agreements, the answer that we can give to those communities is that the GNWT provides communities with one big block of money for capital projects like I said earlier, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Inuvik and Hay River have taken that option.

Now with the motion that was put forward by Mr. O'Brien, Motion 16-13(3) Policy Concerning Capital Projects, anything that is over $250,000 has to go through the committee, I do not know if their block funding would be over $250,000 or below $250,000, we will have to take with the community but it will have to go through the committee, because people might think they might fail, I do not have any guarantee on the time line to work with the community on the options for the member. Thank you Mr. Speaker.