Thank you, Mrs. Thompson. Mr. Henry.
Debates of May 22nd, 1996
Topics
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 576
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 576
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
What were the regional departments doing before if they're going to have this time now to assist communities to implement the community transfer initiative?
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to refer this to Ms. Ballantyne.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Ballantyne
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the regional departments have always been involved in the provision of training to community staff. What is different about this initiative is that we are trying to develop some of the tools that the regional staff and community people have been telling us they need.
We are also trying to provide that training in a more coordinated way. Right now, each department has its own approach to training at the community level and we're seeing a fair amount of duplication in some areas. For example, many of the departments have community structures in place: Education has education committees, Housing Corporation has housing associations, et cetera. What we're seeing is some duplication in the approaches so we're trying to identify those things that are common to all of the training that we are doing and looking at a way to do that in a more coordinated way so that we're not duplicating each other's efforts. That would be one change.
Another change would be to identify, at the regional level, where we have skills and strengths in our own staff. Again, right now, we're trying to be all things to all people in each department and we feel that by working as a team at the regional level we can make better use of the skills that are there without having to go outside to bring them in from outside the department; we can look to our colleagues internally to provide it. The difference is really in the coordination of the approach and in the development of new tools that currently don't exist but which are required to make this work. Thank you.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is it safe to say, then, with community empowerment totally devolved to a particular community, that there would be no need for MACA anymore and MACA employees could potentially become employees of the community? Hopefully, the training would be completely finished.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of MACA would still be there to monitor the communities, do evaluations and make sure they are not going into deficit. The department would still be supporting the communities in that way. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you, Mrs. Thompson. Continuing on community development, page 10-16, detail. Mr. Krutko.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
The question about monitoring came up several times in the presentations. How do you look at the accountability? Do you look at it every year with regard to the audited statements or do you look at it with regard to the ... Because in the past, especially in the development of residential areas such as Inuvik where they did run into financial difficulties because of overspending in certain sectors, the government had to come in and bail them out to get them back on their feet. You keep mentioning the question about accountability. How do you see that happening? Is it going to be based on annual audits or is someone there going to be going in there every three or four months just to see how they're doing? Perhaps you could explain that.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
(Translation) Thank you, Madam Chair. The communities have their financial audits done and that will continue. Whatever has to be monitored in the community will be monitored. Communities will have to be monitored while this community empowerment is being done. Regional MACA departments will also monitor what is being transferred into the community. As these transfer increase of course it will always have to be continued, especially where they will have to be in charge of using the money. This department has to give them the opportunity to learn to operate on their own but we will have to keep monitoring them so that they will not go into a deficit. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Madam Chair. With regard to your monitoring, there was a question of how the money was going to be allocated, the core funding, to the communities. Was it going to be done on a month-to-month basis? Is that right? Is that one of the monitoring steps you were talking about; allocating monthly instalments to operate the communities?
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
(Translation) Thank you, Madam Chair. I went to Fort Smith to sign an agreement and I will use that as an example. We had agreed to three years of funding and it will be given monthly. If we agree with the communities, we will ask which way they would like to follow, whether it's on an annual or a monthly basis. After we agree with the amount of money that they will use for the three years, then we will have it available to the community monthly. That will last them for the next three years. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 577
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Madam Chair. The initiative that you just spoke about in Fort Smith, what do you have in place for hamlet councils like Fort McPherson, for example? How do you see these funds being distributed or allocated? You said there is a three-year agreement based on monthly
or annual instalments. How do you see it operating in the smaller communities like Fort Smith, which is a tax-based community that has a large population, versus the smaller communities? What method do you look at using there?
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 578
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 578
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry, Madam Chair; there are only two of us, so it's kind of hard.
--- Laughter
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 578
Manitok Thompson Aivilik
Sorry. Madam Chair, the option that smaller communities have is block funding. To be block funded is the option they have.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 578
The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you, Mrs. Thompson. Anything further, Mr. Krutko? Go ahead, please.
Committee Report 2-13(3): Standing Committee On Infrastructure Report On The Review Of The 1996-97 Main Estimates
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 578
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
When you say block funding, are you saying it's going to be done on a quarterly basis? Block funding to me means that you are going to give one big chunk of money and say, here, spend it. What's the process of allocation? Is it going to be done monthly or quarterly, straight cash or government bonds or cheques?