Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Generally our operations and maintenance support for taxed-based municipalities has been consistent on a population basis, except there is one major component of the funding has been our equalization contribution that we provide to communities. That is part of the operations and maintenance block funding. The feature of equalization contributions is that as the assessable tax-base increases and as the population increases, there is a tendency for that contribution to decrease. In the pot of money the department used to allocate to major municipalities, it tended to be smaller municipalities like Fort Simpson that got much more of that share, of what was called equalization contributions. The larger communities like Yellowknife got a very small portion of it because it was meant to be a kind of equalization funding so that in spite of the fact they are all taxed-based municipalities, there was some contribution there to recognize that some communities had a greater or lesser ability to raise their own revenue. That would be what would be influencing the difference in the operations and maintenance contributions that are showing up here under the block funding amounts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Christensen on Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 11th, 1998. See this statement in context.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 10th, 1998
Page 731
Christensen
See context to find out what was said next.