Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think the way it would have to work is that we would have to start the whole process much earlier than we do. When we were out for community consultation and had a sense of community priorities, they would set those priorities having some idea of what the total capital budget for the region was across all departments. You would have to roll that up and say there are x million available for your region. Now here is the whole GNWT capital plan for the region. Typically, we have many more requests than we can fund with the total capital which is available. We would say to communities within that amount of money that will be available for your region, tell us how you would set the priorities. We would need to do that far enough in advance that we would bring in a budget here in each department, that would reflect their share of the available capital but would reflect their priorities. I do need to add, there is still a need for the government to ensure those capital projects we would see as being critical in communities. Those would be projects that would be concerned with public health or safety. We would be communicating very clearly with communities about the need for those projects to stay in the plan where they were. This is something I do not really see as being a problem because communities care very much about having a safe water supply, safe roads, et cetera. I do not see that as being insurmountable. I think communities would want the same things for public health and safety. Beyond that there is capital that communities might see as being quite discretionary and may not have a huge impact from our perspective as to whether a project proceeded in one year or the next. It is in that area that communities are looking for the ability to tell us the order in which they think projects should be proceeding in their communities and in their region. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Ballantyne on Committee Motion 10-13(5): To Approve The Estimates For Community Monitoring And Evaluation Activity, Maca
In the Legislative Assembly on February 9th, 1998. See this statement in context.
Committee Motion 10-13(5): To Approve The Estimates For Community Monitoring And Evaluation Activity, Maca
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 8th, 1998
Page 666
Ballantyne
See context to find out what was said next.