Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. On the role of MACA, Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly what we are trying to do under community empowerment initiative with community-based planning. We are trying to get all partners together at the same table and discuss what the priorities are of their community, what their vision is and also to establish goals and how to achieve their vision. We are already doing that with communities. It is called community-based planning, where we try to get all the bodies together to discuss what they want for their community. I will have my deputy minister add to that in detail. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is an issue that the department has been concerned about as well, to make sure that in implementing community empowerment we do not, in any way, interfere with or create any problems with self-government negotiations that might be underway in communities. We are certainly very much aware that there are a number of governing bodies in communities that need to be able to work together. A couple of ways that we have been trying to assist in this process and make sure that we are not in the way is by having, for example, in the Inuvik region our community empowerment coordinator coordinate very closely with the self-government negotiators office. She regularly meets with the chief negotiator there and participates in briefings. We also invite the chief negotiator to come to RICE meetings to brief not just our staff but also the whole Regional Management Committee in the region about what is going on at the table. This is really in an effort to share information about what is going on so that there is more awareness about what is happening in negotiations in the Beaufort Delta region. I think in the other regions where negotiations are starting up as well, we are certainly attempting to try to encourage municipalities to be informed, to be aware and to participate in a constructive way in these processes. We certainly are not trying in any way to push community empowerment in those communities in a way that would create issues between groups. If anything, we have been very much encouraging groups to get together to do shared planning for their communities. The regional staff and superintendents have been quite sensitive to how we proceed with community empowerment for the exact reasons the Member has listed. Thank you.

Thank you. I have exactly 34 minutes. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Madam deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, yes, I am aware of a couple of examples where a public works transfer has been made to the Hay River Reserve. It is one example that immediately comes to mind. There are certain communities where the band council is the only governing body in town and we have had transfers go through to those groups. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. The chair recognizes Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. Mr. Chairman, under the community monitoring and evaluation is the evaluation role of MACA. Over the last couple of years, MACA has really done a good job of trying to tighten up its reporting procedures from the municipalities. One of those areas was called the early warning system that they had put in place for financial accounting and monitoring. In those instances when the community was having problems, I guess the idea was to get in there and help them out beforehand. However, in the last audit that came out, about 40 percent of the communities audited had problems with their audit. There were some qualified audits and there were some problems with other audits where there was no audited opinion given. I wonder if the Minister could inform the House how that early warning monitoring system is working and how does that place with the recent audit from the department?

Thank you. I will let Mr. Krutko deal with page 4-10. We should have moved to community operations, but I will allow Mr. Picco to deal with this page 4-10. It was partly my fault. Thank you. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask my deputy minister to elaborate more on this, but I would like to say this was a new initiative we started in MACA. The early warning system for finances in the communities, I think, is going very well. It is a new initiative and is going to get better. It has been well received by the communities. I will ask my deputy minister to elaborate more on it in detail. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Ballantyne, would you expand from here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in 1997, we have 13 of 39 communities reporting a deficit in their general operating fund. This is up one from last year. There were 12 that reported deficits in 1996. Of those 13, six have an overall deficit in their aggregate financial position. This is certainly not a downward turn compared to years past. This is quite consistent. In those communities there is a deficit recovery plan that is in effect and this is the immediate response that comes in after the auditor's report is received. What we are trying to do in the department is move towards a more preventative approach. We are doing that through focusing a lot of attention on our advanced SAO training course to make sure that communities have SAOs who are trained to be able to keep the financial status of the community up to speed and certainly to keep their councils informed. In the past I would say that more attention has been paid to identify the problems after they have occurred. What we are trying to do now is to shift our focus to preventing the problems from occurring through training. However, for those communities that do find themselves in a deficit position today, those communities do have deficit recovery plans and our regional staff do monitor the implementation of those plans to ensure that the recommended steps are being taken. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we are at a bit of a disadvantage here today because we have not received the Auditor General's report on the Department of MACA and that report might have indicated some areas of concern or proactive work that the department could do under community monitoring and evaluation. I do understand that when the early warning system was put into place, the whole idea was to be a preventative approach. I do not think that anyone is picking on communities. When we say we are talking to the SAO, for example, if there are problems within the financial administration of the community, it seems again, the department only finds out after an audit. I guess the question is, what is the preventative approach that you are doing? Does the regional staff go into the communities every three months to check cash flow balances? Are there things like that being done?

Once the community gets into a deficit situation, and no one wants to be in a deficit situation, then the department puts together a plan to help them get out of that. Last year we had 12 communities, the deputy minister said, who had problems in their audit, this year we had 13 communities. What happens when it becomes continuous from month to month or year to year? Maybe the department should be more proactive, indeed, going into the communities to help them on that basis or if they have an indication from an audit that certain communities have had financial problems in the past, would they be monitoring them more closely? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly what we are doing with the communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Picco.

If that is what we are doing then, what are you doing exactly? Are you going in every three or six months? Are you waiting until the end of an audit to check on them? We have the early warning system in place. If the early warning system was in place then would you not have discovered problems in a community so that, indeed, they would not have the problems that they are having?

Thank you. On your evaluation, Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What I have said is, we are assisting the communities by visiting them on a regular basis. We are being there for them to ask us for assistance for where they need us. I will ask my deputy minister to elaborate more on the details of the question. Thank you.