Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, some of the biggest changes the government has gone through, especially dealing with communities, have been through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. We continue to see some of the changes during review of the business plan and main estimates, and with the Minister and his staff in committee. There were a number of issues raised of concern. One was around the reductions to communities in the Northwest Territories. This is one of the few departments that deal directly with the communities and community infrastructure.
We have seen the putting off of more capital again to communities, as well as reductions to block funding, that primarily impacts tax-based municipalities. Myself, coming from a community that is tax-based, I have concerns with that, because I have seen over the years the continuing rise of costs of services all in the name of efficiency, as government has put it. For example, I was on the town council when this department forced the hand of the town council by installing water meters. Over the years, we have seen the impact of water meters being installed. Most of the communities have gone on to save a lot of water, and we have found the reserve fund for the utilidor in Inuvik dropping well below what was stated it was supposed to get on a yearly basis. The amount set out initially was $750,000 that was to be put into this CRFF fund, but it is a replacement fund for the utilidor system. After the water meters were installed, it went down to $250,000 because so many people had cut back on their water usage. Because of that, increases had to come and people went from a flat fee of $55 to in some cases well over $100.
As the community talks about taking over the system, there is talk about rates and are they stabilized, or will they go up once more? So the news of a 4.73 percent reduction did not come as good news to the committee during the interim appropriation. Once again, the Minister informed us that he had to bring it forward this time because he was given targets to meet, and that is the way they chose to meet them. No matter what area you would go into, it would impact the communities. I guess I would like to raise with the Minister and his staff the ongoing changes. We know, for example, the formula funding situation of how they fund the communities, whether it be in the water and sewer program or other transfers. We know there is some ongoing work. They were supposed to meet with tax-based municipalities during this month. I would like to know from the Minister, has that been going on and how far along are they in that process? Thank you.