Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to recognize students here today with us from the Sir John Franklin High School Students Against Drunk Driving chapter and their teacher/advisor Ms. Dianne Simons. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone who is here today to see their Legislative Assembly in session. Welcome. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs with regard to the whole capital planning process for smaller communities. Our municipalities play an important role in community development and community planning and they also ensure that our community infrastructure is taken care of. Mr. Speaker, capital spending is very important to our small communities. It creates such things as jobs and also improves our infrastructure. Yet, Mr. Speaker, what we find under the new capital planning process is that consultation does not really fit in the process. Mr. Speaker, the communities have to be involved. What is the government doing to do a better job of coordinating the consultation process between the departments, the regions and the communities so that we'll have community input into the capital planning process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order to improve the capital planning consultation process, MACA is presently working with the superintendents in the region to put together planning, so that we can arrange for the capital planning process and the discussions to take place in each individual community with the superintendent for that particular region. We used to do that in the past and it was replaced with a capital planning process where MACA took on the responsibility to address capital planning needs for all the departments and bring that information to the community in that manner. However, MACA is back to simply concentrating on community affairs capital planning needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the present time, the communities don't seem to fit into these loops. What is the reporting process that's used to ensure that community feedback into any capital planning process is in place, so that they know when they request or have concerns in capital or infrastructure needed in their community, they really get to yourself as Minister? What's the reporting practice used to ensure that their answers are being addressed and there is a reporting process in place?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said, MACA is planning to go into each individual community and work out with the community early in the new year what their capital planning needs are for the next five years. We are planning for that time of the year because it's right after the municipal elections and some of the political needs of the community are addressed right after municipal elections. So it's changed at that time. Their priorities change sometimes as the political people change at the community level. So we go in there and try and get updated information from the community as to what they see as their priority needs. We then take that back to the FMBS and turn that information over to them to deal with in the capital planning process from thereon. We are planning that after FMBS has worked out what we can afford to do, and what can be done, and in what part of the year, we are going to come back to the communities with that information.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of times community capital planning priorities aren't being considered by this government because they fall outside of the criteria for infrastructure that meets the requirements of the existing capital plan, especially in communities that may be lacking recreation facilities such as a ball diamond or a youth centre or a curling rink. Yet, because it's not one of the priorities in the criteria, communities may wait years for this to happen. How formal a process are we talking about? Right now, the communities do not feel that they are part of this process. Could the Minister tell me, exactly how does a community get those types of projects into this capital planning process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as for how formal a process it is, MACA generally requires from the community either a motion from the council, the hamlet council, or from the band that would support their requests for capital. We then take that back to FMBS. It's through that process that the needs of the communities are addressed if the government can afford those needs. However, the process of getting back to the community to advise them what we can afford to do that year, we do through a consultation with them after we approve the business plans and they see some of these results in the budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's great what we hear from the Minister, but we have to put it into practice. Do you have criteria that are used so that our municipalities...Say you have a newly elected council, you could put something up on the board and say this is the process that you have to follow to get a capital project through this government. Do you have such a preliminary outline of a process that's in place where you can actually see it and it's in black and white? Is there such a document?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat. I understand FMBS is responsible for the corporate capital planning process. Mr. Speaker, Members clearly do not feel that the government is being as open as they should be about how projects get approved in the capital plan. We've noticed that when pressed, departmental Ministers seem to be vague on the details. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister tell us, have all Cabinet Ministers been briefed or trained on how the system is supposed to work?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the FMBS, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, all of the Ministers have been briefed on the corporate capital planning process. But Mr. Speaker, also let me say that, having heard from the Members in the last capital planning cycle and in this one, we are now in the process of reviewing our corporate capital planning process and are looking at bringing something forward very soon. Thank you.