Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're on page 4-21?

Just for committee's knowledge here, we're on pages 4-22 and 4-23, active positions, community operations. Mr. Braden.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had a question related to the grants listed on page 4-21. Could I ask on that page?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Is committee agreed we go back to page 4-21, grants, so Mr. Braden can ask a question?

Committee is agreed. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, everyone. The area I wanted to ask about was on this page, Mr. Chairman, under community operations. There's a grant shown here under the new deal for the Taxation Revenue Program of $350,000. I'd like to see if the Minister could give us a bit of an explanation of how that number was arrived at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that is the actual amount we received in property tax revenue from communities and that is the amount that we are disbursing to the communities in the form of a grant.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Okay, thank you. So is this a grant that we can anticipate in future years will be a regular part of the business plan and, if so, will it be pegged to the actual revenues or the invoiced or assessed revenues? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, it will be pegged to the actual.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Okay, so the actual receipts then. I ask that in the context where some communities, some lease holders, either refuse to pay or ignore or whatever. So there is certainly a difference between actual revenues and assessed revenues, and I am hearing that it will be the actual received revenues. This is great. Now, one other aspect of this is that we're seeing here a provision of, if you will, returning an amount of money back to a client base. In this case, it is the communities reflecting the amount of money that was received from them. I find this a bit unusual, Mr. Chairman, in that if I compare it to the taxes that are levied on fuel and there's the perennial argument which is that if we tax the motorist so much for fuel, why don't we take all that tax money and put it into our highways. It seems like a good idea. The argument that consistently comes across is, no, no, no, you can't do that because taxes go into general revenue and then you do the negotiation or decision-making about where to put the money afterward. So this is an interesting situation where we are taking the actual dollar amount assessed as a tax and returning it right back to the client base. If I have a question here, Mr. Chairman, it's am I correct in saying that this doesn't really follow our general taxation practice? We really seem to be going against the grain when we take this course of action. Can the Minister confirm if I have that right? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess this is no different than every other jurisdiction across Canada, including the tax-based communities in the Northwest Territories where the money is allocated to the community that revenues are generated from. The only difference would be in this situation is that the Government of the Northwest Territories is collecting the taxes and setting the mill rate.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you. This helps me then. If I could put this back to you then, is this indeed the arrangement or the understanding or the agreement that we are, in effect, collecting taxes on behalf of those client communities and then returning it to them? Okay. Alright. That helps me a lot then. Because it would certainly be something that, depending on how we arrived at this number, and I got the answer to that before, you know, would this be an adequate amount of funding? Would it be out of proportion? The Minister has helped clear me up on that area. I don't think I need to ask anything further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Back to page 4-21, community operations, grants and contributions, grants, $350,000.

Total grants, $350,000. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just with community financial contributions, one of the things specifically the Village of Fort Simpson is looking at is a fire truck. The current one is too small for its size. Are community operations a place where we can look at some type of assistance to help the Village of Fort Simpson acquire these new assets? They're also talking about expanding their hall to house the new fire truck; even as far as going out and getting a loan for this new fire truck. How can the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs be helpful in this situation?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.