This is page numbers 39 - 64 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 1st Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was agreement.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Okay. Let me ask this then, Mr. Speaker. The concession agreement lays out conditions that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation needs to meet in order for this agreement to proceed. There are deadlines contained as in any agreement. There would be timelines included in that agreement. If those conditions are not met within those timelines, could I please have this Premier’s commitment that this government will not embark on any further extensions or changes to those timelines should the conditions not be met? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Roland.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the conditions aren’t met, and there is a time limit to the conditions being set in place, if they are not met, then I will commit, as Premier of the 16th Legislative

Assembly, before any further decisions are made on this that I will work with committee members. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about the fact that block funding under the New Deal does not meet infrastructure needs for smaller NWT communities. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a community like Lutselk’e to build infrastructure, like their recently completed arena, under the New Deal. Can the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs inform this Assembly how a small community could build a large piece of infrastructure, like a swimming pool, under the New Deal? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the New Deal is proving to be a very good deal.

---Applause

The whole concept of the New Deal, Mr. Speaker, was an initiative to promote greater autonomy of the community governments and allow communities to set their own priorities. The calculation that was used for the formula took into consideration the replacement value of a basic package of infrastructure for the community and looked at replacing all of that infrastructure over a 20-year period.

We’ve worked really closely over the last while with the communities to develop long-term goals for infrastructure and also a plan to meet their short-term goals. We’ve really worked towards being very flexible and creating opportunities for governments to provide funding. The community governments have now more opportunity than they did historically. They have the ability to borrow

money. They have the ability to create partnerships, and they also can use some of their capital dollars as leverage to access other funding, such as funding from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everyone here is aware there are many unforeseen factors that affect budgeting from year to year. Competing priorities relating to health and safety of residents will always trump recreation infrastructure. In better words, if the water truck breaks down before it’s supposed to, it will be replaced. Does MACA help the communities that are facing unforeseen capital costs through no fault of their own through the New Deal?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member brings forward concerns that have been raised to us by community governments and we have committed that we will work with community governments as we move forward with this initiative. We have to recognize, of course, that capital planning and capital projects are in need of constant evaluation and are changing on a daily basis. As part of this process, we encourage our communities to set up reserve pools to replace infrastructure. We’ve also created a lot more flexibility in the capital budgeting by way of if there’s a surplus, for example in operating and maintenance dollars, they could use that to replace the water truck. However, Mr. Speaker, having said all that, we still have our extraordinary funding policy that allows us to deal with emergencies and situations where there was no anticipated cost and the community is struggling to recover the cost. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister let the Assembly know specifically what his department does to help communities access funding from different sources, like the federal government, for their infrastructure needs?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In recent years, Mr. Speaker, we worked very closely with the NWT Association of Communities. We’ve also worked with LGANT, the Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories, and we’ve also worked with the community governments themselves to look at leveraging dollars from different resources. The federal government is a good example. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has the Green Fund that we’ve helped

communities access. There’s also the impact and benefit dollars that flow to communities that communities have been using to help with some of these projects, including Lutselk’e. They’ve used half a million dollars of their own money to spend on the arena. Detah is doing the same. A number of communities are doing that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is all for the Minister of ITI, I believe, Bob McLeod. The Minister responsible for climate change, perhaps.

---Laughter

I understand the Minister attended a federal/provincial/territorial Ministers' meeting recently where the need to respond to climate change was discussed as a priority and infrastructure in particular was discussed. How will the Minister ensure that infrastructure related to ITI and developed in the North will address the concerns of climate change? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For a while there I thought I’d go through this session without a question.

---Laughter

The northern economic development Ministers met in Ottawa Thursday and Friday of last week. In the discussions on climate change and in the three briefings that were presented to the northern economic development Ministers, it was pointed out that climate change is in fact a reality and this is a first instance where the issue of discussions on utilizing infrastructure as it means for adapting to the effects of climate change. This was discussed in the context of a number of different impacts of climate change and primarily with regards to buildings and with transportation. The discussion amongst the Ministers is that initially it will be primarily amongst the individual provinces and territories and their greenhouse gas strategies and as they implement them. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Was it recognized that building infrastructure is an important opportunity to also mitigate climate change? That is, reduce the causes of climate change at the same time as adapting to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, it was also discussed in the context of mitigating climate change and the opportunities for utilizing infrastructure to do so. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Bromley.