This is page numbers 143 - 180 of the Hansard for the 15th Assembly, 6th 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 communities.

Topics

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find it a little hard to believe that MACA doesn't know the capacity in each and every one of our communities. That is their mandate. They have to know what's going on there. I know the government, years ago, used to publish community profiles, a booklet, when the Northwest Territories included Nunavut. It published a yearly book on community profiles and it was quite detailed. I am not sure if we are still doing that type of work. From time to time, when we look at communities, somebody gives us something. It's called community profile and it's got some information in there, but this is the kind of work that I am surprised to hear that it doesn't get done and the department doesn't know what the various capacities are in the communities. It's something I think for a variety of other reasons, especially when it comes to funding, Mr. Chairman, we've had some questions on the capacities in various communities and what it is. So I think that work has to get done.

I didn't hear the Minister say how long these positions are for. Are they indeterminate positions forever and a day or are they two more terms? Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I believe they are for a term of two years.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

No, that's good, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Page 11, Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, directorate, not previously authorized, negative $6,000.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Mr. Ramsay.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One more question on page 11 and that has to do with the funding to support the implementation activities associated with the New Deal for communities. If I remember correctly, the original number that was the ask by MACA was for $100,000. I just wanted some more information. The committee said they wanted that money taken out, but it's come back as half; $50,000 instead of $100,000. So I wanted to ask the Minister what the impact of not having $100,000 would be and what is going to happen with the $50,000?

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member is right; we had looked at the recommendations committee had made in a number of areas and went back to departments with a discussion what was requested. It was felt that there still needed to be some investment in this area for what was required, and we can go to Minister McLeod for the detail to substantiate that. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. McLeod.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The New Deal initiative has been undertaken and it's all been handled with funding from within up until now. We have never requested any additional resources to implement this whole initiative. Things have been going very well. However, it's taken up the dedication from a lot of our staff people. There are a number of projects that have been deferred and delayed because of that. The trans fund didn't move forward as fast as we would like it to happen because we needed the resources to work on a New Deal. That's the same with the discussion paper on the Planning Act. The granular study was something that didn't go as quickly as we wanted because we didn't have the resources. We had indicated we needed $100,000 to provide the support. It was recommended that this be reduced. We figure we can go ahead and $50,000 will help us. It will mean that we can't move ahead on some of the initiatives that we are working on now, including the Planning Act, the Lotteries Act and a number of things. If the money is not there, we will really have a problem. It's a huge undertaking to do some of this work that requires us to provide the technical work, the financial analysis and the training support to community governments as we progress. It's something we need to do and we can't move away from it. If the resources are not there for us to support this, then we will have to take it from other places.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister is obviously much more aware of what the capacity is inside the department to carry out the work that needs to get done. Judging by his comments, there is more work than there are people or whatever. This $50,000, I know he said it's to support. Does that mean you are looking at a new PY, somebody coming in to do the job, or what does he mean in terms of support? Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 178

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the understanding is this funding is to support the workers of MACA to do workshops to help put a framework together, as well as develop the tool kit the Minister earlier made reference to. Thank you.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the $50,000 is going towards developing a tool kit and putting on some workshops. Is that right?

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. McLeod would be able to provide more detail on that.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. McLeod.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of things we would like to do with this money. First of all, there is a need to continue to work on developing a tool kit for the New Deal program. This includes the cost of contract work including the cost of using the local government administrators. We also need to develop individual community implementation and transition plans. That would also mean having community government regional meetings. We would also have to host some workshops and there is a real need to do some training sessions. It would also include some dollars towards staff travel.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

The Chair

The Chair Calvin Pokiak

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 179

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That sounds like a great deal of work to get conducted for $50,000. I wish the Minister and his staff the best of luck with that. I am not sure they have other resources to draw upon inside the department, but it sounds like they have some room there because it sounds like a big piece of work, Mr. Chairman. Mahsi.