Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs 2011-2012 main estimates and the activities MACA is planning to undertake in 2011-2012 that supports the visions and goals of the 16

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Legislative

Assembly.

MACA has a very broad mandate which focuses on community governments but also provides a range of programs and services to individual and other sectors such as sport and recreation, youth and volunteers.

The department’s 2011-2012 main estimates total is $93.3 million in operations expenses. Of this

funding, approximately 78 percent is provided to our key stakeholders, community governments.

The 2011-2012 main estimates funding level is an increase of $2 million net of sunsets or 2 percent from the 2010-2011 funding level. The increase is comprised of $1.6 million in forced growth funding and $850,000 in strategic initiative funding offset by funding that is sunsetting this fiscal year.

MACA will also provide community governments with infrastructure acquisition funding of $28 million in 2011-2012 comprised entirely of capital formula funding. This is a decrease of approximately $12 million from the 2010-2011 fiscal year which is due to completion of the Building Canada Plan funding from the Government of Canada in 2010-2011. In addition, the Gas Tax Agreement will provide community governments with additional funding of $15 million in 2011-2012, unchanged from the 2010-2011 funding level.

MACA’s 2011-2012 main estimates include $43.3 million to provide for community government operation and maintenance costs and $12.6 million to provide for water and sewer costs. MACA, with input from the NWT Association of Communities, will be undertaking reviews of both these funding programs in 2011-2012 and the results of this review may result in changes to the budget in future years.

To date, over the term of the 16

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Legislative

Assembly and reflected in MACA’s 2011-2012 main estimates, a total of $7.7 million in funding has been provided to the department through the strategic initiative process to reflect the 16

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Legislative Assembly’s priorities. The majority of this funding is allocated to youth, recreation, healthy choices and community capacity building initiatives. This year’s main estimates includes $850,000 in new strategic initiative funding.

Base funding of $300,000 is included in the main estimates to support community capacity in the areas of fire and emergency management. The department is conducting a capacity assessment of community government fire departments in 2010-2011 and funding in 2011-2012 will be used to provide training tailored to each community government based on these assessments. Emergency management training is also being planned for next fiscal year to provide community governments with the basic information and training they need to address a variety of potential emergency situations.

You may recall that all community governments were required to develop integrated community sustainability plans as part of the Gas Tax Agreement and that all community governments met the March 31, 2010, deadline to complete their plans. MACA’s main estimates include new funding of $150,000 to support the department in its work to assist community governments to now implement

their plans, and MACA and the NWT Association of Communities will develop a work plan to support this work.

Amongst other activities in 2011-2012, MACA will assist community governments to facilitate engagement with residents by helping to coordinate community forums, by providing technical advice and assistance related to the implementation of integrated community sustainability plans and the sub-plans related to energy capital and human resources.

The 2011-12 main estimates also include new funding of $150,000 to establish a permanent Youth Ambassadors Program. In the past, MACA has had great success with this program and did not always have the necessary funding in place to provide the program on an ongoing basis. New funding in 2011-12 will provide for the program design of a permanent program to support youth ambassadors at national and international multi-sport games events with access to the program by youth from all communities.

MACA is also planning an alumni element designed to recruit former ambassadors into project leadership roles and the establishment of a formal longitudinal evaluation process to measure the outcomes of the program. Participants will include the next generation of community leaders, which will help the GNWT achieve its goals related to healthy choices and community development. Currently, MACA works with Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, Transportation and Justice to administer the GNWT’s Healthy Choices Framework to support the Legislative Assembly’s goal of encouraging healthy choices.

Finally, MACA’s main estimates include a strategic initiative funding increase of $250,000 to undertake survey work for municipal assets so that these assets can be legally transferred to all community governments. The funding associated with land surveys for municipal assets is for two years only and is scheduled to sunset in March 2013.

Forced growth funding accounts for $1.6 million of the year-over-year increase to MACA’s budget reflected in the 2011-12 main estimates. This increase is to provide for increased grants-in-lieu payments to tax-based communities, to establish a permanent budget for the department’s work in supporting the board of revision and the Assessment Appeal Tribunal, to increase MACA’s capacity to assist with property assessment, and to provide for Collective Agreement costs.

MACA continues to support community governments in their capacity building initiatives and funding first approved in 2010-11 for the public service capacity is again reflected in MACA’s 2011-12 business plan. There has been a great deal of work done on this program over the past year and

the input of our partners from the NWT Association of Communities, the Local Government Administrators of the NWT, and the Department of Human Resources has been critical to the program design and implementation. Most of the programs under this initiative are started, and the department is currently working to finalize an evaluation framework to use to measure results and to report on the program and its outcomes.

In 2010-11 MACA finalized its strategic plan. A key element of the strategic plan is the development of an accountability framework that will outline legislative requirements and other public accountability measures required for MACA and community governments. The accountability framework is intended to provide MACA and community governments with information and clarity on roles and responsibilities related to departmental legislation and policy and to articulate the type and form of support and information that MACA provides to community governments.

Mr. Chair, MACA has made good progress on the strategic plan in 2010-11 and will work to ensure that all stakeholders are provided with information on the department’s progress on undertaking the actions outlined in the strategic plan and will report on results on an annual basis.

This concludes my opening remarks, Mr. Chair, and I will be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.