The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I appreciate that information and I’ll pass that along to my constituents who are interested. I guess, following up on the Prime Minister’s visit, is there anything the Premier can report back to us on the discussions? I realize his visit was very short this morning, but I wonder if the Premier had an opportunity to visit and whether we might hear what we should be hearing about. Thank you.

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. The meeting was short. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have a one-on-one with the Prime Minister, but the three Premiers from the territories did have a meeting with the Prime Minister and we laid out a number of pan-territorial issues; housing, for example, as well as infrastructure.

I raised with Minister Aglukkaq the issue that was raised in the House here the other day around the Green Fund initiatives and our support for the city’s application.

Also, I had a chance to discuss where the pipeline initiative may be sitting and I expected the answer I got, that it’s in the proponent’s hands to make a decision on that, and talked about, for example, fibre optics is one of those avenues we could be looking at here in the Northwest Territories through support.

The Prime Minister asked me about this government’s move on the Inuvik-Tuk road, if we’ve met our side of the equation, and at that point raised that as our departments are getting together, they need to work out the actual arrangements and figure out this 75/25 percent share arrangement and what that would all incorporate. So there were those things that we were able to touch on.

Of course, with other Premiers there, they were bringing up their issues from their constituencies as well.

So I had a quick opportunity to raise some of those areas going forward. One of those things that we discussed was this continuation of the THSSI program and the fact that now we’re on the same page as all the other jurisdictions across Canada when it comes to the accord, Canada Health Accord. The Prime Minister at that point said we will need to get together as a country and really look at our ability to deliver a sustainable program, and I know that will be the challenge for the next governments as they prepare to deal with that accord. Thank you.

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I very much appreciate all that information. It’s very good to get that out. It sounds like a lot of subjects were covered in a very short period of time, and I’m sure there was strong commonality amongst our Premiers.

I’m wondering, just following up on the discussions we had yesterday and the day before, I know the water monitoring stations are being shut down across the North, both transboundary and 21 out of 23 in the Northwest Territories, completely devastating our Water Quality Monitoring Program. Did the Premier have a chance to raise that with the Prime Minister? Mahsi.

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you. I did have an opportunity to talk about devolution and the impacts of some of the decisions being made would have on a final package that we would look specifically on the water station, the monitoring issue. I did raise that with Minister Duncan as he was a part of the meeting on that scenario. Although it’s not in his shop specifically, it does affect the overall deal we’re talking about when it comes to the environment and the agreement-in-principle and just how that work needs to be done in honouring the commitment we had on paper, at least, I see through the agreement-in-principle. He’s taken that information. I was hoping to have another side discussion with the Prime Minister but, unfortunately, the time ran out and I wasn’t able to connect directly on that subject.

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA. As indicated in my Member’s statement, Sport North is in an incredibly difficult situation due to the

confusion and apparent inconsistencies in the application process. Specifically, some organizations are getting multi-year funding while others aren’t, and programs like Sport for Life and coaching and the CSOP were declined with no or limited resources or alternatives being provided by the SRC. Sport North had no choice but to appeal this SRC decision. They have been waiting for months and have gone through their cash reserves. In 30 days they’ll be out of money and unable to meet payroll.

Could the Minister please tell us, by signing their contribution agreement which would allow the approved $1.683 million minus the $149,000, which they’ve already received, to flow to them, which will allow them to meet their payroll and provide continued support to the territorial sports organizations, would Sport North in fact be forfeiting or undermining their appeal which is currently underway? Specifically, will it stop the appeal process?

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sport North is actually encouraged to sign the contribution agreement for the $1.6 million. This is more money than they received last year. By signing this particular agreement, they’re not going to be giving up their right to obtain any additional funding related to other projects that might be available. It also would not affect the appeal process that they have submitted.

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

That is good news. Six areas in the Sport North application were denied funding. Three of these areas are critical programs; specifically, the coaching programs, the Canadian Sport for Life, and the Community Support Opportunity Program. Sport North are concerned that these programs were never completely assessed through the application process and don’t feel that they were provided comprehensive information on why they were rejected or what changes were needed to help the applications meet the SRC’s application criteria. Could the Minister please direct the SRC to provide detailed explanations to Sport North on why these different programs failed to receive funding, and what items or changes would be required so that these programs could in fact receive funding in the future?

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The Sport and Recreation Council’s general manager met with all the partner executive directors between June 16th and 24th to provide verbal and written feedback on

each of their applications. Then the general manager also met with the Sport North executive director and finance manager on June 16th . We can

ask the SRC to review the unfunded applications one more time.

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’m sure that Sport North would appreciate that opportunity. I believe that there is still some money in the SRC budget, approximately $400, from what I understand. I also understand that the SRC puts some money aside for areas such as the Canadian Sport for Life, recognizing the importance of this program. Can Sport North resubmit applications for these programs to the SRC for funding, or is there no further opportunity for submissions during the 2011-2012 fiscal year?