Page 7-2, Justice, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $702,000. Is committee agreed?

Does committee agree that we have concluded consideration of the Department of Justice?

Thank you, Minister. Thank you to your witnesses. I would ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

The next department on our list is Municipal and Community Affairs. We have some time left on the clock. Do we want to start with opening comments? All right. Committee is agreed. Oh, we need witnesses first, don’t we? Yes. Thank you. Mr. McLeod, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, I would, Madam Chair.

Sergeant-at-Arms, would you escort the witnesses into the Chamber?

Welcome, witnesses. Mr. McLeod, would you introduce your witnesses for us, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister. On my right is Ms. Eleanor Young. She is the assistant deputy minister of regional operations.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Is committee agreed that we will have opening comments, not opening questions, thank you, and on the capital budget, not the operations and maintenance budget?

We are agreed. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. As MLA with the most communities, as I travel to the communities the leadership often ask me about capital planning transfers. They’re very grateful for it and part of the New Deal is that the communities are able to make their own decisions about when and where to buy their capital or to build buildings, et cetera. They’re often a little leery about the O and M formula. I think I raised it with the MACA Minister in the last Assembly and I think they said there was some kind of review happening in terms of the formula financing for O and M. In fact, I think, for example, the community of Jean Marie, I think all their existing building assets get transferred over to them April 1

st

and they’re very

concerned that there may not be enough O and M money attached to it. They feel that while it was a great idea, now the communities are stuck with the buildings, especially in the smaller communities. They have extra additional costs of bringing in plumbers and carpenters to help with their repairs, or boiler mechanics, et cetera. I’d just like to know once again if that review is going to be taken for the formula financing for O and M as it’s related to the capital buildings being transferred to the communities and any new buildings that they do build.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is correct; there is a review that’s happening right now. We’re hoping to have the work completed by April 1

st

. When we do the

budget session in May/June, I think that’s when we’re looking at the O and M budget for next year. Some of our findings we may be able to incorporate into the May/June budget session.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Are there any further general comments on the Department of MACA? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I need to raise again the need for building standards for our communities. Most if not all jurisdictions in

Canada provide this and, somewhat mysteriously, this department or this government resists that responsibility. Yet the communities, if you read the resolutions and so on of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, want building standards and they want support in inspection of such infrastructure and assistance in that.

My general comment is when, oh when, will we get building standards for our communities that will help them enjoy the sorts of efficiencies and operational savings that GNWT, for example, enjoys with our 25 percent better than national model Energy Building Code standards?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s a discussion that the Member and I have had before. I’ve said the communities do a very good job in planning for and their buildings as up to standard, if not above standard, as possible. If the Member feels that we as a department or we as a government need to come up with standards that we set that the communities have to follow, even though they’re building all their buildings according to code and according to standards, because they realize it would be beneficial on their part and some significant savings, too, if they were to design their buildings above standard, it’s a discussion that I’ll commit to the Member that we’ll have with the communities. I still believe they’re doing a very good job and I think we’ve seen examples of that before, where some of them are incorporating biomass heating into their plans and some are taking residual heat off another building. We’ve seen pretty good examples of some forward thinking by the communities. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s offer to take this forward to discuss this with communities. I just want to emphasize that I’m not asking for anything exceptional; I’m asking for the norm, and am mystified by the resistance to what has obviously been proven to be useful across Canada.

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s offer and I look forward to the results of that discussion, and I urge him to take a look at the resolutions of the NWT Association of Communities on this subject. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I think that was just a comment. Alright, committee, any further general comments on Municipal and Community Affairs? Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of comments. We were talking on just the building design. One of my constituent communities had expressed a desire to see if there could be some discussions perhaps explored. I’m not familiar if those discussions have taken place. I’m talking about the Hamlet of Enterprise. They’ve indicated an interest to see if it is possible to look at maybe

making an addition to their hamlet office to see if there could be at least some possibilities of maybe placing some additional rooms to the hamlet office to house a temporary school. I wonder if the Minister or the department has perhaps engaged in discussion with the community of Enterprise whether there are at least some points of consensus to see if further discussions could take place.

I understand there’s a leadership election in the community of Enterprise. However, what I’ve thus far heard consistently is that there is a need for a school in Enterprise, and if perhaps the other department, Education, could maybe coordinate that so that maybe MACA could at least engage in discussion with Enterprise. Perhaps that’s been done, but I just wanted to know if there were discussions that have taken place.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As far as I know, we haven’t had any discussions with Enterprise yet on their desire to build an addition onto their office building. However, I mean, we have to be careful here. If we’re talking that they want to convert this into a school, then we may have to include the Department of Education into the discussions. I’ll commit to the Member that I will follow up on it and see if any discussions have been started and what’s the wish of the folks in Enterprise. We’ll get as much information as we can and I’ll share it with the Member.