Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m wondering if I can get an update on the extra-special capacity building efforts we had this fiscal year; where we’re at with that and if that’s going to be extended into 2011-12. Thank you.
Debates of Feb. 21st, 2011
This is page numbers 5979 - 6032 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th 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 community.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is one initiative that we’re quite fond of and it’s going along really well. It’s actually through the School of Community Government. It’s a public service capacity initiative. I’m sure that’s the one the Member is referring to, the $1 million that we’d approved to put into that. I’m not sure if I have the information with me but I would be able to provide Members with some of the communities where the money’s been allocated and some of the training that’s taken place in some of the communities. I think we have two small communities where they have like a succession training where they’ve taken a local person and they’re training them to be the SAO down the line once they get all the proper training. It’s a program that’s working very well and we do plan on continuing the program. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
I appreciate the Minister’s remarks there. I’ll look forward to that information. Am I on the right page here? Is that funded? No. Thank you. I’ll leave it at that.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
The Chair Glen Abernethy
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. No question. Page 6-21, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, community operations, operations expenditure summary, $2.533 million.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
The Chair Glen Abernethy
Moving along to page 6-22. Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, community operations, grants and contributions, contributions, $50,000.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
I’d just like to ask the Minister why is it that all the positions are at headquarters. Shouldn’t they be closer to the communities if that’s who we’re servicing is the community operations? Why haven’t we looked at the possibility of devolving these positions closer to the communities they serve?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Chair. These 15 positions you see in Yellowknife support the community… The positions the Member is talking about are in the regional offices, and that is our biggest allocation of our employees, is in the regional ops. But the 15 here support the folks in the regional offices. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Mr. Chair, I had a question on community energy plans. I don’t see them mentioned specifically here. Are those the community operations or regional operations or…
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
The Chair Glen Abernethy
Thank you. Mr. Bromley, are you looking for clarification on what section of the main estimates that might be under? Okay. I’ll go to the Minister. Minister McLeod.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes
The Member can probably ask his question in the School of Community Government once we get to that, and I think it’s right on the next page.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
The Chair Glen Abernethy
Thank you, Minister McLeod. In that case, we’ll just finish with 6-23. Page 6-23, Municipal and Community Affairs, information item, community operations.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m having a hard time connecting this to the School of Community Government with the community energy plans that were required under the New Deal, but I’m wondering, we did approve community energy plans for all our communities as part of the integrated sustainability plans. I’m wondering where we are in implementing those and are we starting to see fuel costs, at least, energy costs, go down, albeit I recognize the payback isn’t immediate and we may have some capital costs and so on. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Aumond
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specifically, with respect to community energy planning or generally to the integrated community sustainability plans, it’s in the School of Community Government. That’s where it’s located, but we actually have, I guess, a team approach where we use our regional superintendents along with some folks at headquarters along with folks in the NWTAC where we sort of look at the integrated sustainability plans as the whole energy component is one. Last year the task was to try and develop the plans and get them approved. We’ve done that so, really, this is just the first year of implementation for most of them, so we don’t have any hard data on where we are or what any savings would be as this was the first year. Our hope would be, though, is that after next year at this time, we should be able to report some concrete, I guess, results about where we are with not only the community energy planning but with the whole Integrated Community Service Plan as we proceed with that. We do have some special efforts underway next year, if the budget is approved for that, to continue on not only the energy planning but the entire Integrated Community Service Plan. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you to the deputy minister for those comments. I look forward to seeing that information on how we are doing and the lessons learned along the way. I wanted to ask, also, in the
School of Community Government, there should clearly now be a component to every bit of training and educational programs that we undertake, a component that relates to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Has that been incorporated into each and every one of our programs now, training programs? Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Aumond
I guess directly the answer is no, it is not; indirectly the answer is probably yes, because, for example, the school, we have a recreational maintainer course, which talks about maintaining arenas and recreational facilities and so on, and part of the knowledge and expertise and experience that as a government we would bring to bear on that, would be about trying to maximize your lifecycle costs or minimizing your lifecycle costing of operation of that building, which would mean getting your heating systems and your ventilating systems as efficient as you can to provide some extra cash and also to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
The Member might be interested to know that the NWTAC is leading a climate change workshop coming up very shortly where communities will be participating along with government staff on talking about that subject in some depth. We don’t have that in every single course that we teach, or the community government teaches or puts on for community governments in a direct way, but I would make the suggestion that in an indirect way we are always looking for efficiencies and ways to get the most out of our limited resources that we have with communities, and that everybody is paying attention to the environment and there is lots of work going on at the communities in terms of their capital plans around mitigation and adaptation, mostly adaptation. But the answer to the Members’ question is not directly, no. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Again, I appreciate Mr. Aumond’s remarks. I believe I actually am registered for that and I believe it is in concert with a non-government organization and so on, but a very progressive piece of work there.
I guess, I appreciate that approach, but I think that what we want to do at the same time given our, perhaps, privileged understanding of the situation, what is coming down the pipes, so to speak, is to explicitly make those connections, connect the dots here between issues. So I am glad it is in there almost inadvertently but necessarily, but I think that if we can start to recognize why and how and identify the issues, it can spill over into a way of thinking and looking to the future. I will leave it at that and appreciate that that work is started. Thank you.