Thank you. Now we move on to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. I would like to ask Minister Miltenberger if he would like to bring in witnesses to the witness table.

Madam Chair, what we were hoping to do is the same as last time; Minister McLeod would be there with his deputy.

Minister Miltenberger, would you like to bring witnesses to the witness table?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Does committee agree?

Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms, please, to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Minister Miltenberger, for the record, would you please introduce your witness?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have Mr. Williams, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you. I would like to direct Members’ attention,

please, to page 4-2, which we will stand down and we will move on to page 4-4, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, regional operations, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $28.002 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome again here to the witness table. As I indicated in my opening comments or general comments, and I know that has been discussed in committee format, the demographics and the population changes that we’re seeing in the territory are shifting. As resources or work occurs, people move to those areas. We know the Sahtu is going to be greatly influenced by many oil projects here in the coming year and we see that the funding formula for communities is not changing with what we think is population change. This has also been spoken to, I believe, as well, with the NWT Association of Communities, which also agrees that this possibly is something that we should be looking at. So, Madam Chair, I think my opening comment or question is: Has population changed? Has demographic shifted? Has this caused changes in the funding formula for this upcoming year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The funding that goes to communities is a base-plus formula. So as the base is tied to, everybody gets the same basic amount and then the rest is on a per capita basis. So as the new population numbers come through, they are factored in. I’ll ask Mr. Williams if he wants to speak any further about how often we adjust those population figures. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Williams. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I appreciate the fact that the Stats Bureau plays a key role in this, but I guess further to that it looks like there’s a fixed amount of money which is involved. I’m assuming that that fixed amount of money is…(inaudible)…shared accordingly to formula funding changes. Now, has the percentage of formula, have they changed in the last year and are the forecasts factoring and the so-called stats differential? Can we get a bit of an idea of the breakdown?

Let’s pick the Sahtu area for example. Again, are we seeing those fundamentals being affected by funding formulas? It sounds like there are statistics being used, but can we get some reassurances that we’ve seen changes occurring in the last year and moving forward for the next couple of years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are two key points. The infrastructure money under the New Deal, it was a five-year arrangement and it’s currently up for review and discussion with the Association of Communities and the communities about its adequacy, and after this first five years, are there changes, do things have to be adjusted.

As we’ve demonstrated through the business planning process we’ve identified because of, if I can use the Sahtu as a very specific case, because of the pressures that are there with the increased exploration and pressures on infrastructure and demand that we’ve made some initial extra investments there to try to adjust for that, and if in fact the play there proves out for oil, then we recognize that there will be further work required and we are already in discussions with the region about that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you. I do appreciate the Minister for clarification here. I’ll leave it at that, Madam Chair, and let other colleagues dial in. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is similar to that along those same lines as the funding arrangement for this capital infrastructure. Indications from the previous numbers… Are there no changes in those numbers? The $28 million has been fixed in for a few years, and is there any indication from the department that that will change at all in the next

couple of years? It seems difficult to me, the fact that these numbers are staying steady, but yet the communities and municipalities are all seeing different pressures in CPI, other expenditures where we’re not matching, we’re not keeping up to any kind of index at all. So I’d like to ask that of the department.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.