Thank you. That type of deliberation and review is part of the critical debriefing that’s underway and that I’ve just committed to sharing with committee when it’s done early in the New Year as we look at coming for the winter session. Thank you.

This summer was the driest and the hottest. I think there are some initiatives out there that communities could tap into. One example is the FireSmart initiatives. Usually a good time to do those kinds of initiatives, carrying them out, is during the wintertime.

How can we better prepare our communities for forest fires? Mahsi.

Thank you. All the communities could take a page from the work that Kakisa did to take matters into their own hands as the fire smarted their community, and as they were encroached on all sides by fire they recognized the value of that exercise. So I think communities can look at doing public spaces and then the encouragement for all individuals to get out there with their own saws and chainsaws, as I did my property, where you thin out the trees, you clear out the underbrush, you limb your trees as high as you can, move your woodpile away from your house and those type of things. All will give you a very precious advantage. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in follow-up to my Member’s statement. How long has the Minister been aware of the situation in Fort McPherson? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were made aware of it when it was reported that there was some irregular activity going on with some community finances. We were made aware of it, we took the necessary steps that we had to, we appointed a municipal supervisor, and in July of this year we dissolved council and appointed a municipal administrator for the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a limit to the deficit a municipality can incur before the department steps in? Thank you.

Thank you. There is no limit. The situation they faced up in that particular community, the high turnover of SAOs, I think the average lifespan of an SAO up there was, like, six months and no oversight. So that led to some of the problems that they had up there.

With the new accountability framework that MACA has introduced and implemented, we’re believing

that’s going to alleviate a lot of that and we’ll be able to identify a lot of potential problems early and take the necessary steps to deal with them. That helps MACA and it helps the community so they’re not so far into a deficit situation. Thank you.

Is the Minister willing to direct his department to work with the hamlet to reduce municipal service rates to levels that can work for everyone? Thank you.

We’ve had a number of meetings up in Fort McPherson. I was up there in July. I met with a lot of community residents. The big concern we heard up there was the rates the elders were paying. We took the necessary steps to reduce the rates for the elders and that was retroactive to April 1st of this year. So we heard

what they’ve had to say.

A lot of the issue was the water and sewer, the delivery of water, the water rates were quite low to begin with and they weren’t reviewing them annually and increasing them as their cost of providing the service was increasing. So it went from that to the increase that they had in this past year. So that was a very high increase for a lot of folks up there, but we’ve heard what they had to say and we dealt with the elders’ issue, which we believe from the meeting results that the elders were the most important. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know I’ve been focusing on the water rates, but it’s also affecting the sport and recreation. So I’d like to ask the Minister, will the Minister direct his department to implement a five- to 10-year payback plan on the deficit and not a two- to three-year? Thank you.

Thank you. That would be awfully difficult to do because the sooner that they’re able to pay off the deficit, and they’ve already taken some necessary steps in cutting some of the costs to the community, so we’re seeing an effect of that already. So we believe within two or three years they should have the deficit almost off the books. If we were to stretch it out too long, then that may affect their ability to provide a lot of services in the community and you’re going to have to pay it back at the end of the day. So we thought with the two- or three-year payback, with the number of changes that have been made and they’ve been received, but with the number of changes that have been made, we’re starting to already see an improvement in the deficit and the cost of providing the services to the communities such as the water contract. Instead of doing the water contract in house, we went out for tender and there was significant savings there. It’s issues like that, I think, that are going to help the community deal with the deficit and pay down the

deficit sooner. The longer we drag it out, the longer they’ll have the deficit hanging over their head.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to talk to an issue here about one of our facilities. I mentioned it earlier in my Member’s statement about using existing infrastructure for treatment programs. One in particular is a building in Inuvik. It’s the Arctic Tern building. There have been a lot of issues with that, but I know this government has been working on stabilizing the foundation.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services just for a quick update on that foundation and whether it was stabilized or not, and is the building going to be able to be used for other departments?

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building has been completed. We had form-jacked the foundation. It was completed as of January. We have inspected the building and it’s ready for reuse by another department if need be.

I’m glad to hear that the building is ready for reuse. I know that there was a lot of cost in getting that building up and running.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in regard to that building, how many beds are currently in that building. I know it was used before for a young offenders facility, so I wonder how many beds are in that building that could be used as well.

I don’t have that information with me here. I don’t know how many bed facility that was back when it was used as a young offenders facility, but I can get that information for the Member.

The reason I’m asking is we do have a homelessness issue here in the Northwest Territories, a transitional house issue. We also have an addictions problem, as you heard here today.

I just want to ask the Minister, have any departments looked at grabbing that facility for use, and can he let us know which departments have looked at using that facility that’s going back into the government stock?

Yes, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources new management has looked at that facility for a possible relocation of the Shell Lake operations into the Arctic Tern facility.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we have had questions on this at the beginning of this Legislative Assembly. Did the Minister have any dialogue with the Minister of Health and Social Services to look at Arctic Tern as a possible addictions treatment centre and detox facility?