Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just speaking to the funding allocated to the communities, I am somewhat disappointed we’re going back to a needs base just because I’ve seen firsthand the process that we first started with this for the communities, which was great. I know the Minister did mention that some communities weren’t spending that money, but I’ll use a small community like Tsiigehtchic, for example. To build whether it’s a garage, with the funding that’s given, you have to save up for a number of years to actually have enough to build that piece of infrastructure. That’s what many of the communities are doing. So, it has to do with planning. I know the department did provide some assistance in the planning stages, but it is a learning curve for the communities, but I’ve seen firsthand the benefits of the process we had in place when the New Deal first came out.
Also, we
’ll just use Tsiigehtchic as an example again.
Under the needs base process here, how would MACA identify what the community needs? I’ll use Tsiigehtchic for the prime example. All we have right now for a facility for our youth for sports is the gymnasium.
We don’t have an arena. We have a
skating rink that was blown over with a big storm we had a while back, but it’s a clear indicator that that community needs an arena. So, will that be a priority under this needs base formula? You compare that to a band o
ffice that we already have that’s functional,
it’s pretty clear that an arena would outweigh the band office.
Will the department identify that as something that the community needs? You know, we could have a skating rink. Children usually have to go skate on the lake. Those days are over and done with. I know the Minister probably skated on a few ponds, but in this day and age we have skating rinks and arenas that the children could now make use of. Thank you, Mr. Chair.