Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that was this spring, I know at the last community meeting at McPherson, I know the community had requested having these -- especially the role of the councilor and mayor provided over the summer or even the fall because there are plans for election in December. Give the community an opportunity, or whoever is interested in running, to see what is all involved in the roles and responsibilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in one particular case, the Member's riding, we are planning on going there this fall to help them prepare for an election that they are going to be having. We believe, in this particular case, it is probably wise of us to go in there after the new council is elected to provide some training. I think we even heard the comment about providing training to any potential candidates that might be wanting to run in an election. That might be an option too. We haven't gone through what we went through with this particular community. We want to ensure that all of mayor and council understand the roles that they are going to be getting into -- go in to a role with the proper training or an understanding of what is expected of them. So we are planning on working with this particular community quite close as they head into their elections this fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. More of a comment maybe, but this is a great program that the department is doing because I took it in, I believe, 2007. It really opens your eyes to the roles and responsibility. A lot of people don't realize that the council is the number one authority. I thought it was the mayor when I ran, but, you know, they make the key decisions. It is really important that people know that. I hope it continues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Would the Minister like to respond?

I agree with the Member. During the NWTAC AGM, when they do have the training that is made available, we give out a number of certificates in the last few years of people that have actually taken the training, so they understand their role. I agree with the Member. People that are running for elected office, such as mayor and council, should understand the role or what is required of them. We will do our part through the School of Community Government to make sure they get the proper assistance and the proper training. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am glad to see the wording, "improve community capacity." It is really common in these smaller communities that they lack financial bookkeeping skills. Within this budget, is there allowance for somebody from the regional office with financial management skills and preferably auditing skills to go in and support the communities and their bookkeeping systems? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we agree that our folks in the communities need to understand their roles as well and the responsibilities they have to ensure that they have the proper capacity to deal with the lot of money that they are having to deal with because they do have a lot of responsibility with us giving them all their CPI money and with their O and M. So our role, we see, is to assist these community governments. Through the accountability framework, we believe that, as I said earlier on in the session, that gives us the opportunity to identify any red flags and pick out any issues before they become big issues and they affect the communities' ability to govern themselves. So no, we totally agree with the Member that with the proper training and that building up the capacity of communities can only benefit the communities and the department as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely. Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. I see no further comments or questions on page 344. We will continue with page 345, active positions. Any questions on the information item, active positions? I see none. We are done with the detail. We will return to page 343, the operations expenditure summary. Comments or questions?

Seeing none, I will call the page. Municipal and Community Affairs, School of Community Government, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $2,970,000. Agreed?

Committee agrees. We will now move on to sport, recreation and youth, beginning on page 347. We will discuss the detail on page 348 and 349. Questions on page 348, 349, sport, recreation and youth? No one? Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just noticed on page 348, there is a $25,000 reduction in youth contributions. Could the Minister explain what this cut is about? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is just a reduction to the youth contribution. But if you look at the other youth contributions throughout the last few pages that we have gone through, there is still a very significant amount that was dedicated to the youth through the different programs. As far as this particular line item, I am not sure exactly what this entailed or who could access it. I will look for that information and I will share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As everybody is well aware, this is one of my passions, so I am kind of disappointed to see this cut in this area here. I understand that the regional budget has $225,000, but there is the $25,000. I think it is well used. So it is kind of disappointing to see this being removed from the section. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is more of a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Would the Minister like to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think we all share that same passion for the youth. I think we have made that quite clear in the investments we have made into youth. In the last two or three Assemblies, the youth contributions have gone up fairly significantly. We all share that passion. We will continue to ensure that our youth are adequately funded. As I said I will get the exact detail on the $25,000 and share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a couple of questions for the Minister about the NGO stabilization fund. There was some discussion about tying the stabilization fund to some kind of volunteerism initiative. Can the Minister confirm that that hasn't happened and it won't happen? I see that it is not in the description for the fund. Thank you.