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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I can hear what the Members are saying. This line item is one that has been well-used, as long as I have been the Minister here already. As you have seen, this government has put money into the Small Community Fund which we were talking today in the House. I think one of the opportunities we can look at moving forward with Members and other departments is how can we access working together with ECE with the Department of Transportation to make the best use of this money moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. I have Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to add to what I said earlier, and what Mr. Blake had just said about the Community Access Road Program. When the Members from this side of the House talked about the Small Community Employment Program, we certainly were not thinking that this was going to subsidize a Community Access Road Program; completely different type of projects in our minds. To try to now jam all of the requests that we have for around the various departments into the Small Community Access Support Program, it is not something that we support.

This Access Road Program, we are asking this department, whether it be the Department of Transportation or Infrastructure, to add money into this program. Money that is needed. Not labour money or employment money. We need money to operate equipment to be able to work on access roads, traditional areas that the community accesses. This makes it possible for the communities to access really good traditional areas, otherwise, like I indicated earlier, only accessible by small vehicles like maybe four-wheelers or snowmobiles and so on. This year, it gives the community full access to these areas.

I don't want the department to think that Department of Education putting small community employment dollars into the budget solves all of our requests. Not at all. This is a completely separate request, and I'm hoping that all of the departments coming up are not going to the Small Community Employment Program, the one provision that was made by the government for us, and now pile everything onto that program. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard what the Member is saying, and my intention is not to pile onto the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to do that. We are holding our line with our budget line right now. As all the Members know, our expenditures are outpacing our revenues, and the reason we are holding our line on our expenditures is due to that fact, and we need to get the government's fiscal house in order.

This is a great fund. What I am saying is, if a community comes forward with a business plan that can create jobs in their communities, this is one way that they can use both funds to access more money to employ people in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Beaulieu?

We on this side of the House have plans for how difficult it is going to be even to access a Small Community Employment Program under its current rules. We are trying to talk to the government about changing some of the rules so that we can access that program as an employment program, not something where we have made a request somewhere, and if we do not get that request, we are going to take that money and place it in there. This is a separate request.

I think the Minister should keep those requests separately. If this Minister is then going to say, well, this would be a good way for the Small Community Program to leverage something here for employment, well, that is not our intention. We have all kinds of other projects in the communities that need to be done. That money is just barely enough to go around to the 33 communities to get that. Not an opportunity for DOT to then say, oh well, whatever short you are for this road, you can take it out this Small Communities Employment Program. It is not our intention.

The communities that we represent, we have been talking to, they have other plans for this. This is a separate thing. This is where the guys are running equipment. I talked about it earlier in my opening comments. This is something where people learn how to run equipment and things like that. Opportunities for training for them to get other jobs, running equipment, and so on. This is not something that you could use to leverage small community employment dollars with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, we have our fund. We spend the money in the fund as requested by the communities. We think it is a good program. I made the point that we are not adding any money to this program this year due to our fiscal position that the Northwest Territories is in. I am not saying the fund is any less or any better than the Member, but I believe it is a great fund. All I am saying is, there are other avenues to help leverage this fund to actually bring more possible employment opportunities and projects to the communities of the Northwest Territories, and that is what this government is willing to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and just as firm as the Minister wants to be on not budging off this and saying that he is not putting any extra money into this side of the House, it is just as firm also. We are asking the government to put the money in. We are aware of the fiscal situation. We are not going into this blind. We know what we are talking about. This money would go, and then it would be well-used. It will be well-leveraged, and it will have benefits to the government. If we start employing a few more people, it will benefit the government. We are taking people off income support. That is benefitting the government. We are taking people out of social housing. That is benefitting the government. Now, when we talked about the strategic spending that we are asking the government to do, this is a part of it. This is not a portion that can get stuck under another program from another department. This is a separate request. I would like the Minister to keep it separate. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, we have our money allocated here. We are not willing to put any more money into this due to the fiscal situation the Government of the Northwest Territories is in. The Member has his point; I have my point. We will continue to spend the money that we have in the communities as they come and approach us for their projects. Many of them are very valid. Actually, all of them are valid, and we will continue to spend the money to help create these projects in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

No, Mr. Chair, I do not mind the position the government takes. What I am saying is that this should be something that stands alone. Our requests for the additional $700,000 into this budget as a request into this budget, it is not a request that you can then put under another department. We have our own issues with the other departments, and our request going to other departments. We keep them separate. We keep these issues separate. We are not having discussions with the Minister of Finance in saying, well, if you can combine this, or if you add over here, you can take away from here. All these requests are separate requests. All of these are strategic spending requests by this side. We looked at all of these, and we look at the strategic value to the NWT. We do not look at this and say, well, we can afford to shove this somewhere, or somewhere else; or if we can get this, we could afford to give up on this budget. We are asking the department to put this, and obviously the Minister is not prepared or cannot make that decision, then we will find another way to try to get that decision made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like the last 40 seconds to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said, I have made the case quite clear and I stand by it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

No, that is good for me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next, Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is on page 229, the CAP program, as well. My suggestion to both departments on the Small Community Program with ECE and this new department here is to reflect the guideline modifications so that you can maximize the expenditure by having joint administration. That is my suggestion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we have said, we are working with the Department of Education and Culture on how we can maximize the opportunities, using that fund to help complement the Community Access Program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.