The Minister has anticipated my next question, but I am going to ask it anyway because it is a little more detailed. In the last budget, as the Minister said, the Anti-Poverty Fund went up to $1 million, but, up to this point, there has been no effort to evaluate the effectiveness of that spending, so I am wondering if the Minister could produce an annual report that once again would come out to coincide with the roundtable. I need to emphasize this very strongly, to evaluate without creating a large burden on the reporting agencies to carry out, so some kind of reporting but that is not onerous.

Compiling an annual report on the specific achievements in the plan is something that we are currently working on. This includes projects funded through the Anti-Poverty Fund through the annual roundtable. We have reported back to the roundtable every year on which projects are funded.

We have not yet reached the point where every funded project, as I have indicated, produces a report, although I would like to confirm that many, many of them in fact do. Staff continue to work with funded projects on this component, and that is getting an evaluation of the individual projects, recognizing that some of them are small and that, as the Member said, we do not want to create an overly burdensome process that actually makes it more difficult for them to do the valuable work that they are doing.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Minister is aware that a $1 million Anti-Poverty Fund is a start, but will not provide a systemic fix to poverty, so I am wondering, fuelled with the information he is collecting on the outcome of the different kinds of measurements, whether he is in fact willing to look at building on the work of some of the most successful programs through other programs or adjustments to other funding streams outside of the anti-poverty fund. Thank you.

The Anti-Poverty Fund is just, I think, one opportunity presented to us to help combat poverty in the Northwest Territories. The Housing Corporation is doing a significant amount of work to support safe and affordable housing. Education is doing work to renew the education system in the Northwest Territories to ensure that our children have the best opportunities moving forward. Health and Social Services is working on a continuing-care action plan. Education is working on an income assistance to make improvements there, to help increase affordability and sustainability throughout the Northwest Territories.

These are all important initiatives, which is one of the reasons I think, as the Member has indicated, it is incredibly important that we continue to renew the living document which is the GNWT Action Plan on Poverty. The anti-poverty working group actually met this week and talked about next steps and how we move forward to renew and re-create and grow the current GNWT action plan.

The intention now is to move forward with a renewal of that GNWT action plan, highlighting all the important work that has been done but also targeting future work. The advisory group is going to meet after the Anti-Poverty Roundtable up in Norman Wells to begin planning for that process of renewing the GNWT action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue with the municipalities providing access to information to their residents has been a long-standing recommendation of the ATIP commissioner here in the Northwest Territories. I know that new legislation is being considered, but what I would like to ask today of the honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is: does the department have a plan to assist communities in meeting new ATIP requirements should they be implemented? Have they explored this, or will they need time to catch up should those changes be made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we have received recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to implement the ATIP policy into municipalities and, in all honesty, I agree with it. It is important that consumers, that residents, actually, of the Northwest Territories have protection of their information and that they can access that information and that officials are held accountable. These are all good things.

I think that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is working very closely with the Department of Justice to look at all of the issues, the needs, and the concerns, to ensure that municipalities have the training, have the capacity to be able to implement the Privacy Act into their practices. We are still working on that.

We are looking at options, though, and because training and capacity is going to be an issue, we are looking at options like: can we do a shared service agreement that we can actually help them with so that there will be capacity? We are still in the stages of assessing the needs and the issues and potential solutions, after which time we will be meeting back with municipalities and getting their feedback on it.

I would like to thank the Minister for that response. It is good that we are aware of the issue. Have there been any timelines attached to this capacity-building exercise, or do those have to come after the ATIP legislation is rolled out?

As stated earlier, we are still looking at some of the issues and possible solutions. We are pushing forward. The ATIP Act will be amended because it is the right thing to do. We are looking at the training needs, and so, like I said earlier, perhaps a shared agreement might be an interim solution until we can provide the training and support to build the capacity of municipalities to take it on on their own.

You know I like timelines, but that is fine. We will let the department do its work. There is a significant public education piece here that the Information and Privacy Commissioner does take on their own initiative. However, given that this is a significant shift, and not just in legislation, but in culture as well, is the department going to work with municipalities on a public information campaign so everyone can access their requirements? If yes, well, we will leave it at that. I have another question, though.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is all about community development. It would be inappropriate for us to impose this upon municipalities without giving them the tools and the training to be able to enact this regulation. Yes, we will be supporting them and providing the supports that they need to be able to implement this act.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, I am well aware of the mandate of the department, and I think the capacity-building piece is there, but this information piece is very important, and it might not be contemplated by the current work.

My final question is: if we do a communication project like that, will the department be working with EC to ensure we have all 11 official languages covered and the information is accessible to communities through their local governments in local languages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At this point, I cannot state if we would be looking at implementing it all into all of the 11 languages. We are still looking at the phase to look at: what are the issues? What are the solutions? We have not talked with the municipalities after that to see what their needs are. At this time, no, I will not commit to making sure that the information is successful in all of the 11 languages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke in support of subsistence harvesters in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of ITI. Mr. Speaker, my first question is: has ITI investigated the viability of a tannery in the Beaufort Delta recently, and when was the last time this idea was explored? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have the exact year when the department looked into this initiative, but I know that they have looked into it, and with this initiative moving forward, they figured that the reasons that they could not proceed with it was the high capital cost of equipment, the facilities, high utility costs in the region, and waste management concerns, as there is a lot of processing that needs to take place. I think the other issue at the time was also the existing procurement of hides that would be available to make this a viable operation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my second question for the Minister is: will ITI look at the idea of home tanning kits for Nunakput and remote communities in the Northwest Territories?

Yes, we can have a look at it. I know that the department does community-based tannery workshops, and we will continue to do that across the Northwest Territories, but if the Member has any ideas around some home tanning kits ideas, I would gladly sit down and discuss it with them.

I look forward to that. Mr. Speaker, my final question to the Minister is: what is the department doing to assist harvesters who want access to tanning options?

With the development of the Mackenzie Valley Genuine Valley Fur Program, the fur procurement programs by ITI, fewer harvesters are looking at owning tanning operations, or doing their own tanning operations.

I can speak to the department of the region in the South Slave actually looking at the exact same thing, I believe, that was proposed in the Beaufort Delta, a viable option of doing a tannery in the South Slave. When we get these results back, I would gladly share them with the Member.