Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Adele Tatti. Adele Tatti was one of the bridesmaids at our wedding here at the Legislative Assembly. Welcome to Adele. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two of my pages, Colton and Kobe Alexie. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly, and I hope you are having fun this week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgments. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I spoke about the NWT SPCA and the critical and vital services that they provide to 31 of our communities in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to start by asking the Minister: does the Minister understand the degree of these services and believe that the NWT SPCA plays a critical role in providing these services to 31 communities in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, I do agree with that statement and that the SPCA does play an important role throughout the Northwest Territories in managing dog control. In Inuvik, we have a very active SPCA group as well that does a lot of good work in the region and for the communities. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I do have to say that I do believe that our community governments also have to play a very important role in terms of managing dog-control issues that are local to the communities and that we all have got to work together to address the issue that the Member has raised in his statement.

I appreciate the Minister's comments, and most certainly every community government has a responsibility to manage dog control and loose pets. I'm not sure that that actually falls onto the responsibilities of any SPCA organization. That said, Mr. Speaker, the NWT SPCA has had a number of repeated attempts to apply for funding to the Government of the Northwest Territories, and it seems like they've been either rejected or we can't find a spot for them every time. I'd just like to ask the Minister: why does the SPCA continue to get rejected for support?

As the Member noted in his statement, the GNWT has provided the SPCA with one-time funding back in 2018. I appreciate the Member bringing this up, and we did respond late last year in terms of some of the questions that he's bringing up again today. I am not aware or certain of any of the areas or departments where the SPCA has applied for funding. Unfortunately, through my department, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, we don't currently offer any funding programs that would either offer core funding to the SPCA, nor do we currently see any fit with other application-based programs that we offer funding for any kind of one-time funding.

The SPCA was told last year that, in order to qualify for NGO stabilization funding, an NGO based in Yellowknife had to already be receiving $50,000 in government funding. What kind of funding would that be? What departments might that come from? Can the Minister maybe suggest programs that the SPCA might qualify for to unlock that funding? I mean the SPCA might be happy to receive that funding and not require stabilization funding if they knew where it was and how they could access it.

In most cases, the organizations that do apply for and receive funding through the NGO Stabilization Fund are receiving core funding through social envelope departments such as the Department of Health and Social Services, in some cases Education, Culture and Employment. Really, in most cases, these are programs aimed at providing direct support for our residents across the Northwest Territories, through my department, Municipal and Community Affairs. As I mentioned, right now, we don't see any type of funding programs that would offer any type of core funding to the organization in question.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You can clearly see now the reason why I'm trying to bring this to the floor and draw a little bit more attention to this because, with respect, it just continues to sound like the organization and/or this government is finding a way to say no again to this organization. It's clear that the SPCA needs support to sustain their services. As the demand grows, so does its operating costs. The city and businesses and individuals are all making contributions, but the GNWT does not. Will the Minister commit to finding funds to support the operations of the NWT SPCA?

Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to follow up on questions that my colleague from the Mackenzie Delta was asking the Minister of Infrastructure about ice bridge construction. Before this session, I met with a number of delegates from the community of Nahanni Butte, and they spoke about the lack of employment opportunities in the communities. One of the concerns was why weren't local residents and the community's equipment used to build the Nahanni bridge crossing. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain the process that is used to build the ice crossing at Nahanni Butte? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is going to be an interesting discussion because the Nahanni Butte ice crossing is flooded, dredged, and profiled by the Nahanni Butte Dene band. They already do that work. I know our department brings in the heavy equipment, the Sno-Cats and plow trucks, once they get that up to that speed, and we work with the community on providing their local labour, employments benefits to the community as much as we can.

I greatly appreciate the Minister for that answer in explaining that the community gets it going, but my understanding is that the government takes over. Can the Minister explain: does the GNWT staff, after this road has been built, does their staff look after it afterwards?

As I said, the community is responsible for the construction of the ice crossing through a service contract that they have with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Once an ice crossing is constructed and ice thickness can handle heavy equipment, specialized ice road construction equipment, such as the Sno-Cats and plow trucks, are brought in either from Fort Simpson or Fort Liard. The reason we do this is because the Nahanni Butte Dene band doesn't have this equipment in place. We're there to help them if they were to go out and purchase this type of equipment, that we would certainly look at handing over this portion of the contract to them.

I appreciate the answer from the Minister, and I understand that. The community has come to me and said that they are willing to do this. Will the department look at having the community build and maintain the ice bridge in the future years?

As I've said, we're willing to work with the community if they're willing to go out and purchase equipment. We're certainly willing to hand over the rest of the contract to them to employ their local people and get the most benefit that they can out of it, as much as they can from their community. We're also working with them around their financial management of their contract, as well, and encouraging them to submit invoices in a timely manner so they can recover their costs on a faster basis to be able to help them move this along.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.