There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

We will sit beyond 6:00 p.m. to conclude this item. Comments or questions? Regional operations. Seeing none, I will call this activity. Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $90,899,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Moving quickly to the final activity or, rather, activity six, school of community government, pages 351 to 354. Municipal and Community Affairs, school of community government, operations expenditure summary. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell us whether there are any new courses, programs, modules, whatever, related to access to information for municipal governments as part of the 2019-2020 budget for the school of community government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As previously said, we are still waiting for the bill to pass through and working with our municipal governments on an implementation plan. We've got to look at the resources. We've got to look at the types of training. We are going to be playing a pretty major role in this, and we want to make sure that we do it right, so we have been having those discussions, and concerns have been brought up by specifically the City of Yellowknife. At this moment, we don't have one right now, but we are going to be looking at creating an implementation plan for this act. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I sort of wish that I could be a fly on the wall at the NWTAC meetings this weekend, where I think this is going to be raised. I am a bit surprised that the department hasn't sort of done some pre-planning around this. Is it safe to say, then, that the Minister will be bringing forward or requesting a supplementary appropriation to put some additional resources into the school of community government with regard to access to information for a little later this year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As this is a new piece of legislation, like any other new legislation or program initiatives that we are doing, we are going to be evaluating and monitoring. As this might take over a couple or a few years, we will be looking at that. Right now, I don't think we do need a supplementary appropriation. We will be working with our municipal governments to see how we can support them and support them within the department. Who knows what kinds of requests we are going to get through ATIP, and that is something that we are going to monitor to ensure that we do have the resources available for all of our municipalities and to provide the training and, on our side, providing the proper resources to get that passed through. Thank you, and through you, Mr. Chair, maybe I will ask my DM for a little bit more detail.

Ms. Young.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Those are all my questions. I just think that the department is going to have to seek some additional resources to assist communities in terms of the implementation of this important piece of legislation, and I look forward to dealing with a supplementary appropriation later this year. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Municipal and Community Affairs, school of community government, operations expenditure summary, $2,860,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to page 356, the final activity, sport, recreation and youth. Seeing none -- oh, Mr. Thompson.

Almost, almost, almost there, Mr. Chair. I will just stand up and make sure I get recognized. Thank you. Mr. Chair, talking about the NGO Stabilization Fund, I would like, first of all, to thank the Minister and Cabinet for the significant increase in the funding, of which has been seen, you know, it was doubled, so I think that is an amazing feat. I thank them for that. I understand that the department is going to undertake an evaluation of the NGO Stabilization Fund to ensure that the funding is being distributed accordingly to the policy, including seeking input from past funding recipients when work is done. When does this department intend to undertake this work? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The evaluation process for the NGO Stabilization Fund would and will include interviews with and input by previous applicants, whether they were successful or unsuccessful. That is something that we heard clearly during the business plan review. We are hoping that this review will be completed by early summer, and any changes, potential changes, to the policy would obviously take effect in the next fiscal year. We did hear committee's concerns. We appreciate that committee did support and supports the program and that you are happy that we did get an increase for this fiscal year. The evaluation, we will be working on that, and, like I said, hopefully have some changes to present the committee early this summer, and then they have those changes made in the next fiscal year, the next government, really. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department, are they going to do it internally or externally for the evaluation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It will be external. We will be going through an RFP for this work. Thank you.