This is page numbers 1443 - 1480 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was housing.

Topics

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, that's the first time I've understood that we just simply froze them and they will eventually catch up. I am actually happy to hear that because I think, when you get all 33 communities to recognize they are all underfunded, maybe we'll get a little more political will to close this. My other question I'm wondering is that we did this big assessment in 2014 and we have the Community Public Infrastructure Funding Policy, which kind of recognizes that this is the ideal formula, but we're not using it. I have struggled to kind of understand this. The other issue that I know arises is that we did this work in 2014, but communities often go out and get federal dollars unrelated to us and build their own infrastructure. Are we presently monitoring that, or is that infrastructure then being adjusted into the formula? Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. With the federal money that is being applied for through the federal government and for the communities, we do support and look at those applications as they are being processed and submitted. We do take that into consideration, as well, but not toward the funding gap. I'll just have Ms. Young elaborate on that. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.

Young

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. We actually support the communities when they are accessing a lot of those federal pots. More to your question, when we do regularly update the numbers, with infrastructure in particular, we choose to use a third-party data source to help us update the numbers. What we use is the NWT Association of Communities Insurance Program and their appraisal process as a way to validate what infrastructure is built and what the value of that infrastructure is for the purposes of calculating the updated numbers. That is the mechanism we use to update numbers for the cost of the infrastructure. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. A general comment is that I consider myself relatively competent, and I've tried to understand this issue multiple times. It's very confusing when you go look at the formula and then you look at the policy and then you look at the different assessments. There seems to lack some consistency. Even community governments, when they submit their plans, are unsure whether they are in compliance, and I think this has caused a lot of frustration in general. Can the Minister speak to efforts we are doing to provide some more certainty to this formula and whether there is any intention to bring it into regulation or legislation? Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will revert the question over to Ms. Young. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.

Young

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Although it doesn't show on the formal list of legislative priorities, we actually have all of our funding policies scheduled for update during the life of this government, starting with our water and sewer funding policy, then moving to the operations funding, and then finally to the capital. That clarity will be there, for sure. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very glad that we will be updating all of those policies, and hopefully, we can bring a little more certainty to this area. My last one is a bit of a political pitch: I really do believe that investing in our communities is the best bang for our buck. I believe they spend that money in the communities and they are far more capable of delivering some of the services we as a government do. I really think the future of the NWT should be devolving more powers to both Indigenous and community governments and delivering those services locally. We have done a lot of that, but we haven't backed it up with the funding, which really just doesn't help anyone and results in worse services being delivered. My final question for the Minister is: I can't vote for this right now without a clearer path on how we are actually going to close this gap, especially given the hit municipalities have taken. Is the Minister willing to increase the municipal funding gap as I see it here? Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will revert the question over to Ms. Young.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Deputy Minister Young.

Young

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I will say, and one of the things that was a little difficult this year because of the order of things, the funding that was approved in the spring, we actually were recently consulted with the NWTAC and part of our conversation was using some of that money through their O and M funding to use for capital purposes so that we would be directing some of that mandate increase to capital, which is what we had hoped to do. Unfortunately, the timing of the capital plan and the operating budget didn't allow for the mandate funding to be approved in that manner, but the mandate objective of the government to put $5 million toward the funding gap. That is the mechanism we're using to put funding into capital for this year, and then we will use the processes available to us to keep chipping away at it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. Just in listening to the line of questioning from my colleague from Yellowknife North, designated communities came up, I think. I just want to get that expanded, if I could get a definition expanded of what are designated communities and what they mean by that. Marsi cho.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is, not a difference but then these are communities that still have -- I don't want to use the word "jurisdiction," either. They still have federal funding that supports their operation, as well, but they are within the territory, as well. It's quite complicated to explain. I will revert this over to Ms. Young. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Young.

Young

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify, was it how the designated authorities or smaller communities are funded for infrastructure? I didn't quite hear the question.

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, do you want to clarify your question?