Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. We may not agree with what the numbers are, but we are working with NWTHC. We've reached out. We're having conversations. And that's the extent of what I can tell you right now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm wondering if the Minister can provide a little bit more on the needs assessment. I get some of the point of conflict is based on these kind of arguments of well, you can go get, you know, federal money for that, or perhaps you don't need a brand new pool, or you know, things like that. Can the Minister just speak to work we're doing to kind of re-evaluate what proper infrastructure looks like for a community.

I guess in the larger context, this is a very big conversation happening across Canada. Most of our municipalities are in just terrible fiscal situations and have out-built themselves in regards to infrastructure and can't afford to maintain it. Ours are obviously in a similar position.

I'm actually curious what the department's philosophy is. Are we telling, you know, certain communities not to build a certain way; are we providing direction like that? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. No. The new deal, no. Real simple, no, we're not telling the communities what to do. We're giving them the budget. They're building what they see. In my previous experience in the department, I would tell people not to build a pool. Costs a whole bunch of money to operate a pool, whether it's staffing, water, chemicals, and that. Don't build an arena either. Sometimes the needs are there.

So I can tell you that I have had questions asked on this floor why I've said no in previous years, but now with the new deal, the communities have been -- we've given them the opportunity to do their direction. They understand their -- what they want to do, what they -- they're making choices. And so there's consequences when choices are being made. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess just a comment. I think there's probably -- I recognize we have to let communities make their decisions on their infrastructure. There's some complication there in that a lot of that infrastructure we sometimes become ultimately responsible for. I also think that -- I mean, it's not -- the GNWT's not really in a position to tell people not to build a bunch of infrastructure you can't afford to maintain. But I think there's probably some very large policy work to be done to assess all of the community infrastructure, all of the GNWT infrastructure, and have a better picture of the needs assessment. I recognize the scale of such a project, but I just really don't think our smaller communities have a handle on it, and I don't really believe our GNWT has a handle on it.

Can the Minister speak to the extent that we're doing work to really get a picture of how bad our infrastructure deficit is. I know we all just say we have a billion dollar infrastructure deficit. But I'll note the vast majority of infrastructure in the territory, in any province or territory is municipal. So what is the extent we're tracking that and what work is being done there? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.

First of all, I disagree with the Member that the communities know what they want. Communities understand what their needs are. They make some choices. So we need to be very respectful of that. I have a problem when somebody says, well, we need to tell them what to do. No, we need to work with them, we need to educate them, we need to also make them understand what the challenges are out there. So we work with the municipalities. I know the Member represents Yellowknife North. I represent small communities and they tell me what they need, whether it's a pool, whether it's an arena, whether it's a community hall, whether it's a new sewer lagoon. So we work with the communities to do it. So that's our job, not to tell them what to do. So I would have to disagree with the Member on that. But we're more than willing to work with the municipalities, and we have amazing staff that are able to be reached out to and we're able to work with them on that. So as far the infrastructure deficit, depending on who you talk to, we would see what the deficits are. So that's one of our challenges moving forward is -- that's why we're willing to work with NWTAC to see these challenges moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just trying to understand how the gap works. So say, I'm going to use Yellowknife as an example because then I'm not getting into a debate about communities.

If Yellowknife builds a new pool, that increases the needs for their capital. So does that then mean we adjust the formula and they are then required to new money, or is it just based on a per capita kind of design, or does it actually depend on what has been built in the community? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. And Minister.

Thank you. For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yeah, I too just wanted to echo my colleague's disappointment to not see the extra two and a half million dollars here again this year. I know that the communities can really use that money.

I guess my question is of that money that was added to the MACA budgets, how many of that flowed through to the communities themselves and how much of that was taken up in either administrative or other MACA work and didn't actually get into the coffers of the community? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

It went all to the communities. Thank you. Based on our formula.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, that's good. I appreciate that. I guess just the question is with the ongoing cost of operations, etcetera, and maybe it's just me not being knowledgeable of how this works, but I can't see that the O and M is going to escalate over the next couple years particularly due to the supply chain issues etcetera with COVID. So are we expecting -- is there a formula that then adds money every year to this number, or will it be a re-calculation coming. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.