Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Look, if you guys need some extra money to get this work done by hiring a few consultants to go in and work with communities to get inventories done, please do it, bring it forward in a supplementary appropriation so we can get this done quick. Thanks, Madam Chair. That's all I have.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess my first question is your community governments share a capital formula funding and your municipal funding gap, are they based on need or per capita?

Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.

Based on both.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

So if you really want to think out of the box, Madam Chair, I think the Minister has to clarify what he just said because, you know, when you have a city of Yellowknife at a $58 million surplus and rising taxes for the residents, because I had a lot of people from Yellowknife tell me that the taxes were risen quite -- there was a big rise in taxes here, obviously the capital isn't suffering.

Whereas on the other hand, if you really want to address the municipal funding gap and the capital formula funding for communities and regional centres, we've got to reverse the way we think. And sometimes it takes a lot of leadership in order to make proper right decisions to address some of those gaps. And I just want to know how if the Minister is willing to think out of the box and show some leadership with regards to these gaps? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.

So we're working with NWTAC, as I said previously. We're also working with our three -- or our other two territorial governments, Nunavut and the Yukon, to reach out to the federal government to talk about this. We're working collaboratively with NWTAC and their sister organizations on a plan we're trying to address. And when we look outside the box and inside the box, we are making the commitment to have four programs or policies that we have and they're going to be done this fiscal year. So it's going to be done, prepared, and working with them. So we are addressing this. We have 33 communities, and we're working with them to make sure that their needs are met where we can. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

Well, 32 communities are waiting for a more -- to fill the gap, Madam Chair. And I want to know how the Minister is going to address that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Thank you. As I said before, we're working with NWTAC and working with the municipalities, we're fixing the policies. And as we moved forward, we're also reaching out to the federal government. So we got a number of prongs moving forward to address this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Minister of Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. 32 communities are not at this table to vote for this budget, though. Okay. It comes through us that -- and we represent the people out there. And, you know, I just want to make sure that those gaps are looked at seriously because when you go around the communities and regional centres, there's a lot of infrastructure that is lacking. The municipal funding gap is there in those 32 communities, and I want to know how you're going to address that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.

Thank you. I don't know how to make it any clearer. We're working with NWTAC. We're working -- so that's 33 communities there. We are working to fix the policy. The policies -- the four policies will be going to committee. Committee will have that opportunity to look there. We're also looking to the federal government to see if they are able to help us. I have -- we've reached out to the two territorial Ministers already. We've had conversations. And, again, as I said, we're working with NWTAC and they're working with their sister organizations so we can work collaboratively to be able to address this. This is just not an NWT issue. It is also a Nunavut and Yukon, and so we're trying to work together with that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

I don't have any further questions; I don't get a direct answer anyways. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Any further questions under this? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to read something out here from the information we got. It says here the department's responsible for the development and maintenance of community governments responsive -- and responsible to the residents with sufficient legal authority and resources to carry out community responsibilities to provide their public programs and services essential to good community life and to deal effectively with other governments and organizations. The department is also responsible for protecting interests of consumers.

Madam Chair, I guess what I'm looking for is that -- I just want to go the issue of flooding and MACA's I guess response in how they're dealing with that in terms of mitigation and how that's going to be funded, how those mitigation measures will be funded for the community of Hay River, hopefully prior to, you know, next season to avoid any -- you know, any -- yeah, any other flooding, at least severe flooding. So, you know, what's -- I guess what are they doing, and have they identified any money for a capital budget? Because there will be, you know, berms and different initiatives that are going to be required to provide those mitigation measures. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of MACA.