Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And then I guess my question is really who do I ask the question to? I know Lands has -- a big part of its lease fee is based on the value of the property, which I assume they get that information from MACA, but the vast majority of properties just pay a standardized lease rate because they don't actually get high enough threshold. Like, you know, they're not a mine as an example. And then, I believe, I just want to clarify, is it Finance who ultimately has the policy for how much tax is being paid in the hinterland and they get that information from MACA here? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Thank you. So my understanding is that we do the assessment. We then give it to Finance, and then Finance comes up with the calculation of what the taxes are. And there's a formula there and for the life of me, I would ask you to ask the finance minister to explain that because I'm still trying to learn it and I've been working with the department for 23 years and I've been an MLA for six. And it's a very interesting -- and I say interesting, it's a well thought out formula. And so -- but I'm not an accountant so I don't totally understand. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. You know, yeah, I know many of my constituents have been receiving bills for years and they're still trying to figure it out because they're dealing with at least three departments, and it's also based on what type of lease you got at what time. I'm just wondering if perhaps -- and I know that you guys just do the assessments but I think far too much assessment is being done of what are essentially cabins that could probably just pay one fee to one department. We could probably even raise the fee and make some money and at least there would be one bill.

Is there some work being done between the various departments that deal with the kind of hinterland about whether there's just too much counting going on to collect what are pretty small tax bills? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Thank you. First, to his comment that, you know, let's just raise the rates there, I hate to say it, I've been dealing with this for a while in the Lands, and for four years before was when I was the MLA and the lands issue and the fees are something very, very difficult, and people get very excited about it. So you may get some emails from people saying that's not a good idea.

But in regards to how we work together, yes, we work with the Department of Lands; we work with Finance, to try to address it, try to come up with a formula that works for everybody. But as you've heard me talk about as Minister of Lands, we're in the process of looking at a number of regulations in that. So again, we have to work together and we can't go ahead of somebody else until the other one is there. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions from Members under community governance?

Seeing none, Municipal and Community Affairs, community governance, operations expenditure summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $2,146,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will now turn to community operations on 339 with information items on 340 and 41. Questions?

Seeing -- oh, Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking -- or have some questions around the asset management.

Now, maybe first I'll just start with is this reflective of the department's assets in communities or is this to help communities with maintaining and dealing with their own assets? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

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

Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that's great. This is definitely an area where when, you know, you don't pay attention to it it gets out of control and then when you have to go ahead and buy $400,000 loaders, people are like why are we spending that money. So I think that's great.

Is there a way or is part of this work to train people in those communities in order to be more of, say, warehousers, inventory asset managers, the trades around those types of work? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So my understanding through it is we have a program that we work on. We try to train the community on it. We've had some -- it was -- it used to be hands on but with the COVID situation, we've had some problems. But we are now ramping it up again to work with the communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate that, yeah, it was probably kind of difficult to do that. And I know that -- and when I speak to this, it's sort of the same as with the community financial services contributions, which I think is probably similar to just help them take care of their accounting according to the detail.

I guess where I'm going with this, and the Minister probably knows, is that I would like to see this becoming more a transition into the communities where they are more independent and it not being us coming in and doing that for them. So if there is a component -- a specific training component that's being rolled out or maybe perhaps plans for one rather than just sort of we're working -- and I guess I'm asking, is there formalized training around that? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So -- and I'll turn it to the deputy minister but my understanding is yes, there is formal training. It is about training the community to be -- for about the program, how to utilize the program, how the program helps them move forward on it. So it's very not much about us doing it; it's us working with the community to give them the skills to do it. But for further detail, with your permission, Madam Chair, I would turn to the deputy minister for her to clarify anything that I may have said wrong or clarify if there's other stuff out there. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister Gareau.