Member for Frame Lake.
Debates of March 4th, 2022
This is page numbers 3755 - 3792 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 know.
Topics
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Okay, thanks for that. On page 340 is contributions, and I see that we have something called community financial services contributions, and can I just get some more information about how communities actually access that? And obviously it was fully used last year so maybe some understanding of who -- who can access it and what it's used for. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Gareau
Thank you. This funding is to provide short-term assistance to community governments who may be experiencing operational difficulties. So what happens is we would provide them with funding to hire a short-term contracted financial services to come and help them with their financial practices or to strengthen their financial management.
The financial position of a community government can deteriorate rather quickly if some of those key administrative positions are vacant. So this helps them hire some short-term technical assistance while their longer term staffing is playing out.
And examples of -- so in terms of how they access the funding is they would contact our regional office and make the request, and we would work with them to better understand their request and help them with their staffing and any other short-term needs they may have. Types of work that communities do with this funding is to hire bookkeeping and accounting services if they need their audited financial statements restated, like at yearend where it's urgent that they meet the deadline and it can't wait for the position to be staffed. They can also access this funding for financial training and cleanup of accounting records. A lot of it is for reporting and accounting purposes, where it's critical or there's a timeline for them to get the information done. Thank you.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Yeah, no, thanks. No, that sounds like a -- good to have that kind of contingency there and available to communities. We want to avoid communities going into administration under MACA. So no, it sounds good.
Madam Chair, I don't have any further questions on this section. Thank you.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Lesa Semmler
Are there any further questions under this section?
Seeing none, Municipal and Community Affairs, community operations, operations expenditure summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $2,383,000. Does committee agree?
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge
Directorate, beginning on page 342 with information item on page 345. Open up for questions. Ms. Cleveland.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are in regards to the policy and planning division. I note that in 2021-2022, the actuals were at $866,000. I'm wondering why for this year's mains, they've come down to 606. Thank you.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Gareau
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The main reason is for it's the travel reduction that was applied across the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my concern with this is that I see even from the year before there that the number was still much lower and that we're not seeing an increase either to staff cohort; there is no increase to staff in directorate. And one of the things that this Assembly continues to talk about, and especially Regular Members on this side, is concerns over the backlog, the legislative backlog rather, with the Department of MACA. And so I'm wondering how they intend to accomplish their legislative commitments without increasing their staff cohort? Thank you.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Shane Thompson Nahendeh
Thank you. I'll start, and then I'll turn to the deputy minister. But we are looking at trying to address this with -- I think it's interns and staff, the alignment or whatever -- however you want to call it, to address this. I think we've got a new director in -- a director in place, and this individual has developed a really good plan that we feel that will help us achieve what we need to do during this Assembly and moving forward. But for further detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister with your permission, Mr. Chair.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Gareau
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of our legislative agenda, we do have two large pieces of legislation where the review is currently underway, the Fire Protection Act as well as the Property Assessment and Taxation Act. So we are taking on some larger legislative projects during the life of this Assembly.
We're also actively working to bring community governments under the ATIPP legislation which is a piece of Justice legislation. So, you know, I would say that our legislation is -- our legislative agenda is fairly ambitious.
In terms of how we're getting that done, we are looking at getting some short-term assistance through hiring additional positions, casuals, interns, summer students, and we will also use contract work if required. But the intent very much is to get our legislative agenda done this legislative session. Thank you.
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Committee Motion 195-19(2): Tabled Document 561-19(2): Main Estimates 2022-2023 Justice - Deferral of Department, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 3770
Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I guess I just -- I don't understand how this happens where, you know, hiring interns is absolutely excellent; it still costs money. Finance doesn't pay for the entire bill and so there still needs to be a budget allocated to that. And if -- you know, if they're bringing in short-term employees, then those positions still need funding, and that's not reflected here.
In addition to that, if the plan is to use some contract services to get this work done, which I'm fully in support of, the 2021-2022 Main Estimates is the same as the 2022-2023 Main Estimates under contract services. And so this is one of those situations where I guess I'm just not seeing how MACA is setting themselves up to bring in the staff needs in order to do this work that has been committed to. And I know that this work, too, has kind of been passed from multiple different deputy ministers. And so I acknowledge that this deputy minister is receiving this -- this backlog but it still is a commitment of what the Assembly would like to see done.
In addition to that, there's been a lot of talk about the municipal funding formula and reviewing that with NWTAC and so is that work also expected to come out of this division as well? Thank you.