Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Minister stated that, you know, he was in sports and rec for 30 years. The issue is that what -- you know, over the years, things have changed. Back then, probably didn't have cell phones; people weren't, you know, doing drugs like they are nowadays. There's a lot of distractions. And you know, we've got to adapt to those changing times and realizing that the good old days aren't here anymore. And the youth do need our support. And, you know, I think it's up to this government. We've got -- you know, the youth and the communities look to us because we've got basically the resources to help them out. And to be successful, we have to -- we need to get the youth excited and engaged if we expect volunteers to step forward because enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm, and if the youth are engaged and they're enthusiastic, they're going to make sure that the volunteers come out. You know, in the past, I know when I was growing up, it was always the teachers and the RCMP that were the ones that were always out there and, you know, providing that -- you know, that volunteerism that, you know, helped us grow as youth. So I think it's so important, and I know we talk about it and we talk and yet we seem to have to really fight for, you know, the few little dollars that are out there. You know, there's some good things that come out of it. You know, the Kole Crook Fiddle Association, you know, I think they were looking at, you know, hopefully a multiyear agreement as well for, you know, going around to the communities and teaching fiddling. So, you know -- and the youth I think really enjoy that. And I know in Hay River it's successful. It keeps people off the street, kids off the street. I know, you know, parents are proud of the kids.

And, you know, you see residents as well, you know, buying fiddles and guitars and donating them to the association. So there's hope out there. And another one there -- and I promised the Minister I would bring this up, and that's the ski club in Hay River. And you know, when it first started back a few years, it was part of the lottery program and it was -- you know, it received, you know, year to year funding as a legacy retail recipient. But then all of a sudden, the government of the day came and conned them out of the arrangement with a promise for better times. Well, those better times lasted for -- on a five-year agreement and, you know, we've been lucky here in this last three years, the Minister has coughed up a little bit of money. And I'm trying to get another year or a long term -- or another agreement out of him. But it's pretty tough. But when I look at -- you know, when I look at say the ski club for instance, there is an activity, like, there's ski and snowshoeing. It's something that can be sustained and -- throughout the territory just like the Kole Crook Fiddle Association and taught. And, you know, we've got long winters up north and, you know, kids are outside, youth are outside -- well, hopefully they are, and they're willing to do those type of things. You know, the cost of it isn't too bad but we know that there's been, you know, on the ski side anyway, you know, there's been Olympians that have come out of that. So I think there's an opportunity there. But I'm just hoping that the department and the Minister sees that, looks beyond, you know, kind of what's just in front of their nose and looks at -- and look at what could be. So anyways, so I'm hoping that at the end of the day that, you know, with respect to at least the ski club that we're able to get them some funding this year. I've asked for it. I was kind of hoping the Minister of Finance will promise it but I haven't heard from her. But, you know, it's a little bit, and I think the volunteers are actually getting -- they are getting frustrated and, you know, if we're not backing them, they're going to slowly start to walk away. You know, they've got lives to live and, you know, they're dealing with high costs; they're dealing with all the things that everybody else is dealing with. So, you know, if we want to do something, we've got to -- you know, like my colleague said, you know, we got to put the money in there and we got to put it into areas that we're getting -- you know, that we're getting best bang for the buck. And so we really have to look at it. But anyways, you know, when it comes to -- when it comes to sports, I'm all for it and, you know, the more money we can put into it, the more we can offer the smaller communities because, you know, we see people going in -- we see young kids and young adults going in to, you know, the Canada Winter Games, we see them going to the Arctic Winter Games, but when you look at it, what I see sometimes is -- I don't see as many kids from the communities. I see kids from the regional centres, kids from more affluent families.

So there is that gap there, and we've got to -- you know, we have to fill it, you know and, like, you know, in the communities, smaller communities, it is costly to get out of there. We see what the cost of flying is. So all I ask is that the Minister, you know, take a look at what we could do, and same with the Cabinet Ministers on the other side is that, you know, give us some thought, and how can we better, you know, make use of some of the money that we do have and maybe put it into the regional and communities -- smaller communities and really support some of the sports initiatives that are out there. So, again, like my colleague, it's more of a rant, I guess, than anything. But I know the Minister's heard me talk about this a number of times, and he probably will for a while. But anyway, thank you.

Thank you. I did not hear any questions for the Minister. So I will move on to Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I echo everything that my colleagues have been saying. As the deputy chair of the social development committee, I would be remiss if I did not also express my disappointment to not see more money here.

A couple points that I just want to add, because I don't want to keep bringing up the same things, but I want to add that while we're giving this amount of money to youth organizations and sport, etcetera, this doesn't factor in all the money that not only the time the volunteers are putting in but the money themselves. So they're paying for their own flights to things. They're paying for some of the youth to go with them. They're paying for food, all of these kinds of things, not to mention all the fundraising that has to be done. So basically the communities and the families and the coaches are subsidizing the sport program in the North yet the North takes the accolades when we win gold, silver, etcetera at games.

So when I hear the Minister say that the problem is people in the communities not wanting to use infrastructure that's been built for them, I ask why we're talking about that in the operations and maintenance budget when that's a capital conversation. It is not the fault of people in the communities around sport funding maybe not being adequate. I do take exception to that comment, especially when I look through this entire area of programming and the contributions are all to community organizations. If I look through, for example, get active NWT, funds to encourage groups to organize, healthy choices initiatives, after school activity programs in communities, youth contributions. All of these things are going to the communities themselves. So if anything -- if this Cabinet truly had a mandate and a want to get money into the communities and to increase employment in communities, this is exactly an area in which they could do so. So it's very disappointing to see all these numbers remain quite stagnant.

And giving on top of that the alarming rise in youth suicide and suicidal ideation, to me it's actually shameful, again, that we're not putting more money here.

For example, let's look at the youth centres. $500,000, Madam Chair. That is over, what, 33 communities? That works out to $15,000 a youth centre. What is a community -- what is an organization -- who even is these people that are organizing and running the youth centre for $15,000 a year? If they can even get a building. That's the other piece of it. This is not even, you know -- this -- again, I'm just reiterating what my colleagues are saying here, that this is being put on to people in communities to do this work. We all know that increasing funding to sports and youth programming will decrease the amount of mental health issues that we're seeing. It will increase physical wellness. And I also reiterate that it is very Yellowknife and regional centered centric. I heard those same complaints during Arctic Winter Games tryouts, that it was very difficult for small communities to come into Yellowknife and a lot of people were sleeping on beds and such. So even if you just look at that from a purely competitive perspective, those kids that are sleeping on a cot in a gymnasium with no showers are going to do poorly compared to someone who is living in their nice fancy home in Yellowknife. So while I, you know, support my community and my constituency and their athletes, it is very elitist. And I don't have a question. It's another comment. But I want to say this -- having no increases, given the amount of work that our committee has done, is shameful. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the small communities, I know that, okay, we are dealing with lots in small communities. We have mental health issues. We have addiction issues. We have suicide issues, especially among young people. You know, with all these social issues that we have, we have a lot of homelessness too, just like the one that I mentioned and we have a lot of youth that are in care in child welfare system. So I just wanted to ask -- like, I mean this government needs to do more with sports and recreation. And we need to provide more programs and services, especially to small communities. And like my colleagues have said, you know, when Arctic Winter Games comes or Canada Winter Games, who do you see? We see people -- you know, young people. We don't see too many of the outlying communities or small communities youth. We see same youth every year until they age out or, you know, until they go to university or leave for post-secondary, but it's always the same family, same affluent people, youth, families, or whatever, you know, like, I mean, it's the same. It's the same all around. And there's nobody new.

Just like, for example, in my community, one of the youth that I mentioned is from another community. She participated, attended the Arctic Winter Games because she was going to school in Behchoko at that time. She was attending Chief Jimmy Bruneau. So she had a chance. She had to move away from her community. And a lot of these youth, that's what they do is that if they want to participate or have a chance to live a good life or to have a chance attending, like this high performance athletic, you know, for sport, they have to move to Yellowknife or to other regional centre where there's more opportunity for them. And there's nothing like that in small communities.

For example, in Gameti, you know, they don't have a youth centre. And a lot of these communities, they need programs. And in order to access some of the programs, they're saying there too that to be eligible there's got to be ten youth. And if you go to Wekweeti, there's like -- you know, there's not too many youth there. So a lot of these communities are disadvantaged, you know, and I'm just thinking of a lot of those other small communities like Wekweeti in the NWT. Like, we need to do more and lift some of these barriers so that all these communities can have access where they can send their kids to participate freely so that at the next Arctic Winter Games, I hope we don't see the same youth from the same family. You know, like -- and then, and from one place. I would like to see variety. I would like to see more of our young people from the small communities because they are the -- for us, for me, they are the champion because a lot of them are dealing with mental health issues. A lot of them are dealing with addictions, suicide. A lot of social issues in small communities. And I'm real proud of my two pages that are here that are from small communities, and it is one of their friends that attended our school who made it to Arctic Winter Games. So she had to move away. We shouldn't have young people leaving their community, moving away to participate, to have a chance. So that's why I'm saying that this government is not doing enough. Even for here, you know, like recreation funding, 1.2. And 1.2, that is not enough. And 1.2, and then there's that healthy choice initiative.

We all want our young people to make good choices. Like, all the social issues that I mentioned, how are we going to -- we would all like for our youth to do well, to get -- you know, like to have more access to social programs where they can help themselves too as well and know that a lot of these youth, they don't want to be in that situation. They want to do something good for themselves. They want to succeed in life. But if the way that this budget is, we're not giving them a choice. We're not giving them a chance to succeed. They're just -- they're going to be left behind. We're going to leave them behind just like as within the education system. We have a lot of good teachers, and we have a lot of young -- we have a lot of people -- just like my colleague said, there's a lot of people that would like to volunteer. We have a lot of those in small communities that are willing to help the youth because we know of the social crisis; we know of the social issues that our youth are faced. And crack cocaine is the number one choice because we all know that is cheaply made, and it's cheaper to get, you know, and they're dangerous. And there's lots of that in small communities.

So I just wanted to ask the Minister he's funding healthy choices initiative, is it -- how is this fund allocated? Is it by need or by application?

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So it's not an application. So we provide money according to a formula went to each of the schools in the territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Okay. And even with the recreation funding, in -- I mentioned that last week in my Member's statement, community government, due to the budget -- or due to the gap in funding, community government had to lay off some people, and especially in recreation area. And they had to rent the community government office space so that they can support their programs and services, fund their program and services. So that is -- I mean, we shouldn't have to do that but in a lot of places, we have to. We have no choice. And that's -- that's in order to support to help our youth.

When it comes to fundraising and things like that, our youth, they're happy to do those work. They're happy about it because we see them, you know, like working together. I know that's a part of team building and teamwork. So I mean, that -- you know, it's not just Tlicho youth. There's youth all over, that's what they do. But when they go out, I know that -- and when they go out for their sport, they are so happy that it really helps with their self-esteem as well. So what I would like to do is -- what I would like to see is more funding or more money put into recreation funding so that we don't have to lay off recreation staff that provide good program and services for our youth to succeed, to live a healthy lifestyle, like, you know, to -- or to make a good healthy choice.

So I just wanted to ask the Minister that will the Minister commit to make some changes to this funding and provide more -- to provide more money to this recreation funding -- to increase the funding? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Thank you. So what I can commit is I will have a conversation with my colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none, Members, please turn to page 360. Municipal and Community Affairs, sports, recreation and youth, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 2023-2024, $8,459,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. There are additional information items on page 366 and 367. If there's no questions, thank you, Members.

Please return now to the departmental summary found on page 331. Revenue summary information items on page 333. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious, MACA only has one ADM, the least of any other department. The Minister's other department has five ADMs. Has there been any consideration to giving yourself another ADM or any reason why that is? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

No. And we have 109 staff. Thank you.

Any further questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

So, yes, that's just the nature of our department. So right now, no. This is our seven key activities. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, committee, I will now call the departmental summary. Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditure, total department, 2023-2024 Main Estimates, $185,681,000. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs at this time. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

The motion is in order. To the motion?