Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, communities are allowed to save their money from capital revenues, and that is important because some communities want to build bigger infrastructure units, such as a public swimming pool or a library or things that take multi-year funding. That money is retained by the communities in their bank accounts, but we do get a financial audit every year provided to Municipal and Community Affairs so that we can oversee their spending and their reserves. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The designated authorities are actually communities that are actually funded or supported through Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. They are not under the territorial legislation. We have a more limited authority over those communities, but their funding is provided based on the same needs assessment that we did for all communities when we did the new deal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It took me a moment to clarify what the question was. The money that we give to communities is actually their monies. They use their monies as they see fit. Some communities have surpluses with that, and some have deficits, and so we try to work with the communities that have deficits to try to address those by a deficit recovery plan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things we are doing. We are actually working on a strategy to address the funding gap that I talked about in Committee of the Whole yesterday, that we would be providing to the Members in the fall, coming up. We are working with the federal government to leverage their infrastructure money. Ultimately, it is the communities' responsibility to define what they want to do for capital projects and infrastructure building, so we actually provide supports to the communities to define their capital planning process.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like I said, that information is public at this point. You can access it through our website. I will carry that recommendation forward into the next year's capital estimates planning process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, our guidelines actually are very explicit on the type of infrastructure that they are allowed to utilize out of the capital funding. If they have used their funding inappropriately against the guidelines, then we work very closely with the communities to try to get them to stay on track. They may have to sometimes pay back from other revenues that they may take in, but we have explicit guidelines on where they are allowed to spend the money, and we do oversee to make sure that that funding is spent appropriately. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Their guidelines are the same as for all communities. However, I should note that, based on the Office of the Auditor General, we are trying to work closer with INAC, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, to provide more of a comprehensive support to those designated authorities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Ms. Eleanor Young. She is the deputy minister for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I said earlier, we provide the funding to the communities. They determine what they are using the money for. Some communities are building up surpluses so they can build bigger infrastructure items. No, I will not commit to going in and using an iron fist with communities. I believe that that is a step backwards. We are working towards selfgovernment, selfdetermination, and I as a Minister will adhere to that within my term. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.