Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are not willing to do that. We received funding from the federal government to develop some online workshops for Aboriginal governments, and so we are in the middle of that process, and so at this point, no, we are not going to disrupt our services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On my left I have Eleanor Young. She is the deputy minister for Municipal and Community Affairs. On my right is Gary Schauerte. He is the director of Corporate Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the New Deal in 2007, it is up to communities to decide what they are using their funds for. We provide the funds to the communities. They decide within their capital planning process what type of infrastructure they would like, whether it is an arena or youth centre, whatever it may be, swimming pool, et cetera, and then they use the operating and maintenance funding that we provide them as well to be able to operate those facilities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The NGO Stabilization Fund is actually one that I am very familiar with. It is a resource very critical to these social agencies, the non-government social agencies within communities in the Northwest Territories. It was presented during the capital planning process.

There was a bit of miscommunication. It was promoted as it was really to support volunteers. That is a little bit incorrect. The assumption is that non-government organizations do use a lot of volunteers for their boards. A lot of the boards actually have to have volunteers. They cannot be paid positions. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has nine unfunded positions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, no, we are not inviting other communities to the table. We are looking at the communities that have some kind of ground ambulance or rescue services in place to be able to provide those provisions, so only those that have the services that can provide ground ambulance currently are going to be at the table. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we are not looking at turning it over to LGANT. Currently, LGANT only provides support services to their membership, whereas we provide supports to all municipal and Aboriginal governments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 477-18(2): Housing Engagement Strategy." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department provides supports to all community governments in the administration of their obligations as a government. When we notice that communities are having a little bit of difficulty, we actually bump up our support to those governments and offer to go in. It can be one-on-one. We can be working with them intensely. Again, once communities have identified a problem or we see a problem, we intensify our support to that community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our beginning meeting will be at the beginning of the fiscal year in April. I am very hopeful that we will have it done in time for the end of the fiscal year. The reality is we are dealing with five organizations, so what I would like to see as a timeline might not be the same timeline that all of the five organizations -- there are some issues that need to be hashed out, so I do see it taking a little bit of time to deal with it appropriately. Thank you, Mr. Chair.