Caroline Cochrane

Our first step actually is to do a thorough analysis of the audit and look at the recommendations that are in that. The other thing that we are doing actually, and just implementing currently, again is we are asking all of our staff within the Municipal and Community Affairs for suggestions on ways to improve, and that includes the recommendations within the audit. So until that work is done then I can't commit to doing a zero-based review.

There's a number of factors that actually stand in the way of -- it's not that we don't fulfil our mandate it's maybe we're not progressing and maybe not doing as much paperwork as we need to, so there are some issues. Municipal and Community Affairs is based on -- years ago we changed it into what's called a "New Deal" and that is really about community development. It's about empowering the communities to acknowledge what their strengths are and their needs are; which is something I really support. So we do try to provide training and support to them.

One of the other challenges that we have...

I should clarify. When I say mistakes were made, it's not that we made a mistake in asking if we needed them at the time. It's just that it does take a couple of years for us to do the business plan and then get the units constructed, so we did err in that way. But it wasn't a mistake to put the units in.

Can we consult on the small communities? Absolutely. We are just in the process, like I had done in my Minister's statement earlier, that we're in the process of rolling out our engagement survey, which will ask each community what type of housing that they need in their community. Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, there's a number of programs that people can access to maintain their homes, to take care of their homes, again making sure that they do fall within the highest maximum income threshold. So within that region, we're talking $107,000. So if you make more than $107,000 you won't quality for the programs in that region; however, under that amount they can access a variety of programs. For example, we have the CARE Minor Program which would do minor renovations, a CARE Major Program that'll do things like fixing your roof, your furnaces up to $100,000. We have...

Right at this point, it's hard to determine whether it will be done during this current Legislative Assembly. However, like I have stated, we are researching it at this point. We do have other major legislations that we are putting through with this Assembly related to health or public safety, so those are our priorities at this time. Once that work is all finished, the next step will be to look at these legislative amendments that they're requesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated already, the department is already at the point of researching these requests, so we've already given direction to look into them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So the Sutcliffe Report was actually received in January 2016 and it was shared with the affected organizations for their comment on April 2016, so not that long ago. Between April and July, the department took a comprehensive review and analysis of the report. On August 19th, the former Minister of MACA announced that the department's modified approach to western Canada's lottery funding and the creation of a new NWT Sports Recreation and Physical Activity Funding Policy which will be used to guide our funding allocations and our operational components.

The department is also moving forward...

Yes, a draft NWT Sport Recreation and Physical Activity Policy has been developed that will be used to guide the funding and operational decision-making for the department. This policy is an internal document though and doesn't represent the whole NWT Sectorial Policy which we'll be looking at on a later date.

So the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has made a commitment to work with all of the territorial sports organizations to assist them in filling out the applications for the territorial funding. We do have a standardized application form, and any organization that needs assistance with filling out that form is being told that we are more than happy to work with them, to sit with them, and to help them figure out how to work through the form. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, a meeting was held with Sport North probably, and I may be wrong, was probably about two weeks ago, although my dates might be a little bit foggy, it was just recently though. Sport North did come in because they were concerned about the process with the Sutcliffe Report. They were concerned about where they fit within the bigger pictures, in honestly. So we talked at quite length about the funding arrangements. We agreed at the end of the meeting that the funding would stay within the Government of the Northwest Territories, but that we would work with Sport North...