Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, also in the statement there was a comment that the Minister of Finance was unable to explain the public accounts, well which makes perfect sense because I was not at that briefing. It was a technical briefing given by the officials of the department, so I just wanted to make that point. To the Member’s questions, I take her point; it is a very taxing document to read. I will make the commitment to work with my officials to have it available in a plainer language that’s easier for us to understand.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the water rates in the community reflect the cost of delivering water in the community. For a long time the community had very low water rates that were never adjusted and there was a bit of a sticker shock when they were adjusted, but I commend the community of McPherson. They stepped up to the plate and they realized that they were doing their part. We can review the whole thing, but to go back to the water rates that they had before would probably just put them back into the position that they were in before.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we work with the community. We explain to them the situation that was in the community and some of the changes that had to be made, that we made some adjustment to some of the rates in the community. I can be glad to say that the financial situation in the community has improved. We are looking at reinstating the council and mayor in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000, April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We as well would like our public to have confidence in our ability to deal with any type of development in the land that we look after. I will have conversations with my counterparts. We have a meeting coming up with the federal Minister. We can raise the issue at the time and see what the feedback is from the federal government, and we’ll use that as a go-forward basis. If we have to partner up with our neighbours, then we will do that. Again, as I said, we do want the public to have confidence in our ability to deal with any issues concerning the land.

GNWT Ministers are going to be meeting with the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change next month, and I can assure the Member that this issue will be raised at that time.

I’m not sure what the consequences are, maybe there’s an empty seat here, I don’t know. I will have a conversation with my officials, I’m sure we’ve met the requirements to the Fiscal Responsibility Policy, because I’m sure if we hadn’t then we’d be called onto the carpet for that, but I will confirm that and I will have a conversation with my officials.

The public accounts, I believe, is a tabled document. If we are going to put together a plain language summary, then we would also make that as a tabled document, put it on our website and let people that are interested in a plainer version of the public account document to be able to access it, and hopefully we can understand it a bit better.

Mr. Speaker, we will work with the new council and mayor once they’re elected if that is a priority of the community to change their water source and then we will look at that. We’ve had a number of communities across the Northwest Territories take advantage of the water treatment plant program and we can work with the community if it’s a desire of theirs. Because I take the Member’s point and I think I’ve heard from the community as well that I think there is a distance to drive to get water to the community, so we’ll explore that option with the new mayor and council when they get sworn in...

Mr. Speaker, we are not interested in getting things back to the way they used to be because the way things used to be was they had a huge deficit in the community, and we are not interested in getting back into that situation. The adjustments that were made to the water rates in the community reflected the cost of doing business in the community. We had heard, when we had made the adjustment, that there was some concern with the elders’ rates, so we adjusted that. My understanding was the rates were adjusted again on April 1st. I think they may have even come down. But I will confirm that.