Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because of the fact that most of our inventory is above ground, it’s really not a factor at this point. Plans are being put into place to look at our inventory and we want to develop some plans to do some testing for radon gas in some of the NWT Housing Corporation homes. That way we’ll have a better idea of the risks that are there and whether there is a presence of radon gas or not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With devolution came the responsibility for land, so we transferred 19 positions from our lands department over to the new Department of Lands.

I don’t think this money is factored in. It’s $15 million a year that they’ve been getting for the last number of years and it’s indexed this year. Community governments all know that this is probably the money that they’re getting because we do put out a MACA update in the fall time to give the communities an idea of what they may be getting, but we always put a disclaimer on there, “subject to Legislative Assembly approval,” so that helps with their planning purposes. Most of the community governments know that they’re getting this allocation, and I don’t believe it’s factored in here at all...

I believe the Member is speaking to the $200,000 increase on the grants and contributions side. I don’t think it’s the emergency management part on the bottom here. Maybe the Member could just clarify that. I believe he’s speaking to the $200,000 to $400,000 on the top there under grants and contributions. Because in emergency management side there’s, like, a $5,000 increase.

Mr. Chair, I believe we have put our money where our mouth is. Again I’ll say we have a duty to consult with the Aboriginal governments. I don’t believe we have duty to consult, but we do consult with everybody that may have some interest. Again, as we go through the business planning process next year, if the Members feel strongly that that needs to be included, then it’s a discussion I think we will have to have at the time, but we do recognize that we do try to consult with all interested stakeholders. If the Member feels that we need to fund them all, then let’s have that discussion during...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

My understanding is there have been some preliminary discussions with the City of Yellowknife, but then here again is another opportunity for our group that’s reviewing the whole formula funding to take this particular situation into consideration. We have a good cross-section of folks from across the Northwest Territories, big communities, small communities. I think all our largest communities are represented on this group and the City of Yellowknife has representatives on there. I think this would be a good topic of conversation for them to have, and I think our deputy meets with them every...

Thank you, we will take the Member’s wise words under advisement.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct. We’ll have to make that change and put Tlicho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is all as a result of forced growth with community O and M funding and the water and sewer funding and grants-in-lieu of property taxes so it’s all forced growth. Thank you.