Robert C. McLeod

In my opening remarks, I said our budget did increase by 1 percent, an increase of $665,000. Even with the drop in the positions that we’ve had and the money that goes along with it, we’re still faced with some challenges and some forced growth and that, so overall, we had an increase of $665,000.

Yes, the Member is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We just want to make sure we had our information correct here, or semi correct. They give it to me and then I hope I give it to you correctly. The $200,000 increase there was some of the additional money, the $350,000 that I was talking about, the contributions to the community to help with their desire to provide some emergency services in the community. Usually it was on an application base, and we tried to allocate all the money. The other $150,000, we’ll find it later on when we get to the School of Community Government, because our intention is to use that for first...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The boards set the security on the advice of the government and then the government holds the security payment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. To my right I have Mr. Gary Schauerte, who is the director of corporate services for Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason it’s not showing any allocation there is because we haven’t signed the new agreement yet. We’re hoping to have the new agreement signed by the end of March.

We had a long time to get ready for this question. I’ll ask Mr. Schauerte to explain the reduction in money.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have a duty to consult with the Aboriginal governments. We do try and consult with as many interested stakeholders as possible, but we do have a duty to consult with the Aboriginal governments. Again, this is another issue that, as we go into the next business planning process, if the Members and committee feel that this is something that we need to address, I suppose we will have to have a look at it then. My basic understanding is we have a duty to consult, so we provide some funding for that. Thank you.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs’ main estimates for 2014-2015. The department’s main estimates propose an operations expenditure budget of $99.4 million, an increase of $665,000, or less than 1 percent, from the 2013-2014 Main Estimates. This increase is a result of $3.43 million in forced growth, an increase of $1.6 million in initiative funding, and sunsets and transfers totaling $1.01 million.

MACA has a number of key priorities in support of community governments. This year we completed the Accountability Framework for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. None of the money is going to Yellowknife this year.