Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct. We have looked at our O and M funding in the water and sewer and as a result of forced growth, and working with communities on some of the water and sewer, funding was increased. The O and M funding is one that we still need to work on a bit, because with all the capital money and capital projects that are going into communities, the concern we’re hearing from communities is that the O and M funding is not keeping up to the amount of capital that they’ve got. Considering our fiscal situation, I think there’s only so much we can put into...

We have a number of great programs designed for youth. When I talk about enhancing, I think if there are ways that we can improve on the amount of money that we give them, I think that would go a long way. As far as some of the programs go, we have our youth contributions, youth centres, youth core and we have a regional youth sporting event. We have a number of great programs that are designed for our youth.

The Member is asking for a lot of detail that I didn’t come prepared with because we were looking at the overall numbers. If the Member is looking for more detail, then I’ve committed to providing him with as much detail as he would like.

MACA sits as a very active member on the board. As our deputy has pointed out, he sits as the vice-president. We’re a very active member.

The highway rescue, I mean, it’s something that’s really come to light lately, and we have an interdepartmental working group, I think ourselves with Health and Social Services, Justice and Transportation, and so they’re doing some work there as to the next steps we can take. The Member is correct, though, in saying that if you have an accident out on the highway, we need to have some kind of protocol as to who is going to respond first or who should respond first. Obviously, you always have your Good Samaritans that will act quickly. I think we need to do some work in trying to establish a...

Mr. Chair, I wasn’t prepared for that particular question, so I will get the information and share it with the Member.

Thank you. A lot of these are small amounts in the work that we do. I do have some detail. However, the detail that the Member is asking for needs a little bit more work on my part and I will commit to gathering all of the detail for all of the Member’s questions, the ones that he’s asked and the one that he’s about to ask and we’ll get that information back to him.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It will be my pleasure. The NWT Association of Communities gets $240,000. Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories get $180,000. Arctic Energy Alliance gets $50,000.

We have funding within our budget to help train these folks and we also help them write up their emergency plans. But again, the communities have done a great job taking the initiative to come forth with their emergency plans and we support them any way we can. We provide any type of expertise that we’re able to provide, so I think it’s a good partnership and one that’s just going to continue to grow.

Legislation.