Robert C. McLeod

The Member points out that we have a number of communities and fortunately we have some of the larger communities that are able to access training for their volunteer and local fire departments as well as emergency training. We see this $300,000 as a start. It’s $300,000 that we’ve never had a line item for before. We see this as a start. Hopefully we can build on it from there.

I’ll ask Mr. Aumond to touch on the federal part of it.

Last count we have 51 units across the Northwest Territories that we’re looking to remove from our stock. We’re trying to find ways to get rid of these units. We’ve been working with some community governments to try and turn the units over because they’ve expressed an interest in them. We do have 51 that are slated for disposal one way or another and we’re hoping to have a fairly aggressive disposal plan. We hear from a lot of the communities, we have a lot of units in the community that are boarded up and aren’t really any good to anybody. We’re figuring out how we can deal with that. We’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have with me to my right, Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister, Municipal and Community Affairs, and Ms. Laura Gareau, director of corporate affairs for Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is fully subscribed.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have taken a request for negotiated contract to Cabinet. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, that is doable.

Mr. Chair, part of the $300,000 would be to work with the communities, as we were saying before, in their training. The Member used Aklavik as an example and it’s actually a very good example, because having been in Aklavik for a few of the floods that happened there, I got to see firsthand the local emergency planning group in action. They get together, they have a plan and when emergencies such as this happen, they put the plan into action. They do it with whatever folks they have in the community, they do it with their own resources and a lot of it volunteer. It’s a working committee that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member raises a good point because there is quite a decrease in the funding that we have been receiving from Ottawa, but we’ve taken the necessary steps. Obviously, because of the lack of funding, we’ve had to cut back on the dollar amounts. So on the number of programs we offer... We’re doing an evaluation of all our housing programs right now, housing choices programs. So until we see that, it’s going to be awfully difficult to determine which programs we may have to cut because of the loss of revenue. Our preference is not to cut any, because the ones we have we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs 2011-2012 main estimates and the activities MACA is planning to undertake in 2011-2012 that supports the visions and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

MACA has a very broad mandate which focuses on community governments but also provides a range of programs and services to individual and other sectors such as sport and recreation, youth and volunteers.

The department’s 2011-2012 main estimates total is $93.3 million in operations expenses. Of this funding, approximately 78...

Mr. Chairman, we are always wanting to do what we can to support the cultural activities of the youth across the Northwest Territories. In this particular one, it would either go on a youth contributions, youth corps, but I caution the Member that we support the cultural aspect of it. But when it comes to competing for prize money, then MACA is very hesitant in supporting groups that go on a competition for prize money. We have had requests for some hockey teams to contribute to them, but they are going to play for prize money. The cultural part of it, where they just go and showcase their...