I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 385-20(1), 2026-2027 Capital Estimates, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will proceed with the first item. But before we do that, we'll take a short recess. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Documents 385-20(1), 2026-2027 Capital Estimates, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Does the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs wish to bring witnesses into the chamber?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce the witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right, deputy minister Gary Brennan. And to my right, Catherine Boyd, director of corporate affairs.
Okay, thank you. The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the details contained in the tabled documents?
Agreed.
Committee, do you agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs begins on page 71. We'll defer the department totals and review the estimates by activity summary, beginning on page 72, with community operation with information items on page 73. Are there any questions? No questions. Moving on.
Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, community operations, infrastructure investments, $17,280,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Next, we have regional operations on page 74 with information items on page 75. Are there any questions? No questions.
Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, regional operations, infrastructure investments, $32,861,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Next, we have sport and recreation and youth on page 76 with information items on page 77. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Capital-related facilities, such as what's on this page here, sport, recreation and youth, are part of the recreational facility in Fort Good Hope at the arena. And can the Minister explain if there's any discussions going on with the finished portion of the facility to bring it back into operation? I know there's some integral question to the structure and so on, but I also understand some work has been done and some planning has been done. So I just want a status update and if this is going to be a portion of the capital for that project, as part of this capital. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So the recreational facilities in communities are under the community governance, so they would fall under their funding that they receive in operating their recreational facilities. So more of a community operations question, but I know they have funds available within their budget to do that type of work if they so choose. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Will the Minister provide me an update on the capital available to that facility. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't speak directly to individual facilities in the community; however, I will share with the Member their funding formula and what they have available. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to the Minister. I look forward to that information, and I'll go from there. Mahsi.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question to the Minister is what projects are scheduled for my riding, for the Deh Cho riding, my communities in the riding? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, a lot of the community governments receive funding for their operations in their own communities, so Deh Cho riding has a few communities and they've already received -- or they have a lot of their funding already allocated through their planning. So I can share that information also with the Member if they like, but it's more of a community operations line of questioning that I couldn't answer for the communities. I'll also maybe just ask the deputy minister just to share a few things there. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so just to add a couple comments to what the Minister already said, is that we do provide funding to all communities, including communities in the Deh Cho region. Our staff will work with community governments to develop a five-year capital plan. So we do that every year, work with them in terms of making sure they understand what a capital plan is, what type of investments they want to make and help them plan for the next five years. But the actual projects that are undertaken are decided on by the community government in each community, so we wouldn't -- like, we would just give them advice on how to plan and whatnot and they make those decisions locally. Thanks.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Sorry, Mr. Chair. I don't have another question for that.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go on to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask quite simply, so under the sport, recreation and youth list, there is money for a new SUV for the lottery. Why does the lottery commission need an SUV? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, I'm going to go to the Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. The sports and recreation area there, they've never really had a vehicle to operate, and I think a lot of times they're using their personal vehicles which is not supposed to be allowed. But, essentially, it's for running around, doing the work with the Western Canadian Lottery stuff and also doing -- you know, picking up and dropping off mail for all the Nevadas and 649 stuff and delivering it throughout the community and also bringing it to, like, the mail and whatever else to get out to the communities. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
So, like, I'm trying to understand -- I don't want to harp too much on this, but I'm trying to understand the process. This is the first time they've had a vehicle, and it was decided that it was an infrastructure priority, like overall in our capital plan, that the lottery commission needed a vehicle. I'm trying to understand what that was weighed against in terms of priorities, like what were the other possible things that we could be spending infrastructure on and, you know, looking at some of the other areas - housing, other departments - where people are really under the gun to cut off their list, like, really unnecessary sort of maintenance to existing assets and, you know, and education departments, schools, etcetera, etcetera. Did this proposal for a new vehicle for the lotteries commission have to, like, compete against anything from any of the other departments in terms of what they wanted to bring forward for new infrastructure spending? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So the $51,000 under small capital projects for the small sport utility vehicle is more of a safety liability thing for the vision for sports and rec. You know, they have to run around, they have to, you know, do their business within the community also and also travel around the region, but they also -- like I said earlier, they also deliver Western Canadian Lotteries things to the post office, to venues across Yellowknife and the region and, yeah, get it out to the communities. So not so much just a -- you know, a wonderful purchase of a new vehicle, it's more of a safety liability thing and them not using their personal vehicles also. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I think I've made my point. It's obviously one small thing but in the bigger scheme of things, I would just point out that we have lots of urgent needs that have safety and liability concerns attached to them that we continually kind of look over because there's just not enough money to repair this thing or repair the roof in the school or, you know, the things that obviously also have major safety and liability issues attached to it, so it's not a matter of whether it's a safety or liability issue, often we're ranking the severity of those things, so I really am hoping that going forward we can just be -- you know, taking a closer look at how we rank the severity of the risks and concerns as we rank our infrastructure projects. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to move on to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, first I want to ask about this large capital projects for 2026-2027, and there's nothing for small. This $17 million, I just want to ask the Minister how is this -- okay. First, I want to ask how much of this is allocated to Tlicho region and what formula did they -- are they using to determine for an allocation? I mean, it would have been nice if we had more information on here, but there's nothing. It just says large capital projects, and then that's it.
Thank you. It's been posted to me that to the Member for Monfwi that we're on page 70 -- sorry, you're on page 72 when we're on page 76. Is there any questions on page 76 that you have we could ask the Minister? Thank you.
