Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the Member from Nunakput's statement today and given the fact that certainly my community in Inuvik is on the Mackenzie River, we've often had flooding, not as serious as what has happened up there obviously, but considering the community experienced a post-cyclonic storm surge on August 30th, I have a question for the Minister of MACA, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister of MACA confirm, has the community been offered or did they receive any financial assistance from the government to help the community remove the debris and certainly get the roads back into working order? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has not offered the community any disaster assistance arrangement to rebuild any of the roads or remove any driftwood or debris as the disaster assistance policy has not been applied to this event with the information that MACA had received. After our most recent meeting, MACA's still assessing the situation to understand the full scope of damage.
Mr. Speaker, no additional funding has been provided to the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk for the clean-up or the road repair from the department. The hamlet does not have to apply for funding or identify specific projects to receive community government funding. Community government funding is distributed evenly and equitably through all the communities, and it's up to the hamlets and the communities to decide how they spend it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that MACA did council the community to -- not to declare a state of emergency but to apply through the NWTAC through their insurance program to help build roads and remove the debris. Can the Minister -- I wonder if the Minister is aware how successful they were in receiving that insurance funding from NWTAC. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Declaring a local state of emergency or not declaring a local state of emergency doesn't always provide access to disaster assistance policy. It all depends on the type of emergency and the scale of the emergency.
In regards to the hamlet of Tuk, accessing the insurance, the Member would have to contact the hamlet to get that information as it's through NorCIP with NWTAC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I know the community of Tuktoyaktuk, similar to other communities in my region, are already struggling with infrastructure. I know the community of Tuktoyaktuk are now paying down the debt for their new water treatment plant they've had, they've built there, and they've also -- there's a major shore erosion project going on up there, Mr. Speaker. So then I guess, you know, is the Minister suggesting that the community do rollbacks? I mean, is it something that -- I mean, obviously, we have limited funds in municipalities and in hamlets in our region. How does the Minister then feel that the community can pay for this if the existing funds simply isn't there? Thank you.
Again, Mr. Speaker, you know, municipal and community affairs applies all the funding through the communities and applies -- or distributes it equally through all the communities. The hamlet does not have any debt with the new treatment plant that they put through as it was part of their community planning. The plant's been operational since the commissioning last summer. So a little bit of information in regards to the cost, so total cost of the plant was estimated to be about $4.9 million. It was about $4.7 million. You know, the hamlet funded this by their community funding. So any of the community funding that they received could be used any -- essentially anywhere they want when it comes down to some of this stuff. Tuk still has about $2.8 million in CCFB holdbacks that the GNWT can pay if they receive their reporting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
