SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Auditor General of Canada released a blistering report of the territorial government's Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) on Oct. 25 stating that it does not do enough to help community governments deliver essential services to their residents.

Glenn Wheeler, of the Auditor General of Canada's office, reads from a report Oct. 25 into the way the territorial government's Municipal and Community Affairs department operates at the legislative assembly. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

The report looked at delivery of four essential services: drinking water; waste management; fire protection; and emergency preparedness.

The auditor stated it did the report because without adequate support from MACA, community governments may not always deliver essential services as required, thereby putting residents' health and well-being at risk. Drinking water quality was deemed adequate in the report while the other three areas were inadequate.

"Many community governments in the NWT are struggling to provide essential services to their residents but MACA is not providing them with enough support," stated Michael Ferguson, the auditor general of Canada, in a news release from his office.

"Overall, we found that while MACA monitored how community governments provided some essential services, many needed more support such as training to improve poor waste management and in properly equipping fire services, in order to improve services and to reduce risks to residents."

The report concluded that MACA was not helping community governments ensure that those essential services were provided in accordance with requirements. It also found risks remain in delivering those services and MACA had not sufficiently acted to mitigate those risks.

Among its observations the report points out that there has been improper handling and storage of hazardous waste by untrained operators.

The report also showed MACA could not tell the auditors which communities had operating fire departments. It also stated that only 16 of the 33 communities in the NWT had a certified water treatment plant operator.

It said MACA should do more to ensure that communities were making their drinking water safe.

The auditors came up with a list of 13 recommendations, all of which MACA agreed with and pledged to implement changes.

The report was presented to the media at a briefing at the legislative assembly by Glenn Wheeler from the auditor's office. He is calling for action on some issues now to avoid a potential Fort McMurray type fire on another Walkerton water disaster.

"Legislation and regulations are not being respected or followed. There is a risk to communities," Wheeler said. "If a fire were to break out in a community where there's no adequate fire protection there could be unfortunately some bad things happen."

Eleanor Young, acting deputy minister for MACA said it is unknown at this point how much implementing the recommendations will cost. She added she does not foresee any staff will need to be added in order to implement the changes. Young said that despite the damning report, she does not think that the health and safety of NWT residents are at risk.

"We're quite comfortable saying that residents should not have any concerns when it comes to drinking water. I would reassure residents that we don't have any significant concerns in that area," Young said. "Instead of relying on five staff to support us in that area, we'll expand our capacity to have 10 or 15 staff so that we can hit communities more often in that regard."

Caroline Cochrane became MACA minister in September, taking over for Robert C. McLeod in a cabinet shuffle. She said her taking over the portfolio and the previous deputy minister Tom Williams subsequently being replaced, had nothing to do with the scathing audit. She insisted she is in fact pleased to be the minister of the troubled department.

"Taking over MACA and having the audit come in at the same time was really exciting for me," Cochrane said. "It gave me an overview of what we do need to work on."

Cochrane said that the changes called for in the audit are a priority for MACA. But she added that does not mean other important issues like the implementation of a 9-1-1 emergency phone number and updates to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act have been pushed to the back burner even further.

"I am hopeful they will be addressed within my time. I especially care about 9-1-1 and public safety," Cochrane said.

"But they have to go through public consultation, they have to go through research, it needs to go through the legislation."

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