Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the honourable Member knows that we have downsized the government. We also have made the decision to decentralize certain areas of the government and we have to implement it. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Mr. Koe.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, certainly one area that we are trying to do is consultation. Everybody wants to be talked to before we do anything. Everyone wants to be consulted. I suppose that if we had taken a different task and made it more arbitrary, we could probably have a quicker response. However, it appears to me whether it is this Legislative Assembly or a regional council, they want to be consulted, they want to know what the process is going to be and they want to be involved with the development of that process. In order to accommodate that, it took us six months to develop an adequate community transfer paper that met the expectations of the people who wanted to be consulted.

In the meantime, I want to assure the honourable Member that discussions took place at the community level, because there were requests and people knew in some areas what they wanted to do. It took that long to get the overall framework paper. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On November 12 when we held the first Leadership Committee meeting, the Government Leader responded to a question, "I would like to see each region take on two communities at the outset for community self-government with the M.L.A.s' total involvement, and I would like to do that right away and right up-front. That way people will be involved and there will be some movement and they can see that something is being done at the same time that the discussion is going on." Can the Government Leader advise the House which ten communities we should examine if we want to assess the results of the implementation of community self-government?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, Sachs Harbour, Tuktoyaktuk, Fort McPherson, Arctic Red River, Aklavik, Rae and Cape Dorset are the names that I can give to you right now. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

That is good for the western Arctic. I do not know what is happening in the east. Recognizing that community self-government has been a goal of northern people for years, what is the Government Leader prepared to do to ensure that a more rapid pace is set for getting down to the business of community transfers?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, the answer is probably getting out of here, so that we can get to the communities and start discussing it. I would like to say that the regional directors could be more involved. In the eastern Arctic it is not going to be as difficult, because there is one form of government that everyone is accepting. Certainly, one of the areas that takes up time is deciding on what is going to be the lead governmental type agency. That takes a little bit more time to discuss. I certainly would like to work more closely with communities, to encourage them to have complex discussions and get over some of the fears that they have in taking over some of the responsibility. I think that the discussions that have taken place so far have not been unproductive.

People want their questions answered in detail if they take over certain responsibilities, they want to know exactly what they are going to be and how much we are willing to give. Certainly in a couple of the communities with which I have been involved with the expectations of community transfers they have asked, "does this mean that we are going to get all the things that M.L.A.s were not able to deliver? This is our wish list." It really does take more community education, and hands-on work with people because there are a lot of individuals who are used to living with established procedures. Leaders in some communities face a reluctance from other community members to be represented. It is a matter of dealing with fairness at a community level, so that when the transfers do actually take place, people are happy that they are all going to be treated fairly.

I certainly would have preferred things to move much more quickly, but at the same time we have to give the communities the benefit of resolving the way they are going to be set up. This takes a little more time. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Mr. Dent.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, what I would like to do is prepare a list of where we are with privatization. We did commit to a privatization plan for the N.W.T. Power Corporation. We are committed to privatization of housing in certain communities. We are getting out of government housing. We have done some work on that in Yellowknife, but we have to do some more work in Fort Smith. Inuvik is asking us to accelerate this. I am prepared to provide a progress report of where we are with privatization, the projects and the dates that we have. Thank you.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, when I answered the previous question I was going to incorporate that in the reply.

Item 5, Oral Questions. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.