(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few comments. I am not against the report we are talking about, Strength at Two Levels. However, the concerns that we have, especially for the smaller communities regarding the transfer of responsibilities -- I have some doubts if we were to make this report a reality. First, I would like to say what the MLA for Yellowknife Centre stated very clearly. How come the report is here now? How come this was not done previously? When the government was first being formed in the communities, it was under DIAND, and there were a number of programs introduced. For that reason our tradition has changed.
After those programs were introduced, the Government of the Northwest Territories was introduced. The GNWT found that a number of federal programs were not completed. It costs a lot of money to use those programs and those programs that were not completed -- they lost a great deal of money because of that. After that, most of the communities became hamlets, and the people of the communities were happy when the communities became hamlets because they would have more responsibilities in their communities. It was obvious that the money that was given by the government was not enough, and the people who were working in the communities are now working for the hamlet. When they started working for the community, the hamlet, one of the concerns and hardship they had was that there was no housing available. Also, before, they were allowed holidays twice a year, and when they moved to the hamlet office they were only allowed holidays once a year. The government did not have sufficient money. These are my concerns.
When the responsibilities are transferred, I am afraid that the funding will not be sufficient for the responsibilities and the capital dollars will not be there according to the responsibilities today. I am afraid the government will not give enough money so that they can run the programs. It will be harder for the communities. These are my concerns. I do not want to see the communities not be given enough money to run their programs.
On page 13 it will be run smoothly, but we know that there will be difficulties. The Strength at Two Levels report is lengthy and we would have to read it several times to understand the content. For this reason I wanted to voice my concerns while we are here.