Mr. Chairman, I would like to refer back to page 16, to the comments that are made in there regarding the social housing situation and the quality and level of these benefits. I just wanted to point out that in the third and fourth paragraph there are sentences there which I think are not true. They are, in the third paragraph, discussing staff housing, dental and medical benefits: "The quality and level of these benefits have come to be regarded as the northern standard, and many residents who are non-government employees expect to receive precisely the same standard of living through government social programs."
In the fourth paragraph the third sentence reads: "These programs provide a level of benefits to aboriginal residents which tends to be high in comparison to non-natives." I think there are areas that are hidden within the government's spending which by far exceed the amounts that are spent on native people: such things as vacation travel assistance, and the vacation travel assistance handed out to employees. An employee is able to receive funds or be given travel warrants to travel, and those amounts far exceed the amount that is received by an individual who wants to stay in the North and take his vacation time. I think the majority of the people who do stay in the North are native people, because they are at home.
Another example of areas where costs are hidden, is where a person who is travelling from the South and wants to come up north and is weathered out will receive pay for that time that they are stuck down south; whereas an employee who is stuck out on the land, also on vacation, who is not able to come back into the community, will not get paid. I have this tendency to think that when the traders first came up here, they came up and made rules which would suit themselves and not the people who were living here first. Now, that is beside the point, but there are, I think, ways that we could equalize some of the benefits that are received.
In the third paragraph, it states that there are many residents who are non-government employees who expect to receive precisely the same standard of living through a government social program. We were discussing in the page before, page 14, that the social programs we have in the North are a way too high, and the comments that were being made regarding the hunters' and trappers' program, which I think is very good. I think because of the fall in prices of fur, there are more trappers who are staying home, which creates problems in the homes --social problems -- because the people are not able to take in an income which they would have otherwise earned rather than received. I know I have met some people here in the North who are on social assistance who say, referring to welfare day or social assistance day, "I will be receiving my cheque, my pay cheque, on this day." Now, that shows you how far along we are as far as our social programs go. There is no self-esteem in some people who are on social assistance any more, and we as a government give no incentive whatsoever to try and raise that self-esteem. I think that a program such as a hunters' and trappers' assistance program would give that self-esteem back to the people, who I think deserve it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.