Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my presentation to the board in Hay River on January 28, one thing I mentioned was the lack of affirmative action done by the Department of Social Services. And also the lack of response by the government with regard to the traditional knowledge working group. This hasn't changed since 1989. They still don't have aboriginal people at the senior level of government in the Department of Health. I think Social Services is a bit better. Even at the district level, it is the same thing.

So it would be quite difficult to implement something like this if the commitment is not there for them to do it. The statement itself, giving the authority to the regions to take on whatever responsibilities they wish, that authority would be given to them only if the government is willing to do so. There is no statement of principle, except that as they are ready to take on those responsibilities, then the government will give the authority to them.

We cannot say one year from now that our recommendation was that the board should take on those specific authorities, hiring or finances, et cetera. The government should be able to say if the principle is there...I could see the region saying we are trying to reach that goal, but we are at this level right now. But if we don't have any goals or objectives at the end, then the directions will not be clear. That is my point, Mr. Chairman. There is nothing here except that we allow people to determine that for themselves. But if we don't have a goal or objective that will be determined by what level we are at, then the communities don't know what levels they are at because there is no measurement. That is my whole point. We don't have a way of measuring whether or not the government...sure, we asked them to do a report by the fall of 1994. But how do you determine that? There is nothing to measure it by, except to say that the government have given them limited autonomy on their finances. But due to the Public Services Act, we cannot give him authority for hiring. We will meet a lot of those kinds of obstacles if we don't make a political statement of intent.