Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1 that we are going through is the only opportunity that we have as MLAs to address the decisions that were made by government through the spring and summer. This is the only public opportunity we have to address some of these items that we have concerns about. I just want to say that in this particular instance, the subject that we're talking about is the youth initiative program that is with the Department of Social Services, and $500,000 of that money has been transferred to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to do two specific projects.

I have a big concern about it as well because in previous Assemblies we have made motions and resolutions to keep that program in tact. That was the decision on this side of the House, because we feel that the youth initiatives program is very important and should remain intact. In fact, we've instructed the government to advertise it and implement it further so that the youth in the communities will know that there is funding set aside by this government and this Legislature so that they could undertake the type of projects that they themselves decide to do which would eventually help them into developing into leaders and increase their abilities to be part of society.

I just want to say that we have very good young people in all the communities. They have very good ideas and they want to do things. They have formed youth groups in a lot of the major communities, including my community of Fort Simpson. There is a youth group there and they want to do things. The idea of this funding was that this amount of money was set aside by this Legislative Assembly so that the youth would apply for it so that they could do things for themselves. When we find out that $500,000 of that money was transferred to two specific projects, I have a major concern about it. I just wanted to make sure that that funding remain in Social Services for the youth initiative program, and that youth will continue to apply for funding that was intended for them to use.

I just wanted to make a point that the government, department and Minister to take note to just leave this program alone. Don't take from it for any specific projects because you're going to find that there's going to be major opposition to this type of move against this particular program. Mahsi.