Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Madam Speaker, just to advise the honourable Member it was our view that a collective position from the community be taken on infrastructure needs. The fact is that maybe most of the resources that have been allocated could respond to aboriginal needs because it improves the quality of life for that community. If the honourable Member is saying that I should only take $1 million and not use other dollars, I think it could cause some problems. Certainly I can indicate to the honourable Member, we are already reviewing submissions that have been made by bands in conjunction and with the support of the municipal governments. So we are already considering that.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Supplementary to the same Minister. I had expressed some concerns about this agreement. I would like to ask the Minister, could the Minister explain the checks and balances in place to ensure that special interest concerns do not manage to get all the money allocated to any given community? I'm specifically concerned that different levels of aboriginal governments get their fair share of this funding. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just so that it's very clear, as a government, we were also very concerned about the resources that would be made available to communities. As a result, there were limits that were set. The fact is that we were able, because we utilized the NWT works criteria, and therefore set upper limits and lower limits, to provide more resources to smaller communities than we would have had if we simply went on a per capita basis. So we did consider that.

The other component that is important to consider is that during the review, discussions and projects under the NWT works program, which is similar to this, the process accommodated most of the requests that were made by aboriginal communities. So I think the process, if it's used the way it was used previously, will respond more favourably to the aboriginal community.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. One of my concerns was that the local bands and Metis locals, in order for them to benefit from this agreement, have to have funds to match the contributions from the federal and territorial governments. As you know, not all bands and Metis locals

have this kind of funding. Only those that reach a final land claims agreement may have this kind of accessible cash. Would the Minister explain how he was going to make sure that the best possible distribution of funding be available to all the stakeholders in each community?

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To advise the honourable Member, there is no need for the bands, if that is a municipal organization, to raise the additional resources. What is clear is because we have allocated the dollars, the communities can work within those dollars and appropriately allocate more than would have approved on a per capita basis.

In the case of Yellowknife, for instance, they are now able to, along with other tax-based communities, raise one-third of the share. But for aboriginal organizations, it is a straightforward contribution to those communities. We have already considered that and there are no additional resources required.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In those cases, there is no need for them to raise any additional dollars. If they want to provide additional resources so that the project is larger, they can do that. In the case of a larger city, they are prepared to raise approximately one-third of the dollars associated. So they can do that. In the case of the smaller communities, it is straightforward in terms of the dollars that have been assigned, they can then apply those to projects in the community.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik, Mr. Koe.