Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under community transfer contribution in the 1994-95 budget, we see the same amount proposed this year as last. Do we have the number of communities for which this funding is proposed, or is the Minister seeking applications for communities? What process will be used to determine the fairness and equity of distribution of this $500,000? Could I get some details on this half million dollar grant, please?

Mr. Chairman, the Member is recalling when we first started this community transfer initiative. I had held off in trying to give a ball park figure on how much money I would request or would be made available to communities to begin work in the community transfer initiative area, simply because I was trying to solicit some input from Members as to what would be, in their opinion, a realistic figure. I won't get into the argument about whether I am nickel and diming communities or whether I was lavishing too much money into this initiative. We had settled on $500,000 as a good starting point. It served us quite well. I think, politically, it has sent a good message to communities that this money is available and it has been well used. We have decided to maintain this figure. We believe that more communities will be making use of this over the coming year. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the new Minister of Indian Affairs, Ron Irwin, has said on a few occasions that the negotiations for land claims, for treaty land entitlement or specific claims, and the process to negotiate self-government can all be one-track. It is understood that this means you can constitutionalize self-government agreements, which was not the policy of the previous federal government. The Cabinet policy still needs to be changed. The federal Minister is setting a high political target that all of us are silently hoping he can pull off. Members will recall the last Minister who vocalized this position was Warren Allmand. I think an unsurely bureaucracy

led to his demise in quick order. It is my hope that the department officials within the Minister's office and department will support their Minister and his goal of trying to change policy to meet the demands of aboriginal groups all across this country. It is welcome news for many of us. People will recall that groups have, for years, said they want to negotiate their right to self-government and have it constitutionalized as well as the claims agreements. The Dene people have consistently taken that position as far back as 1974. We hope that he can do it. We know that, at the present time, there is a political statement and agenda on the part of the federal Minister. However, the previous policy of the federal government still stands, so the Minister will see, politically, if he survives. If he can pull it off, he will have applause from all corners of this country.

Yes, the Minister has said that he doesn't talk extinguishment and doesn't use the term. It doesn't really exist in his vision of things. The Liberal government is on record as saying they are going to do away with extinguishment.

Mr. Chairman, most of the aboriginal organizations are funded through the federal government, either through the Secretary of State or the Department of Indian Affairs, and other groups get funding through the fact that they have several claims. For years, this government and Legislative Assembly has agreed to make it a level playing field at least for the Metis who are not given core funding by any government, at least not by the federal government or the Secretary of State. The territorial government has taken on the responsibility of giving core funding to the Metis because they do not get funding from anywhere else. We do support the Metis in their struggle to be recognized and to enhance their development as a people.

We have decided that we are not going to get into core funding of any other groups at this time. To open the door would lead to, I think, a further off-loading by the federal government, and it would be impossible for this government to take on the kind of financial cost that would be incurred by us if we said we would provide core funding to other groups. The amount of money we are talking about is huge. We are not prepared to provide core funding to any other groups, but, as I say, we are open to doing business on special projects and to help groups on special occasions although we have identified no particular pot of money for that.

Just to clarify, the Secretary of State does provide some money to the Metis Nation and it is primarily to operate their head office. What we do is provide the $250,000 to support the Metis locals, so just about all of this $250,000 goes directly to the communities to support the operation of Metis locals. It is my view that we must do everything we can to discourage the federal government from off-loading and sending aboriginal peoples to seek funding from the territorial government. There is a federal obligation to support aboriginal groups and peoples and that is the way it has to be maintained. There is no intent, at least on my part, to give any type of indication to the federal government that should they cut back or should they stop funding aboriginal groups that we will immediately take up the slack. Thank you.