Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just one general area that I have a problem with in this Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. It is in the area of assistance to the small communities that are administered by the band councils rather than a municipal council. I have four of them in my constituency. Since day one of my involvement here, I have been trying to get something done here, and I was told last year that there was something in the works in the form of a small settlements' assistance program that is being formulated by a department. When I heard that, I was quite optimistic about it, but this hasn't come about yet.

One of the problems that small communities face is the lack of funding in the communities. Each band council receives funding, because of their size per capita, from the federal government. These small settlements that don't have very much assistance from the Government of the Northwest Territories use this band council money to administer the settlements. Whenever they are short, they ask the department for assistance. The band council money is used to run their settlements.

The deputy minister just made reference to a formula that is kept at a same level with a fair and equitable share of money. I don't believe that. I think these small communities have been short-changed for as many years as this government has been in place. That is the kind of treatment that small communities have been getting.

I know that the Premier has been making jokes, saying that the Deh Cho want to become separatist. Perhaps that is one of the reasons they want to do that. This government isn't sharing the money that is supposed to be shared fairly and equitably throughout the north to run their communities the way they should. There is a feeling in the communities in terms of government assistance. We hear how much assistance other communities are getting -- the hamlets and all over the place in the north and in the Arctic -- how much money each municipal government gets. If you divide the amount that these communities get per capita and you compare it to how much money has been spent in the communities I represent, you are going to see that it is not fair and equitable. If you go back to the time this government started until today, you are going to find that we have been short-changed. Some of the MLAs have been going into my communities and they have seen the problems that people exist in. That doesn't exist in any other place. That is all because of lack of money.

In terms of community development, I have been pushing community development for such a long time that I keep repeating myself, but one of the motions that the Standing Committee on Finance made this time around -- and there were other motions in this House in the past year -- deals with community development and this is to help these communities get stronger so they function like a good community so they have the financial and manpower resources developed so they can turn into strong communities. The only way the north is going to get strong is when each community is strong. The point I am making is that you have to start at the community level, the small communities as well. I fully support the motion that the Standing Committee on Finance made on community development.

These are the two areas that I have great concerns with this department. Other areas, there have been some changes made in my constituency with regard to this department. I think it will be positive in the long run. The people who work in the department in the region feel they need more assistance. They work with the communities quite closely. The problem is with the department's policy on assisting the small communities with more funding so they could administer their communities properly. Instead of using band council money to subsidize the administration of the communities, this government should be providing them with the full range of service they offer other communities. With that, I have one question I would like to ask the Minister. What is the status of this small settlements' assistance program that was in the works over the last year? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.