Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 10-6, definitive objectives, under the activity of accommodation services, one of the objectives of the department is to transfer the leasing and property management functions of staff housing to the NWT Housing Corporation. Most of the time, when I travel to my communities, I will take the time to talk to as many people as I can. On one of those occasions, I talked with one of the teachers, and she was very concerned about what happens if the staff house is turned over to the Housing Corporation. She feels that she is going to have to pay more rent. I think some of the teachers who have come up here, especially the young ones, are new up here, have just come out of college and have some loans to pay back. We should take the time to look after our staff. That is very important in the area of management. Secondly, when the teachers come up, another civil servant of this jurisdiction, if they find that it is too costly to live in small communities and work, subsequently, there is a high turnover of staff which can be very costly to the system. I just wanted to point that out.

Under the same definitive objectives are utilities. One of the objectives of the department is to plan and implement user-pay for water and sewer services costs for staff housing. Again, I would like to caution the system, not only DPW, but all the departments, that we should really try to look after the staff we have. If it is not too costly, we should try and maintain a good relationship with the staff we have in the system. I know we are running into difficult times. We have had a very bad fiscal situation within the last few years now. I recognize that, Mr. Chairman. Secondly, I hope the Department of Public Works and Services will try to be very sensitive to the community transfer initiative. I know there are municipalities within the system that would like to take over some of the operations and programs of the Department of Public Works and Services.

In my community of Pelly Bay, DPW is maintaining a pump house. Water is delivered to the users in the community and a water truck is driven to the pump house, and from there, they pump the water into the truck and deliver to the users in the community. The hamlet council of Pelly Bay has indicated to me that they are interested in taking over the management of the pump house. I know there will be other similar operations in other communities that want to take over the operations and maintenance of pump houses.

Also, Mr. Chairman, when I used to work for the hamlet council of Pelly Bay, during the summer construction of roads, airstrips, site developments and so on, we, in the community, especially at the municipality level, used to get confused about who would be looking after the management of the summer projects. Sometimes, we were told that DPW was looking after it. Sometimes, we thought that MACA was looking after that. I hope there is no duplication in this area.

Mr. Chairman, basically, having said that, I would like to commend the Minister, under the petroleum products. I read the objective of the department, "To replace short term community fuel delivery contracts with longer term contracts." This initiative would allow the community contractors to be able to plan for the long term. I think this is a very positive step forward by the department. Although, just about everything I say here should be considered with caution.

I would like to recognize the department, especially the Minister for the very positive initiative for the future. I hope that he will be able to implement all the things that he wants to do. I know I will be backing the Minister in some of these cases. But, with regard to the staff houses, the turnover to the housing association, I would caution the Minister to keep in mind, the teachers and other staff of the government are human beings like all of us. Secondly, in the area of municipal services, delivery of water, I hope the department will also keep in mind not to charge too much money to the people who are, in fact, the staff employees of the system.

I mentioned earlier that some of these people who come in from the south to the communities are young and they have dreams and plans. Some day they would like to be able to pay off their loans. Some of the young people who do come up have loans to pay for education. I think we are very lucky, especially native people, that we don't have to pay for education. I would like the Minister to be very sensitive to that area. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was just a comment. Thank you.