Mr. Chairman, in my view, although this initiative was a good one when we first announced it -- sure, it had a lot of interest -- the interest isn't there now. There are some communities that want, say, an EDO position and a lot of them that the Minister outlined are only one-program positions. No substantial... various programs where the community itself would be more in control of, for instance, social services, public works, housing, et cetera. Although the Minister indicated that these programs are being negotiated and they are still liaising with the communities, there hasn't been that much movement, in my view, because a lot of them that the Minister outlined are still pending. How long does it take? It doesn't take four years. We completed, in my view, basically two communities. One is Fort Good Hope and the other is Cape Dorset. Those are two substantial ones that you can really say were a success.

I disagree with my colleague, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, when he says there is a lot of interest, that everybody is asking for his staff to come in and provide these types of workshops and to start negotiating and developing memorandums of understanding, et cetera. I don't think that's the case. The public has to know exactly what's happening. For instance, in my area there is no interest. Even south of the lake; I haven't heard the Minister mention any communities south of the lake. You mentioned primarily the east, the Inuvialuit area and some in the Delta. I agree with him that when we first started this initiative, there was a lot of interest expressed but once they saw how complicated it was, it was more difficult for the communities to deal with the process that we put in place. Although the Minister indicated that in 1993-94 we expended, in terms of conservation, $294,500 and in the following year $296,830, that isn't a substantial amount that we are talking about; only a few positions that we've given them and maybe a few office supplies to go with them. But, there hasn't been a substantial transfer taking place in a lot of our communities; I can really say something has happened in our only two: in Cape Dorset and Fort Good Hope. In that respect, Mr. Chairman, in my view, the progress has been very slow in this area.

Mr. Chairman, funding which was identified for community transfers is scattered, not only within this department here but it is scattered throughout the entire budget. Why hasn't the Minister considered consolidating the funding for communities evolving in this initiative in single-line items in the budget; this would better allow monitoring of the effectiveness of the transfer and might provide more flexibility to communities in using the transferred funds. I would like to ask the Minister why hasn't he considered doing that?