Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Time and again my colleagues have brought forward examples of failure by the Government to provide support and assistance at the community level,

where the bulk of residents in the NWT still live. Mr. Speaker, the community of Arctic Bay has been identifying problems with the community freezer for years. It is the last of the group of very old freezers in our region. All the others have been replaced and it has been breaking down repeatedly in the last year. I have raised this issue with the Honourable Minister of Public Works and Services. Mr. Speaker, there are central problems illustrated by this case, critical community facility, one that is essential to safe food storage of country food, has been allowed to fail. These units are originally supplied by the Government to assist the communities, then the responsibility for the units was transferred over to the community organizations. But clearly, there are no freezer technicians in any of the small communities in the NWT. Our people are still dependent on the Government staff to maintain this equipment. When this equipment started to fail repeatedly, the local technicians have tried their best to make the repairs that they can, and the group has worked with great care to maintain the freezer properly. The repairs were finally carried out and the community was presented with a bill over $24,000 and the incorrect and rudely worded suggestion that the problems were all the fault of the community people. Mr. Speaker, we all have examples of this sort of treatment of the community level by Government staff. I am particularly concerned that this way of doing business has continued for many years. I have seen in this example a model of how community empowerment could fail us all if it started without the support of the communities. Mr. Speaker, I seek for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.