Thank you, Madam Chair. The original vision of Community Empowerment was to give the communities the flexibility to establish their own set of priorities with respect to certain programs and services in the community. Communities have always said they should make their own decisions, set their own priorities, and be accountable to the community residents for most programs and services presently provided by the GNWT. Even though it is a community empowerment initiative of the government, it has been a vision that communities would empower themselves through knowledge and opportunities created by this government. That has been there for many many many years, Madam Chair. Communities are fully committed to doing that. The communities envisioned that the government would facilitate this process in partnership with the communities. The government would provide the tools, training and support, and advice to communities, so communities could empower themselves. It has never been, I do not think, in history, where people have been willing to easily give up power. There is no doubt in my mind that when the communities start making decisions, it will affect the job that the MLA does today, including mine. Because the community will be the one making those decisions, and it would be better for them. MACA was chooses to facilitate the community empowerment initiative and create opportunities to empower themselves and create opportunities for the departments to work with the communities in various areas of community interest.
It was also envisioned that a community development approach should be used, and existing government staff would be assigned to work with, and for the community. That portion there, is very very important, because the communities have to feel comfortable with the people that are working with the communities, have to trust them, and the communities have to make sure that they can move ahead in good faith with the government people they are working with. So the vision for the community profiles would be developed in partnership, and these were to be used for assessment purposes of community capacity, structure, training, development, transfer plans, time and etcetera. So that is a very important part that MACA will be working with the communities, and the government will be working with the communities, so that they can go into the communities to assess, and know what assistance the community needs to move ahead.
Like I have said before in this House, there is no doubt in my mind, the communities are able, willing, and capable of taking on and making their own decisions at the community level. This whole issue of community empowerment has been there for many many years, and it will continue to be a major priority of the communities until they do have the decision-making at the community level.
It was understood that community empowerment initiatives within the government is quite complicated. The government has to change the way it does business, and untangle itself in order for the government to develop adequate tools and frameworks so that communities can empower themselves.
What still must be undertaken while an implementation plan is developed, is what program functions can be transferred to the communities? An assessment process which can confirm that programs functions, requests by the community should be transferred. The GNWT must ensure that the communities are adequately trained, so they have the necessary skills and expertise to effectively manage these programs. There is no doubt in my mind that as we move along with this process, and as we move down this road there will be some mistakes made. That is how people will learn as well. This government and previous governments have made mistakes themselves. I remember my good friend, the Member from Yellowknife Centre talked the other day about being involved when Stu Hodgson came here. That was in the sixties, I believe. From that time to this time, there has been very little empowerment to the communities, other than the water and the sewer, water delivery, sewage, garbage pick-up, a bit of road maintenance. That has basically been the community empowerment in my communities. Other than that the decisions are made in Fort Smith or Yellowknife. I am totally convinced that our communities in partnership with this government will be able to do that, and work to empower themselves. You know it is just a matter of us, as a government, facilitating that. We also have to make sure that, when we are talking about community empowerment and how it is going to work at the community level, that we have to ensure that the self-government initiatives by the First Nations are co-ordinated with empowerment. That is very important, because there are some of our people who are going down that road, and we have to go down that road with them. Regardless of whether or not this government came out with a priority of community empowerment, it is going to happen. One way or the other, it is going to happen. It is our choice as to whether or not we work with the communities and assist it to happen. That is the bottom line. Our good friend from the Mackenzie Delta -- it is right in their claim, they have self-government. Sahtu has got self-government, and all the other claims are negotiating the same thing. So we had better get on with the job and respond to our communities and respond properly, and work with them so that we can help them and assist them to make it happen. Community empowerment is one way of starting that vehicle down the right path. I know that probably it is not going to come as any surprise to me, but Members will raise the whole issue of accountability, rightfully so. We have to make sure, ultimately, that we are accountable to the public purse, and we have to make sure the process is in place so that communities are accountable as well. That is one of the reasons that we are here as Members of this Legislative Assembly, is to receive the dollars, whether it be from the federal government, and produce programs and service to people who we are elected to service in the most economical and efficient way. One of those ways would be through community empowerment, where we would not have the layers upon layers of government to go through just to make a simple decision. I could give you, for example, Madam Chair, that this would have been two years ago now, or a year and a half ago, a lady in my riding, a simple thing of a broken window cost $237 to replace. It took 10 people -- it had to go through 10 people in government -- before the decision went back to the community to the Housing Authority to replace that window, and back charge her so she could take it out of her paycheque. But 10 people from Government had to pick up a phone or write a letter just to solve that one little problem. If the community had the power to do things at the community level, it would have just meant a trip down to the band office and it would have been solved, and it would have saved government money, and she would have still had to pay her $236. So community empowerment makes sense. Community empowerment is the way to go. We had just better get on to that train, because that train is going to leave the station without us. It is as simple as that. So we can fight it, if we want, but in the end it is going to happen. Communities are demanding to have the say at the community level. They are going to get it, one way or the other. We can either be good guys and be along to assist them, or we can be bad guys and say no, no way. But in the end, Madam Chair, it will happen, there is no doubt in my mind. It will happen. Because it is evolution and that is the way it goes. Accountability--no problem. We set up a system and we make sure that it is accountable. So as time goes on, this is not a new issue, this is an old issue. It is just finally that the government is getting that opportunity to address it. I have heard many, many things about the bad news that is out there in the last few weeks. Everybody keeps talking about cuts and rollbacks and restraint. One of the good news things that we have, and we are able to deliver on, is community empowerment, and we should not take it lightly, because it is good news. Like I have told my constituents, they have asked me, is this off-loading? I said no, it is not off-loading. What it is, is it gives you the opportunity to make the decisions at the community level, or else if you do not do it, it will be made at the Yellowknife level. You have that opportunity. All we have to do is sit down, make sure the proper training is in place, the proper resources are in place, and the proper accountability is in place, and move on with it. Thank you, Madam Chair.