Thank you Mr. Chairperson. Perhaps I will speak in Inuktitut at this time. If you can listen to your headphones and just not talk to one another.

(Translator) What you had mentioned, I have great respect for and I thank him for it. I am sure there are a lot of issues that are of concern to other people aside from just the MLA's. The people who are looking after the communities are taught how to look after financial situations in the communities as well as the Community Councils know how to operate a community corporation for the community. The community will not be given a responsibility that they are not capable of handling. They have to be worked through until they are to the point that they can handle the situation. They will be advised. At first an advisory role will be given to the administrators as to how, what is possible, with the responsibility that they will be required to take. After the advisory situation, then the community will decide. The administrator of the community will be advised if he would like, if they are capable of handling. After realizing as to how capable the community people are of handling situations the community will set up an agreement or a detailed understanding as to what they are capable of handling. If they cannot handle it, then only after they have understood fully what they can understand - what administration feel then they will be able to take over.

It will be accomplished in small steps. Maybe there at least ten steps to follow through that you can go through community consultation process, the educational process. They will find out exactly what they can handle. There is no way that you could be scared of the fact that something will be missing. From each department they will have a Memorandum of Agreement and after that then they will be able to look after the community themselves.

Any of the communities who can handle a situation and if they are capable of understanding exactly what responsibilities that they are responsible for, then in regards to Nunavut with regards to community empowerment it is in the same field as getting self government. For instance, taking care of land administration then we will be able to handle land administration as well as having community people who can take care of land administration and this will be in line with the community self government. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Is the communities that he is talking about, the fifty-two hamlet councils -- there are fifty-two communities and there will be more added to their responsibilities. We are just trying to place more power into the communities. There are also Housing Association board members that deal with arrears and also they deal with maintenance to houses. There is a lot of work already within those Boards and on top of that, fifty-two councils there are already work that is being done in those councils and they will be dealing with community empowerment -- or they will be getting more power in the communities.

I do not really remember that second question, or the first question, but regarding the deadline. Each community will be taking on those responsibilities only after consultation or only after we have dealt with working with the communities. And also, I think that as a Minister, before the division comes we hope that each community will have more responsibilities and we cannot really say when the deadline is but also we will be working with each council in regards to things that they will be taking on. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. In regards to my statement, that is the way it is. But I was saying that we will be encouraging the communities to take on these programs but we are trying to prepare them for self-government and I was saying that in 1999 it would be good to see these programs put into the communities before Nunavut becomes a reality. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We cannot after April 1, 1999 commit the Nunavut government or the new government of the Western Territory to continue on with community empowerment. That will be up to the people they elect to the new legislatures on the direction from the community. The issues we are hearing and the support that we are hearing from the communities on this whole issue of community empowerment it will still be there so it will probably continue on. But, we cannot commit after April 1, 1999.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, feel that community empowerment is a very important subject for my riding. I agree with what Mr. Ootes was referring to in

his remarks about how to be cautious as to how much empowerment we are giving to the communities. I am always kind of reluctant to get into transferring of all those powers to communities as soon as possible because I believe in some caution as to how fast we are dealing with this whole transfer. The block funding to the community transfer is possibly for one whole year, and if they run out within a certain time, how soon they will be able to re-fund them again. If they more or less run out of community, or misuse of funds for some particular reason, I guess, and because of some experience the community leaders might not have.

Will this government be able to rescue the municipal government if they have to misuse the funds? I am quite concerned about this. Do we have anybody to coordinate or to look after them, as far as the regional directors are concerned; that is, if they are still in office within the respective communities and regions?

I would certainly like to ask another question on an unrelated matter. It is certainly good to see that we have some community empowerment and some transfers to communities because it is very important. I remember back in the 1970s or the 1980s when people in the communities were always concerned about running their own affairs, and I guess it took time to have some of the powers being transferred to the communities. It is certainly good to see that they are going to get some benefit from the transfers and, as Mr. Ootes said, most of the communities, I guess, are not totally prepared but they are probably just anxious to go over and try to take over some of the responsibilities that we are already initiating.

Certainly, at the community level right now, there are going to be a lot of other transfers that might be taking place. A lot of activity is going on right now because of land claims coming up. Once the land claim is in place, the communities will be busy concentrating only on that issue. Then they will follow-up on the programs that they might be administering through the federal government. They might be asking the federal government to transfer more from the departments for their benefit and then they might be asking for more transfers and powers from this territorial government as well.

As I said earlier on, they have been more or less been asking the territorial government since the 1970s to see whether they could have more of the responsibility transferred to the communities because they always felt that they were not always in trust with the territorial government running their affairs for them. I think they were just as capable of running their own affairs for many, many years is what I have been seeing. Eventually, I think the reality has been coming to surface.

What I was trying to get at earlier was that there might be some other transfers that they might be seeking regarding how to administer liquor licensing and all that stuff, and possibly gambling. The Department of Justice probably wants to get involved in it, too, and see if they are able to control their own community policing, municipal by-law officers and all that, I guess.

They want to have some of the traffic controls, knowing that BHP is coming into play now. They might have a lot of traffic that might be going through our area and they may certainly want to see that there is a lot of officers out on the road. There is a good possibility of community policing, too. They might even want to have greater control in air traffic control although they do not have a municipal or community airport, but I guess somehow, one way or another, they might find a way to see whether they will be able to see some of the activity to get going within my community regarding getting some sort of an airstrip build by various companies because they are associated with a lot of different companies. They probably might seek funding elsewhere or see whether they could take associated joint ventures with various companies and then start building their own community airports or something like that.

My most important concern was about being cautious about what we do because I think we are just giving too much power to the southern communities that are not prepared. Some of the smaller communities probably are not prepared, but most of the bigger communities are quite prepared to go. I am quite in favour of this community empowerment, but I am just trying to caution the department to see if they will be able to give too much power in a short time period because in a month, I guess, maybe be able to transfer as far as we give them a chance to get some orientation plans set for them in order to get to know what they are getting into because it is the only way we might be able to have a decent transfer program at the community level. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, my questions were going to be directed at the Minister who is not here, concerning a request by the communities of Detah and N'dilo to transfer a program. The Minister seems to have stepped out so I will have to ask it tomorrow. While I have the floor, I would like to move that we report progress.

The House will come back to order. We are on item 20, report of Committee of the Whole. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Seconded by Mr. Arlooktoo. Your motion is in order, Mr. Steen. To the motion.

Question.