Thank you. Madam Minister. Are you dealing only with a prime public body within the community? Madam Minister.

As I said earlier when somebody was asking about block funding, that we are willing to talk with Band Councils, Band organizations, Metis Locals, Metis organizations, municipal governments, societies and associations and we are open to discuss ways to officially recognize new organization types and unincorporated communities will need to incorporate in some way in order to take over services. You have to be

able to service the public. It is a public government that you will be - it is a public - it is for the public in the community, whether aboriginal or non-aboriginal. As long as you are willing to service all the people in your community, we are willing to talk. But you have to be able to pass legislation, sue or be sued, as I said before and own property and borrow, etc. We are do single - there can be up to three single administrative points into one community and that could be. Social programs can be one block, social programs and services, which could be, if the Band is interested in that, we can talk. Infrastructure programs and services, for example, the municipal body might be interested in that instead of social programs.

Another point that can be block funded would be economic and resource programs and services. There can be separate block funding agreements for each of these bodies if this makes sense locally.

So the packages can be tailored to each community. For example, a community might want a housing and recreation package under social. So we are willing to talk with any community but they would have to service a public body. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

In regards to the Status of Women, I do not recall saying that. I said I would not block funding. And I do not recall saying that. We are asking the communities to come up with a model that best suits that community and it is - the community has some responsibility in this and it is a large part of community empowerment. That the community tells us what kind of governing body do you want in your community. The options are open and as I said, we are willing to talk to any community that is interested in community empowerment. The community has responsibilities to start this initiative. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. General comments. We have Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would actually like to ask a question of the Minister of Justice in this area please. Sometime ago the Yellowknife Dene First Nation had sent a letter to the Minister of Justice indicating that they wanted to begin negotiations to take over an area concerning the helping people going to Court - generally known as Court Workers and they wanted to transfer a Court Worker to the First Nation so that they could - the aboriginal people in Yellowknife would be better served. The indication to the First Nation from the Chairman of the Mackenzie Court Workers was that they would wait until their Annual General Assembly, which has not occurred yet and it would be discussed at that time.

In the meantime, part of their request was that the Mackenzie Court Workers not hire someone to fill an advertised position and that position be transferred. But since the indication that this proposal would be discussed at the Annual General Assembly, since then, Mackenzie Court Workers has gone ahead and hired a Court Worker to fill that position that the Band wanted transferred to themselves. I am not exactly sure what the situation is here and I was just wondering if the Minister could indicate if there is anything - has there been a change in the situation - is the Mackenzie Court Workers no longer willing to discuss transferring a position to the Yellowknives First Nation?

Thank you Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Minister. Mr. Ng.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman I am aware of the situation in that the Honourable Member did mention it to me as it was developing. The request from the Yellowknife Band to assume some type of legal support for some of their Band Members and for others. I know - I would like to state that the Legal Services Board is funding by us but they are an independent board in respect to providing legal aid throughout the Northwest Territories, whether it is through clinics or through - of staff - with staff - lawyers or whether it is through payments of contract lawyers. I will - I am not exactly sure of the circumstances that the Member has brought up right now. I will commit to finding out from the Legal Services Board on the status of the request and why, if there was a commitment made to him to take a look at that and to the Yellowknife Band, Dene Band.

If there were commitments made why they were not responded to. So I will check into that matter. I understand that the Legal Services Board is having their - or sorry, the Mackenzie Court Workers Services - will be having their Annual Meeting, from my notes here, October 19th. So that is this weekend Mr. Chairman. So I will check into that for the Member and advise him on it. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Minister. General comments. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you. On the list of Members wanting to speak we have Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Steen. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Can we ask questions now or are we still on discussion of comments? My question to the Minister is how does Article 23 and 24 of the Final Agreement apply to Hamlets in reference to their distribution of contracts, dealing with contracts in the local community?

Thank you. General comments is also a time when you can ask an appropriate Minister who is the Minister of the item that we are reviewing. Madam Minister.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. The department is with Goo Arlooktoo.

Thank you. Mr. Arlooktoo. Sorry.

Mr. Chairman I would be pleased to answer questions and anything related to Article 24 but I would ask the Member to repeat the question - I did not hear all of it.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien could you please repeat the question for the Honourable Minister.

I certainly will Mr. Chairman. The question was how does Article 23 and 24 of the Final Agreement apply to Hamlets in reference to their handling of contracts?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman I cannot speak so much to Article 23, which has to do with training and GNWT applications to training. I would leave that for the Education Minister. But Article 24 spells out the obligations of the GNWT and supporting Inuit businesses and the increasing participation rates of Inuit individuals and businesses in government contracting.

As you know the GNWT shared its interim measures last spring. We have been involved in ongoing consultations with NTI on fine-tuning those measures and implementing those measures in preparation for a final policy.

How this Article will affect or be affecting by community empowerment is an issue that I guess requires more thought but it is clearly my position and as far as I am concerned, the government's position that communities should have policies in the Nunavut region that would follow - that would force them to live up to Article 24, which as I said many times in this House, is a constitutionally protected agreement.

The - if I may add - the debate up to now has been if we are going to empower communities, how far are we willing to go? The issue for some people is - if we want true empowerment that we give the money over to the communities without strings attached. But, as far as I am concerned, the government always had and still has policies that while we spend these monies delivering programs that we have to deliver legally and under our policies, at the same time we will use that money to make sure that employment is enhanced in the communities.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Just a few more questions. This question I believe would be to the Minister of MACA. How many communities presently are block funded?

Thank you. Madam Minister.