Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak today on the subject of community empowerment, A government initiative I am afraid I cannot wholly support at this time. It seems to me this Assembly is in a rush to complete many, major policy initiatives before division in 1999. Some processes may benefit from this urgency. Constitutional development springs to mind. Others, however, will suffer if they are implemented prematurely and in a rush. I believe community empowerment falls into that category.

Mr. Speaker, I do not see how we can build local governments, second levels of government, in other words, when we are in the process of defining the shape and scope of our first level of government; that is, the territorial government. Nor do I see how we can negotiate funding transfers to communities when we do not know how much money we have to give. Our fiscal picture speaks for itself.

Furthermore, how can we develop jobs and infrastructure that we may not have after April 1, 1999. I fear that what we give in one year we may be forced to take back in the next. I feel we want to take the time to work on a good recipe for building partnerships between local and central governments. The principle of community empowerment, that is, local control has been the cornerstone of northern politics for decades, and I support that principle fully and completely. However, I believe our current approach to rush this initiative on community empowerment may create more problems than it will solve. We cannot, in good faith, devote hard to local authorities until we know what we have to give and how much money we have to support our initiatives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.