Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Community empowerment is simply a community solving their own problems and local people taking care of each other. We know that the government made too many decisions about what is best for the people in the communities. Even though these decisions are well intentioned, the result is that the people do not have control over what happens in their communities. So, that is what community empowerment is about. It is about communities having control of, responsibility for and accountability for programs, services and infrastructure

at the community level. Communities set their own priorities and make decisions about certain programs and services which affect them in order to meet their community needs. Locally people manage community affairs to reflect community needs and interests while the territorial government manages those area which affect the NWT as a whole.