Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue mentioned by Mr. Christensen on reviewing their criteria on the community contributions to me is one of interest, especially as money gets tighter. People are going to be looking at how money is allocated and what resources are shared around. I was sitting here trying to do some basic math. If I took the $17,000 as a figure that is given to us on a per capita basis, the federal government transfers. I just took three different other numbers. I took Yellowknife, for instance. I recognize there are other variables here, but if I look at Yellowknife with 16,000 people, just with the transfer of $17,000 that works out to $172 million a year. If I take a community with 3000, it works out to about $51 million. A community of 200 is about $3,400,000. I think the issue of fairness and equity is one that is going to become of great importance. There is a clear understanding there has to be equalization.

We have to support each other, but there has to be recognition that there are costs. I am concerned we have created a high level of expectation among communities. I do not think a lot of the communities, especially the smaller ones, recognize the cost of things. Clearly, if you want arenas, all this infrastructure and the government gives it to you, it is not the same if there is a certain amount of equity from communities put into it. Tax based communities do it. We all do it in our own lives. If you want stuff, you take mortgages, you recognize there is a cost to things. With our shrinking resource base as a government, it is going to become more and more important. I will be interested to see how that shakes out of your review of the municipal financing, because it is going to become an issue. It is not really a question, Mr. Chairman, more of a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I ran out of questions before, so I want to follow up on what I was asking there. I get the impression from the response from the department, they can only transfer to the communities what the other departments have transferred to them. In other words, if there is half of a PY cut in education, that is all MACA has to transfer. If the communities suggest they cannot see themselves taking on this responsibility for only half a PY, they cannot really address the concern to MACA because MACA has only transferred half a PY. In fact, the cuts are coming in the other departments, but they are being funnelled through MACA to address to the community, rather than the

department doing it straight themselves. I want to know from MACA if this is the case.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I cannot recall exactly what we heard from the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. He suggested some of this program money for income support was in fact going through MACA and that is why it was identified in the budget. I would like clarification on that from the Minister, if I may.

Mr. Chairman, could I direct that question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the Member is asking a question referring to the resources for delivery of income support in Cape Dorset, in particular. During consideration of the ECE budget, I mentioned during the community transfer initiative, resources for delivery of income support had been transferred from ECE to MACA and through a further transfer to the community of Cape Dorset. As far as I am aware, that is the only community in which the resources have been transferred from ECE to MACA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my other question is in relation to O and M funding for the communities. I believe a Member addressed the way the O and M capital funding is actually being supplied to the communities. My concern is O and M funding reduction by 5 percent to each community has a different impact on different types of communities. For instance, hamlets would only have X number of dollars for O and M funding. They have to do all their work out of that O and M funding. The SOAP communities, Supplement Operating Assistance Program communities, they do not have to. They get a lot of their services through DPW like road maintenance, stuff like that. That is all free or supplementary to the funds they receive under SOAP. I want to ask the Minister, how the department intends to address this situation?