Thank you. The motion is written, circulated and translated into Inuktitut. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason I am making this motion is because many of the committees and Members have made statements and recommendations that the community empowerment initiative be accompanied with proper training for community people so they can be properly prepared to take over programs and services from the government to ensure programs and services are still delivered on a consistent basis. The people will not suffer because programs and services are not being delivered by the government any longer but by the municipalities or groups within the municipality. Mr. Chairman, currently, there are short training programs, workshops, that type of thing, but those are not sufficient to properly train people to take on administrative duties and to write proposals, reports, that type of thing. We are consistently asking the communities to take on more endeavours, community wellness, community justice, you name it, they are expected to take it over. In fact, Mr. Krutko brought up another area just the other day, where people have to go for assistance. We need people that are trained so that these types of things can be implemented properly. Income support is coming under fire for not being done properly. I believe proper training would assist community people in implementing these types of programs without burning them out. At least it would certainly assist them so they can do things more consistently and at a higher level. Mr. Chairman, I believe that what is needed is a concentrated course that is supplied by Aurora College in the west and Arctic College in the east so that people can go and get a certificate or a diploma in community development. That would enable them to go back home and have the proper tools to work for the municipalities or other organizations that are implementing programs and services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. To the motion. Do we have anyone who wishes to speak to the motion? Mr. Steen. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. I will ask the mover of the motion, Mr. Erasmus. Speak to the motion, please, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These courses would be offered in the west because we are in the west, by Aurora College and they would be open to people who wish to take the course. If politicians wish to take the course, then they can. Primarily, it would be open to the general public. I do not know how many politicians would be able to take a year or two years off from their political duties to go to school. That is what I envision, a course that people would have to take for a full year or a year and a half or two years, so you can get a complete certificate. Not a two week or even six week workshop every six months or something. Of course, those types of smaller training courses do help, but this is not sufficient for people we are expecting to take over community justice and all these other initiatives without proper training and where the money is, how to write reports and proposals. In general, how to administer these programs.

Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. This motion is in the form of a recommendation to the department. To the motion. I have Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you. I hear no direct question to the mover of the motion, so we will recognize it. Mr. Erasmus, you were indicating you wanted to respond. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intent of this motion is that MACA would coordinate the development of the program. It would not be that much of an effort. It is not the intent that MACA would develop the courses. What I envision, is, they would get other departments that, perhaps, would have a course which is relevant to their particular area, to get them to throw in some dollars and MACA throw in some dollars. Then, what you do is simply contract with someone to develop the particular courses, such as here. We might have the college do some. We might have the Dene Cultural Institute develop some as they have been developing and delivering some courses. Obviously, there are courses which currently exist. You could use some of the contents of those, but I do not think you would take a whole course from here, another course there, and just slap it all together and say it is community development. You want to develop something that is more particular to community development, adapt them, add more stuff, that type of thing.

Mr. Chairman, as I say, I do not envision this would be that much more work for the department as it would be more of a coordinating role. Having people take this type of a course would certainly assist the department in the future, when they negotiate and complete community empowerment, there are actually trained people in the communities to implement those programs and services. If I remember correctly, I believe, Mr. Steen was one of the people asking for more training last year, as well as several other Members who had spoken on the issue. Thank you.

Thank you. In order to avoid a long-winded debate, I will allow the mover of the motion in the end for a final argument. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Question has been called. Do we have a quorum? Yes, we do. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried. Regional operations, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $64.865 million. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will refer that to Mr. Vern Christensen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department staff has been keeping in close contact with community governments on the implementation of the Water/Sewer Subsidy Program. Generally, communities have made adjustments to how they deliver services. Some communities have had to take a look at how services are delivered and identify other ways to become efficient in order to live within the subsidies that are provided. The same level of subsidy has been provided, generally, over the last two fiscal years. What the department is doing this year is taking a look at the distribution of the funding to communities under the program, recognizing that there have been some changes in some communities resulting from metering; for example, in the town of Inuvik if there have been substantial changes in population to warrant some adjustments. We are not anticipating there would be significant adjustments for this coming year in the distribution of the funding budget we are working with. We are taking a look at the allocations to see if there have been some significant changes that might influence the allocation to individual communities. We are working with a pot of money, a budget, and it is a distribution formula that we use. In this fiscal year, we distributed an amount of about $10.1 million and we are looking at a distribution of $10.4 to $10.5 million in 1998-99. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Total operations and maintenance, $64.865 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will defer this to a later time, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. I will try again. Total operations and maintenance, $64.865 million. Agreed?