Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. We are dealing with Municipal and Community Affairs. General comments. Should we go into detail now or should I allow the Minister to respond? Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to make a short comment on all the suggestions and responses from the Members here. I do always appreciate the direction that you give me for MACA. I also know that my department has always been willing to answer any questions that you may have. There seems to have been quite a bit of misunderstanding with the Keewatin pilot project. I did appreciate the Member for Natilikmiot stating the fact that the term being used, take over, is not the right word. In Inuktitut it is more of a partnership building with other agencies in the communities. Community empowerment should not be seen as some animal just swallowing up everybody else along its way. It should be more of a dog-team approach in a fan hitch and people working together to pull together.

I would like to describe the Keewatin pilot project a little bit. There have been a lot of concerns about this project. What the mayors in the Keewatin are trying to do, and the leadership which involves KIA, which is a body of NTI, the health boards, the education boards, we have been trying to develop these leadership meetings across the territories, which involves everybody for the betterment of their regions. In the Keewatin region all they are trying to do is get the infrastructure money that you voted here and agreed upon be transferred to them and the operations and maintenance. They are not talking about taking over the nurses. They are not talking about taking over the programs or teachers. They are just talking about the infrastructure money that is already allocated to the Keewatin region under this leadership so they can prioritize at their level. You make all the policies here at this level, territorial level, policies and criteria for the formula financing and all the legislation. That is, I think, our role as territorial MLAs. All the mayors and leadership are saying is that after you have voted their budget they can decide where they should cut themselves. The smaller communities will still get the same amount of money that you vote from this territorial level.

It is trying to be a team approach. The mayors and the leaders are saying there is a better way of doing business. They are not developing a self-government. I have said this over and over. In the Keewatin region I know the mayors said this morning, they are not trying to develop a brand new regional government. It is just a management approach of how the funds should be allocated to the communities or how they can prioritize their needs with other partners, which might be the education boards, the health boards. I do not know how much clearer I can make it. The mayors said this morning that they never even thought of self-government because they all know it is going to be a public government. All they are trying to do is work together with the other partners for the Keewatin region after you vote the budget to see how they can work together as a team for the betterment of their communities. It is just a different way of doing business. When we became MLAs, we were committed to making changes in the government. This is a big change for the government and I think it is a very good, positive change for the government. It is a better way of doing business. If we do not do it now, I know it will happen in the future. It is just a better way of doing business. By doing this pilot project for the Keewatin region, I believe we have listened to the people in the communities and we have found a way. The department has been directed by myself not to force this on these mayors or the leadership. All the department has been doing is informing them how the criteria is set, the legislation and all the technical stuff so then the proposal comes from the mayors the way they want to operate their pilot project.

I know you want to see a concrete proposal because this is the way the government has always worked, but with community empowerment the ideas should be coming from the grass roots level up to this level. I sense the fact that the mayors who came here seem to be frustrated this morning. I do appreciate the fact that the committee Members had time to meet with them and to listen to their side of the story. I really appreciate the membership who was willing to listen to them.

Some comments have been made about the self-government. How does community empowerment and self-government meld together? What we are trying to do with community empowerment is that we are building a foundation so that when you get your self-government there will be a foundation. This community empowerment is a development approach. We are building the skills so that this complements the self-government negotiations. We are assisting the people. When they get their self-government, there will be a solid foundation where the people know how to run their affairs in their communities. Community empowerment is not contradicting self-government negotiations. We are building the skills required to administer the programs and services and maintain the infrastructure for those self-government negotiations. This is not trying to go against self-government, it is hand in hand. It is the approach we are taking. We are doing the best we can to help wherever we can help and this is the need that is needed. We have one of our staff, actually MACA, who sits on the self-government negotiations as an observer and we find out where we are needed to try to develop the communities the way they should be developed. I compliment the staff on that.

There was a very good recommendation made by the Member from Yellowknife, Mr. Roy Erasmus. I think that is needed too, and I will work with my partners to see how we can approach this recommendation from the Member for a community development course or training program. I think there is a need for that, and I will be talking with different partners to see if it can become a reality because I think that is a very good point made today.

Also, there was a comment made that there seemed to be a favouritism made to the Keewatin region. I have stressed the fact that all the regional offices have community empowerment coordinators and community empowerment is the priority of the government. We are being fair to every community in the territories. We are not playing favourites. It is just different regions have been given the opportunities to bring forward ideas, and the idea that the Keewatin mayors have is an idea that came forward from their meetings about two years ago, when I first became a Minister of this government. That is what I wanted to say for my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Minister. I have the initial direction from the committee to go line by line, but since then Mr. O'Brien has indicated he wanted to make a general comment. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be brief in my comments. I also would like to speak on the issue of the Keewatin pilot project. I find myself as the Member for Kivallivik representing Arviat and Baker Lake in a difficult situation. I have one community, my home community of Arviat, that is in favour of this project and our sister community of Baker Lake which is against it. Nevertheless, after the comments that were made this morning through the mayors and especially the comments made by Peter Kritaqliluk, it certainly put a lot more light on the issue than what was prior to this meeting. I could be mistaken, but I do not believe prior to today that there was a formal presentation on this issue. It was brought up in a question period at the infrastructure meeting.

Therefore, today's brief meeting provided some more detail as to what the project was all about. As I said, it puts me in a difficult situation because I have two communities where one is in favour and one is not. I guess from my viewpoint, when this issue first came up I was somewhat sceptical and had some concerns. For example, with funding, how would we make sure that my two communities received a fair amount of capital and O and M and so on, so forth, to meet their needs? How would this be accomplished and what structure will be in place to oversee that there will be fairness? These are the basic concerns that I had. In principle, I can support the project and go along with it. There are some basic questions that we need answered, and I think some of them have been answered this morning and some through comments that Ms. Thompson has made this afternoon. I think a further detailed presentation could be made that would possibly alleviate a lot of the concerns and provide more information as to exactly how this whole project is going to work. I believe Mr. Picco indicated that there was some interest in travelling to the Keewatin to speak to the communities. I do not know all the details on this, but that is a possibility that would provide the information we need to make a solid decision. Having said that, I find myself supporting the project after the comments that Mayor Kritaqliluk made this morning and further comments that the Minister has made. We will wait until we have further details Thank you, that is fine.

Thank you. I hear no direct question. Shall we go on? Shall we go line by line? Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. We are on page 4-6, corporate affairs, operations and maintenance, $1,959,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Page 4-7, directorate, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $753,000. Do we agree?

Agreed.

Thank you. I am being monitored here. Which is good. Page 4-8, emergency services, operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance, $710,000. I have several. I have Mr. Ootes, keep your hand up please. Thank you. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There has not been any major hiccups in this department. It has gone very smoothly to our department. Otherwise, there would have been a lot of oral questions in regard to this. I can ask my deputy minister how it has gone from her understanding with the transfer of this to our department. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Madam deputy minister, would you like to elaborate further?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have found that this has been an excellent fit with our department because we already had the emergency services function. What we have done is amalgamated the office of the territorial fire marshal with our emergency services division. In the field, in each of the regions, we now have an assistant territorial fire marshal who works with the regional superintendent to coordinate the training for volunteer firefighters. This has been a great fit because many of these volunteers are also the volunteers for search and rescue or for emergency response in the communities. Pulling those two functions together has been a very good fit and the staff who have come over have been extremely enthusiastic and proactive. They have really fit in very well. We have been very pleased with how it has gone. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Ootes.

On human resources, Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is the first time that this concern has been brought to this department. I really do appreciate the Member's observation in this because we can deal with the problem. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Emergency services. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Madam Minister, did you indicate affirmative? Madam Minister.

I would like to thank the Minister for refreshing my mind on the correspondence. We will deal with this issue as soon as we can if it is a major problem. Up to today, we have not had any concerns raised over this. Therefore, we have not seen it as an urgency to deal with. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.