Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I was referring to royalties coming out, I am not referring that the GNWT should be collecting. I do not agree that we have to wait until then. What I am saying is there are royalties coming out already. I know the federal government is taking that in lieu of transfer payments, but those royalties are what aboriginal people believe is theirs. If we are taking revenues from the federal government, a good percentage of that are for people in all communities. Paving the streets in every community would be a worthwhile investment, not only for the health reasons, but for optical reasons, to get away from the stigma of a third world environment. We are in Canada, for God's sake. Canada is supposed to be the best place to live in the world, yet in our communities, we are still living in third world conditions. There is something wrong with that, Mr. Chairman.
If our government and our Minister, who is responsible for that optical look, is not willing to even develop a program for consideration, and saying that we have to have priorities, then I am not too encouraged. I would like to see a Minister who knows that there are significant concerns, not only from Members of the House but the people they represent.
When people come to them on a regular occasion with the same concern, then he should be responsible enough to take the initiative to respond to those concerns. You know, we have seen snowmobile accidents far too often in communities. If these roads were paved, then maybe snowmobiles would not be on the streets. If these roads were paved with proper stop signs, et cetera, maybe we could avoid some of these accidents. If these streets were paved, maybe we could avoid some of the health problems in terms of lung cancer, which we always blame on cigarettes. We never did a study or never proved either way that dust has nothing contributing to the number of people who are sick, who have died.
When recovering from any kind of illness, whether it is physical or mental, what you see and how you feel about what you see is so important to the recovery process. I think this one area of responsibility under this department would do a lot of good for the social development of the people of the Northwest Territories in our small communities, and may reduce the exodus of people from smaller communities to the larger centres, which is threatening the survival of those communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.