Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in reference to honourable Minister Krutko's statement with respect to the 30 years of celebrating the Housing Corporation in the Northwest Territories, one of the questions that has often come up in our small communities, especially amongst the elders, is the promise that was made by federal government agencies in terms of housing and how they get into housing.

This is very young, in terms of the Housing Corporation being in the Northwest Territories; only 30 years. Previous to that there were other houses in the Northwest Territories that were managed by the federal government agencies, mainly Indian Affairs. Some of those houses are dear to some of the elders. Now that the Housing Corporation has 30 years of experience in the housing business in the Northwest Territories, some of those old-timers still think these houses are theirs. This is the promise they made, along the lines of an agreement similar to the treaty agreements that were negotiated in the late 1800s and Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 in 1921. Some of these elders still hold dear to their hearts the agreements that were made between the federal government and our people. I hope in the celebration we also recognize some of these old agreements that are being honoured by the Housing Corporation, Madam Chair.

The idea I want to touch upon is, in the 30 years of housing in our small communities, we have somewhat created a dependency on the GNWT in terms of being dependent on them for everything. We've gotten away from that pride of owning a home. Elders have talked about today having running water, electricity, a furnace. We've become somewhat less active in owning a home because everything is not like the old days when we had to haul water and chop wood and keep the house warm.

Right now, we have all these programs and services. On one hand we complain that we don't have enough, and on the other hand they may have spoiled us. We've created this dependency and now it's very hard to get out of it. I hope the department has some very effective methods and means to create that sense of ownership with our people; that it takes a lot of pride and ownership to own a

home. We're slowly learning that in small communities, because at one time we didn't have houses.

We were so nomadic, we just travelled from one part of the region to the next. We set up our camp and took it down and travelled. However, times have changed and I just wanted to note that when the Minister tabled his celebration for 30 years, it's very young in the Northwest Territories. A lot of things have changed since that time. Housing seems like it's being reverted to where we will have responsibility for owning our own homes. But things have changed so much that I hope there are means and mechanisms that the Housing Corporation would look at implementing into our communities.

In closing, Madam Chair, I want to say that there are a lot of good people in the communities who are working with homes and providing these services to our people, especially the local education boards. They take a lot of heat sometimes in our communities because of the decisions they make and the tough choices they have to make in terms of who gets a house and who doesn't get a house. Sometimes we're really hard on our own people. We're really hard on them in terms of the services that we provide in our own communities. Sometimes we don't quite understand or have the compassion to pat our people on the back and say they're doing a good job. We're very critical sometimes and sometimes that hurts us.

In terms of the celebration, I think you also need to congratulate all of the boards that have served in the last 30 years in our communities that have made some decisions. They're doing the best they can. That's what I want to say here. I hope that kind of recognition goes out to our people. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

---Applause