Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to make a few opening comments before we get into the detail of MACA's budget. I want to say that I like what the Minister has presented to us in terms of the deal, the New Deal, for the communities. In the small communities, the decisions and the authority will now be given to the local elected representatives of the community. Sometimes deal or no deal, just like that TV show.
---Laughter
The Minister has worked towards this. I'm not too sure how it's going to roll out in the future, but it seems like it's going to be a good thing for our people. We have to wait and see.
Some of the things I'm somewhat cautious about are some the infrastructure that's going to be left in our communities. My colleague alluded to that in his report on the baseline infrastructure study on what type of environmental liabilities that would be handed over to the communities. Later on it may be costing them more than it is and it may be using a lot of the money to fix up some of the infrastructure. I want to hear how that's going to be resolved or how it's going to be looked at and if the communities are prepared for it. If they're not, then we should have some alternate plans to look at situations like that.
Case in point, Mr. Chairman, the treatment facility plant in Tulita. The filters there are very expensive; the filters are ordered out of the United States. You have to change those filters every so often according to compliance and regulations. Because of the fast moving water of the mighty Great Bear River, the filters get clogged up right away. I'm not too sure if we have enough money. I think the Ministers and deputy ministers are aware of this issue that our hamlets or small communities may not have enough money or a huge portion of these funds may go just to ensure that we have clean water throughout the year. That's what I'm cautious about, that these types of situations are being looked at and considered when we take over these facilities. It's no fault of anyone, it's just the way things are rolling out in today's society.
Mr. Chairman, those are some of the things I want to be cautious of giving the green light to the Minister and say you've done a good job, a pat on the back, if there are still some things that need to be considered. You have to have the Minister continue to work hard for our people here so we don't...
Mr. Chairman, the other one I wanted to ask about is about the water quality. I think it's somewhere in the opening comments about the water framework. It's the drinking water quality framework. I know the elders in Good Hope have said this to me and I've talked to the Minister already about what they call dead water. There's dead water in our communities. They have the water, like in a glass, Mr. Chairman, and the water just sits in here without being moved around and it gets pumped out into the communities and it's dead. They call it dead water. They want to look at some issues there. I'm not too sure if that's part of the New Deal, that they take responsibility for this situation or it's being looked at. I want to ensure that we not only train our workers to be up to par with the compliance and regulations and test the water, but how do we get our water and how do we keep it healthy? That is number one. You can have the best water system but where you get the water, the water is alive, it keeps moving, otherwise we're just creating positions and jobs to take care of that water that's sort of like in a cup here. You've got water delivery, you've got water testing, and all this type of units that fit into the quality of our water that we deliver in our community.
Mr. Chairman, the elders talk about dead water, the water is not alive. You add chemicals to it, you add different type of chemicals and we drink a lot of chlorine with those chemicals. It kills the, in one sense, it kills the spirit of that water. I think that's what they mean by dead water. I wanted to bring that to the Minister, that it's still an issue in our region. He may know more than me in terms of how it's being resolved or being done; done in terms of how it's being discussed and taken care of.
The last thing I want to point out to the Minister is that in his opening statement I want to give him 110 percent on this one here, the youth trapping program that's in our communities and our region, that our way of life in this program is so dearly needed with our youth. I support him in terms of promoting it, encouraging it, and have the youth know that this type of life is why we're still, as community members, we're still sitting here.
This type of youth trapping program has a lot of lessons in there. I hope these lessons from the youth trapping program somehow could be used in our modern day education curriculum. For trapping you have to be smart. You have to be a smart person to trap. You have to be healthy. You have to be aware. You have to know how to count. You have to know a lot of things to be a trapper.
These youth, they'd love that. You have to be on the land there. I hope this youth trapping program somehow makes it into our, God willing, makes it into our curriculum somehow because it's a good program. That's how we support our people. It's about climate, land, environment. It's about reading a lot that you can't understand in the bush. We should really support that in terms of encouraging our children, both girls and boys, the importance of trapping and the way of life that is going to be here for us for a long, long time. After the oil and gas has been extracted from our land and the mining companies that have done the digging that they've done and taken out the resources, trapping is always going to be here. Hunting is going to be here. Fishing is going to be here. It's a very important program. We need good water. We need good air and a good environment to trap and live on the land. They know this. I think this program should be right up there with some of the core curriculum we have in our schools. I don't know if that's possible or just my wish right now.
Colville Lake is a fine example of all other small communities up in...(inaudible)...Paulatuk, Wekweeti, and other communities around the lake here. They know the importance of trapping. I think that's a good program. I support the Minister on that initiative. I don't think there's enough money in that program right now. We don't have the power to increase the budget, but that's just my comments to the Minister. That's all I wanted to say. I would like to get on with the business and get down to the detail here. Thank you.