Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I spoke to this yesterday and I wanted to say a few more comments, make a few more comments. This is a continuation of positions that were allocated a couple of years ago on term, four positions, that have sunsetted now. The idea was to have some bodies in the communities that were impacted by, first of all, the pipeline project and other resource development that is going on. A lot of work has been done. Yesterday, there were comments a made that MACA should have all the baseline information that the communities have in terms of infrastructure and capacity. That hasn't been the case. We haven't done that kind of inventory as to what each community has, what each community owns, what kind of people are in the community. Those things had to be compiled. That's a process that we've embarked on and we've completed roughly 50 percent of the communities. There are a lot of issues still out there. We need these people to continue with the ongoing discussions for the socio-impact agreement and some of the sub-agreements that need to be done. We need to work with the communities to develop proposals and access some of the new federal funding that has come available and we have to continue towards facilitating conferences and things of that nature, to ensure our communities share the information. '

This has been something that has been raised to us in a number of situations. We have been lobbied by the aboriginal governments, the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in, but we need to pay attention to the communities. This is a method of responding to that request. I guess if you believe there is no resource development out there, we wouldn't need these positions, but there is. It's in the different regions.

The other question that was raised was about where these were going to be located. The intention was to locate them in Inuvik and Norman Wells to deal with the pressures in those areas. So, Mr. Speaker, the process is still the biggest thing is to be able to represent the communities. The proponent for the pipeline has indicated to us that they need one voice to deal for the communities. The larger centres have had intervener funding provided for them so they can deal with their own issues within the municipalities. All the other communities, aside from the four large centres, don't have any intervener funding. So they would have to do it on their own. The proponent has indicated that they are not going to work with each community individually. They will deal with one government department. That department is MACA. If they need to go into the community, if they need to use the resources, there will be only one agency that they will deal with.

It is going to be very difficult to live up to all of those responsibilities if we don't have some positions dedicated to it. Mr. Speaker, in a nutshell, that is why we needed these positions. I am hoping that we are going to have the support that we can have these positions on the ground in the communities to deal with all of the pressures that they are facing. Thank you.