Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are, as we all talked about over last year and this year, engaged with the federal government whose contribution we have to
acknowledge in compressing funding programs into two years to get as many projects on the ground as we can during the time of this recession. We’ve also come to agreements with communities where they are given money now in a block funding arrangement for capital that doesn’t have to be spent on a yearly basis but can be accrued as they finalize their own community plans and capital infrastructure needs.
Our intent here is to work with communities, not to disadvantage communities so that as we move forward, when we look at requirements and assistance needed, be it for community energy plans or community infrastructure plans, the intention of the government is to work with communities to get that work done. For example, we recently met with the community members from Aklavik and they laid out some of the work that they’ve been doing and some of their requirements for further ongoing assistance with myself and the Minister of ITI. Those are the kind of discussions that are fruitful in assisting the community to have some certainty as they figure out how they move forward with some of their own particular initiatives.