Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to raise a few issues, as I travelled around my constituency. A couple of my communities still have capacity problems. They still have problems managing the money that’s delivered to the communities. I think certainly part of their issues is that a lot of the planning is specialized stuff. It requires engineers for buildings. Particularly in the community of Wrigley where they’re telling me that they have the money but planning is specialized. They have to talk to engineers and pay all that additional cost. It’s kind of not fair to the community if you really think about it. That’s some of the issues that they’re looking at in particular with capacity issues.

As well, assistance in the community when they lack a finance officer. I think what’s important for me is for the department to know that right away and get a handle on how the community is spending money. We’re still responsible for the money that we give them and if we don’t act quickly, then the future of the community, it just hurts them. I think we do have a responsibility to continue to assist communities in that way.

With respect to us concentrating on youth funding, certainly I concur with my colleagues. I think we’re heading in the right direction with that. Just out of a particular interest, in the Minister’s opening statement he’s talking about a pilot program to promote physical activity for purchasing much-needed sports equipment. I’m not too sure which communities are on the list for these pilot programs,

but I do want to mention that I did get a recent letter from the community of Wrigley asking for volleyballs and basketballs. I’m not too sure why the community doesn’t have those right now. But if I can put in a plug for the community of Wrigley, I think that community should be assessed in terms of those needs. I don’t know if the Minister can make a note there and follow up with me on that. I certainly would like to support that community if indeed there is a lack of equipment and it means there’s a lack of activities happening not only for the youth but also for the community.

As well, some of the smaller communities were able to get some of the community capacity funds and access some of the stimulus programming and I’m pleased about that. But I think that more can be done for the communities. I’m for also providing as much resources as we can. I don’t know about this fiscal year, but certainly we should try something the following fiscal year. If we can call that a pilot project, let’s do that, because there’s some products out there that can be viewed as a cheaper alternative. It will help with the dust in the communities.

In terms of the community public infrastructure I know that the community of Fort Liard has spent a lot of its previous resources on the community youth centre and they do need assistance with getting theirs up and running. I know that we’re providing some resources. I’m supportive of our youth centre programming dollars that are there. I’m also supportive if and when communities are eligible for special projects, such as in other ridings of building a new youth centre, that we should do it. But all available efforts must be used to assess, of course, the best way that they can do it. I’m in favour of some communities getting their special projects, but at the same time we should try to allow opportunities for other communities and other regions to access that type of funding. We’re well aware that we cannot do all communities at the same time. The government’s always pressed for funds, but at the same time a fair share of resources should go to all communities in the region. With that, Mr. Chairman, mahsi.