Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There was a wide range of concerns raised, but I think for the most part, all of the Members had the same concerns. I am going to go down the list here and try to speak to as many of them as I can. We will obviously have an

opportunity when we get into detail to ask individual questions on each individual area.

We do appreciate some of the good comments we have been hearing as far as some of the work that MACA is doing, some of the investment in youth. Obviously, it is a priority with this department and with the government. We are starting to see a lot more money allocated in the youth areas in the last few years. We would be willing to provide a list of communities that are receiving monies under the pilot program. We can do that, so I think that just about every community in the Territories is covered to a certain extent, so they will all benefit from this money.

One of the things that we keep hearing is -- and I think Mr. Krutko started it and then just about every Member spoke to it -- was about the capacity in the communities and that is obviously an issue and is one we are taking steps with LGANT and NWTAC to deal with and we are looking to see some positive results. This is a program that is just starting to roll out, so I think that within a year or two we will see more homegrown SAOs, more homegrown administrators, so we are looking for some positive results of that.

As far as allocating the money goes to the communities, we allocate the bulk of our money on a base plus, which is fair to communities. They will all get a base and then they will get plus based on population, so it works out well for them and the communities are receiving a lot of money. Just in the experience that I have had just since I took over the portfolio, the communities are really pleased with them having the ability and the authority to make these decisions as to what is good for them. It kind of takes it out of our hands a bit as an Assembly and it goes into the hands of the community, but that is the way it should be because we are here at the pleasure of the residents out there. There is still some capacity challenges, we will admit that, but for the most part I think that this has been a positive experience for the communities.

We talk about youth centres and you have some communities identifying that as a priority in their community. Mr. Jacobson mentioned it before when we visited the youth centre in Paulatuk. That was done strictly by Paulatuk, for Paulatuk, and they take a lot of pride in that. I think we are going to see more like that. We have some communities identifying some of the dollars that they are getting through some of the federal programs geared towards youth centres and they are trying to match some of the funding or put some of their own infrastructure money into it, which is a good thing. We hear lots of concerns with dust control. It is a concern that we share, but the communities now have it within, and they are starting to realize that if dust control is a priority in their community, then

they can allocate some of their infrastructure money towards that and we are starting to see more and more of that. We keep in close contact with the community, we see some of the programs that they are planning on, we work with them on their infrastructure plans, so we have an idea what they identify as priorities and we are starting to see a few more of the communities identifying dust control as a priority and starting to make an investment in that regard.

I think Mr. Yakeleya asked a question or somebody asked a question about where these positions are going. It might have been Mr. Jacobson that was asking. I think that as we go into detail, you will start to see where some of these positions are going into.

We appreciate the comments on stable funding for the multisport games. Obviously, there are still some questions that are going to be asked as far as that goes. Someone spoke about the opportunities for youth, and we obviously can’t solve all the social problems in the NWT as a department but we can work with the communities and the communities allocate resources to build infrastructure that the youth can take advantage of. I think we are starting to see more and more that. I see in my travels around, that the communities are really putting a high priority on programming for their youth.

We have a lot of things going on for the youth throughout the department and I think it was Ms. Bisaro was speaking that she was concerned with the coordination of all the money. I will be doing a Minister’s statement on it in a couple of days, but there is a new website that has been launched. It is called proud2bNWT. This is actually an excellent resource for any youth that is out there looking to find youth money government wide. I think it is geared more toward MACA but it has... We have had some really good feedback. I have spoken to some teachers and students that took it upon themselves one day to check it out while they were in the classroom. We have had some really good feedback on that, so hopefully this will be a new tool that they can use out there, just to go onto this website; it is “proud2bNWT.” I see Ms. Bisaro writing. This was just launched I think about a month ago and this is one that is already getting some good positive comments back.

This is another tool that we can provide to the youth and people that work with the youth. We have youth ambassadors, I think, and we are posting some photos on there. They are putting on blogs of their experiences in Vancouver, so this is one that we are looking forward to.

The increase, there were a couple of Members that had some concerns with the 6 percent increase but we can tell you right now that the bulk of that money went to the community governments. We have heard from the community governments that

they are having issues with O and M. Their costs are getting higher, so we have taken steps to address that and that is the reason for part of the increase and most of the money is going to the community governments. I am sure we will have more questions as we get into more detail. I have tried to touch broadly across this.

The energy sustainability plans, the integrated community, there was... I think Mr. Krutko had asked some questions about who had done what and we do know that the bulk of the communities have completed most of their plans, a lot of the communities are just in the... Okay, we have 10 communities completed, we have 13 communities that are just waiting council approval and then we have 10 that council will approve in March, so we are quite confident that as of March 31st , all

communities will have their plans in. We are looking forward to that and we will obviously update Members of the committee as to the progress of that.

I think, Mr. Chairman, that I have basically covered the main points that were raised and I don’t want to take up too much of the time, but I am sure that as we get into details, Members will have questions on each individual department within MACA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.