Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As indicated by my colleague Mr. Hawkins, I think it was a very good thing through the Committee on Rural and Remote Communities to put in an employment program for small communities. Very much needed. I’ve talked in this House about employment rates a lot, the low employment rates in the small communities. This is really an opportunity for some of those employment rates in these small communities to be increased. I know that this money that’s going into the sustainability of rural and remote communities goes into the base, so it’s a very positive move on the part of government. I certainly appreciate the committee’s efforts in putting this money in place.

I think that by using local labour we can use this money and also gain some economies of scale by working with the Housing Corporation, I believe, through some sort of contribution agreements with the communities and fix up the homes for the elderly, the elderly that can’t really go on a mortgage but are sometimes not able to access because of outstanding tax arrears on land. There’s a principle issue there with some of the elders that they don’t believe they actually owe money on the land that they believe belongs to them where their house that they own sits on.

There is some work to be done there, but I think that’s an opportunity with this employment program to work with the Housing Corporation. There may be an opportunity to bring a couple tradespeople into the communities and use that employment program, and with money from the Housing Corporation for materials and so on, may be able to leverage some of that money.

In addition, I think that there are also a lot of people in the communities that like to work on the land and so on, and I think we should start putting the pieces of the puzzle together with this money to at least complete assessments on the cost of remediating some of the sites, some of the more easily accessible sites near some of the communities using local people to clean up the land. I think that everybody knows that that has a lot of positive impacts to it. We’re cleaning up the land. We’re providing some employment in the community. Even if at this point all of these programs are even just to get people ready to draw employment insurance. Work for five or six months and draw employment and, you know, remediate all summer long, work all summer long on houses when the cost to do those jobs are at its cheapest, and get the federal government to support and put some income into the communities through the employment program and help the communities get

off income support and increase the employment rates in the communities. I think that’s a really positive thing in addition to the increased money into the SEED program for small businesses. I think that is a very positive thing as well.

And putting some money into tourism. Tourism operators are benefiting from that and that’s keeping money… One of things that it does, I think that it pulls money in from other jurisdictions, other countries and so on, and that’s very positive for small communities and even the larger communities as well. I feel that’s something that drives the money directly into our economy, the NWT economy, from outside of the country. Essentially, easy money to get into the community.

I was very pleased to see the Housing Corporation doing a $300,000 review of the policies. I think that’s going to be something that’s positive, I’m hoping. One of the things that the people had indicated to me always in the past when we’ve made changes to any of the policies in the government, is that they want to be consulted. I think this might be a good opportunity to consult people.

Still with some of the things that we need: I think that the government should look at a winter road into Lutselk'e. That’s something that I think is important, but again, it’s my job to discuss with the Minister and to see the cost of the whole thing. At least to have an assessment of that would be a positive thing, so that when we know that when we’re standing up here talking about this project, that we know exactly how much it’s going to cost the government in order to do it. I think that additional money to increase the budget of access roads from about three hundred and something thousand to $1 million, I think, was, again, something that went to sustainability on rural and remote communities. I think that’s, again, very positive.

The $475,000, that additional money that was put into the Community Harvesters Assistance Program; again, has a direct, positive impact on the communities. I feel that’s something that the trappers, hunters, gatherers, harvesters are able to use that money to help sustain their families and provide much needed income through trapping or even through hunting and into the families.

The reduction of power rates, of course, the impacts will start to become apparent in the small communities, in the diesel communities especially. I think that’s important and impacts Lutselk'e to a large degree, the power rates for diesel communities and then also impacts Fort Resolution to some degree, as well, that the power rates there are through diesel.

I think that the Education department getting back into career technical services is very, very good for the kids. I see all the brand new equipment. That’s

after the industrial arts class in the Deninu School in Fort Resolution sat dormant for 20 years. Now you can see all the new equipment and everything. That’s a very positive thing, very positive for the school. The next thing maybe we’d start working on some sort of physical education to that type of degree as well. I know that it’s in the schools, but maybe turning our attention to some of that in Lutselk'e, as far as the career technical services go. They have the money, they just need a place to put the equipment that it will need to continue that.

Of course, the continuation of the construction of Highway No. 6 is something that I am very pleased about, the reconstruction, I should say, of Highway No. 6. They are going to be finishing the chipseal that goes from Little Buffalo River into the community of Fort Resolution and then from Little Buffalo River out towards where Pine Point used to be. I think that is positive and, of course, the thing where we are looking at continuing some discussions on the mini-hydro on the Snowdrift River outside of Lutselk’e that, again, is expected to have additional positive impacts of the energy costs in that community.

I think that a very important thing in education that this government has to turn its attention to in a large way for small communities is daycares and preschool. We know that the kids leaving preschool and going to daycare and through preschool are showing up in kindergarten and are far ahead of the other kids that are not going to preschool or having stayed in daycare. The whole system seems to work well as kids go through the daycare system and so on. The way to build up daycare, again, is to go right back to my first topic, and that is employment in the community. Get the people employed. Get the kids into daycare and preschool. They have a much better chance at success in the education system if they are able to go through daycare. That is one aspect I think that is not here in a big way, and that is daycare and preschool for the kids in the small Aboriginal communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.