Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few comments to make. Over the last couple of years in the Health department, with the closing of Nats’ejee K’eh we have seen a lot of programs in our territory diminish. I haven’t seen the latest stats on how many people are actually going south for treatment, but there is a high demand up in the Beaufort-Delta for on-the-land programs which were promised, but as of today I believe there is

only one program offered over the last year. There has to be more done in that department.

Also, under lowering the cost of living, it is good to see some funds going towards that but a good example is fuel prices. All over Canada, anywhere from $1.03 and lower, yet up in our smaller communities like Tsiigehtchic, Fort MacPherson and Aklavik we are still paying $1.86 per litre. There is something wrong with that picture. I don’t think the cost of transportation is that much. All over Canada, lower prices, except in the Arctic or Beaufort-Delta. That needs to be addressed.

Also, the same thing with the cost of food. It is almost double what it is here in Yellowknife. It’s $8 for one litre in Tsiigehtchic. I hope as we move forward we address that. Also, in moving forward, I hope we can improve the services that we do deliver throughout the communities. A good initiative is the government service officers, as mentioned earlier today. It’s really a big help to the community residents, and I hope to see that move forward.

Also, under the economy, it’s good to see the Inuvik-Tuk highway going forward and creating a lot of employment, but it’s sort of seasonal too. Over the summer months it’s pretty quiet in the communities and hopefully within the next month here we do hear more on the Building Canada Plan, but we need a lot more work in our territory. It was mentioned here, the Fibre Optic Link moving forward. That’s great. Also, with the hydro, hopefully one day in my lifetime I can see hydro going all the way up to Inuvik and further. If it could be done in the Yukon, I don’t see why it can’t be done here in the territory.

With that, I just had a few brief comments I wanted to share.