Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Legislative Assembly being a territorial institution represents the territorial tourism the best. I don't see too many tourists in my neck of the woods, Mr. Chairman, I would like to talk a bit about the Pages that provide us services in the Legislature. They do a great job. They make our lives a lot easier and the lives of our clerks a lot easier. I would like to ask when a Member brings in Pages from their communities, what is the responsibility of the Member? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we have to take that word "fair" out of his context and examine it. Maybe it's fair from the Housing Corporation perspective, but if you look at it from the community's perspective, it's not too fair. It's not fair to ask the local body that the Minister appoints to manage this. It's not fair to the manager of the housing authority that he or she is not entirely resourced to do so. I would like to ask the Minister, maybe you should get up from behind your desk and go to the community, send some of your staff to the community, maybe live there for a little while to understand the challenges. I know what you are trying to say, we are trying to devolve and make it work but you don't make it work by devolving responsibility without the resources to make it happen. Let's revisit the resources you are allocating under the universal partnership agreement, so it can work. It's not very difficult. It doesn't take a genius to figure out if you don't provide proper resources, nine times out of ten, every effort will fail. That's all I am saying. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what I see is a political downloading of programs and services that is causing a headache for the Minister and his staff of not wanting to follow suit with the financial or human resources. There are three people in the local housing authority in Tu Nedhe, one manager and one administrative staff and one maintenance guy. That doesn't cover all the housing needs in the community. It doesn't nearly come close to what is required to deliver proper programs and services in that area. Now they are operating on a shoestring budget. They are operating in crisis management mode in all these communities. No doubt about that.

While we have bureaucracy sitting top heavy in our regional capital center, we are having a hard time. We want to devolve this problematic area but we don't want to devolve any financial or human resources to do the job. Now, the Minister just again hid behind the local housing authority. Not my responsibility. These guys have a 25-year history, Mr. Chairman, of continuously being in crisis mode for the housing required in our communities... continuously. It's a recent phenomenon here in Yellowknife, a recent phenomenon in Inuvik but in Lutselk'e it is a 25-year history of need. In Fort Good Hope it is a 25-year history of need.

That is what we have to address. If we are going to provide them with the mandate to do that, the responsibility that this corporation currently has and is getting millions of dollars for, then let's provide some of that millions of dollars down, streamline it down to the communities. If we are going to mandate it and do it, let's give them the resources to do it. That's all I am saying, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, from a political perspective the Northwest Territories needs major faster building in the communities. From a political perspective, Mr. Chairman, if we devolve responsibility to communities and don't devolve human or financial resources to deliver those programs and services as best as they can to the current level of delivery of those programs and services, Mr. Chairman, we are setting them up to fail. So if it takes five people to deliver all housing programs and services in the community of Lutselk'e, why does the Minister feel that it would take that community less human or financial resources to deliver the same programs or services?

With the last department I came up with the same thing, when we do the work in there, we'll subsidize ourselves but when a private entrepreneur takes on the responsibility, you don't need subsidies. That's not a philosophy that I'd like to have of our politics or corporations. It doesn't work that way. We've set them up to fail and if we continuously do that, we will never develop capacity in the communities and we will always administer a welfare state. That is exactly what we are doing.

I know I've been through that already. Health and social services boards in the communities were set up to fail, now there is no capacity in that community to deliver those programs and services. Now the government has a perfect excuse not to deliver or negotiate any further devolution of the responsibilities of this government. So I ask the Minister again, would he consider devolving the resources necessary to deliver these programs and services to the same level that this corporation currently has when it negotiates these agreements with the communities? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, contributions to local housing organizations is a very important area of responsibility of this government. The housing corporation is currently discussing with some communities the universal partnership agreement, Lutselk'e being one of the communities that is interested in taking on that responsibility. I know for a fact that it takes five or six people to deliver housing programs to Lutselk'e but, when we asked to negotiate this, we asked for those positions to be moved to the communities but the housing corporation does not want to do that.

Now, the question I have to ask the housing corporation is how seriously are you negotiating these universal partnership agreements? How seriously do you want these communities to succeed in taking on more responsibility? If you deliver housing programs and services in the community, if you are not going to devolve the positions or the financial resources to hire those positions, then as far as I'm concerned, the housing corporation is not serious to do so. So I ask, is it a common practice to devolve responsibility to communities without proper resources? Does the housing corporation like to see the communities fail? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation being the end market for lumber in the Northwest Territories, would the Minister and his staff also hold discussions with the current suppliers, the people who sell these materials in the stores in the Northwest Territories, to see if they could also be a market for these sawmills so that we don't cut off any businesses midway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have another session coming up in June. I wonder if the Minister could come back to us with some kind of plan or a draft discussion paper, some kind of position so that we could start looking at this seriously. I don't want to just leave it in the discussion form. I'd like to see what kind of commitment I could get from the Minister to return to us with a draft direction or whatever it's going to take, with collaboration from the Minister of RWED and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it's certainly refreshing to hear a Minister responding in that nature. It's going to be this kind of collaborative work that's going to ensure that we can maximize the economic potential of the Northwest Territories and its resources, including the non-renewable resources. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could commit his corporation to determine what materials, all materials required by the Housing Corporation to see what market areas a portable sawmill or a larger sawmill with finished products possibilities are not only in Fort Resolution, but in other communities in the Northwest Territories. I think it's about time that the money that we spent in building homes for our people in the Northwest Territories is spent here in the Northwest Territories supporting our local economies. I believe that the political environment today is conducive now to this type of economic development, and I would strongly encourage the department to look deep and hard to see what kinds of materials could come out in the Northwest Territories and could be used by the Housing Corporation so we don't send our money south. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Fort Resolution community, through the NWT Development Corporation, had a sawmill for the longest time. That sawmill was badly managed and they shut it down, leaving an economic void in that community. There is still a great desire in that community to get back into the sawmill business. I'm wondering if there is room within the capital acquisition or the purchase of the materials that the Housing Corporation could make a commitment to a sawmill of that nature to buy raw materials from that sawmill so that they have an economic base, and that raw material be used in the construction and repair of housing projects for NWT residents. Thank you.