Moving on to 5-50, information item, finance and infrastructure services, grants and contributions. Agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I’d like to ask the Minister, there’s been a lot of push by the Premier to go community by community. I think before you do that, you’re undermining the Aboriginal leadership by doing that and not recognizing that they are elected officials with just as much authority as we have. I’d like to know if we are undermining the Aboriginal leadership without having that dialogue with them first, before we go into the communities. The same thing applies to ourselves as MLAs and Members of this House. What are we doing to get those Aboriginal leaders, show them some...

Mr. Anderson.

As we all know, all groups are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum which some groups are not taking part in. Yet the Dene leadership forum includes all the Dene leadership throughout the Northwest Territories, which allows them to have that discussion among themselves for those groups that are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum but do take part in those discussions.

I’d just like to ask the Premier, since he made a reference to the wording in the agreement under the land claims agreement, which is protected under the Canadian Constitution, it’s pretty clear that the Government of the...

In regard to my original question, I think that we have to be fair here. I mean, sure, we can say, well, we gave them the housing and they’re responsible to take care of it. We didn’t give them the house. In most cases they applied on it, they won it fairly through an application process and in most cases, like you say, these people have lived in these units going on 30 years. After 30 years of living in a unit it is going to require some major retrofits, regardless if its electrical upgrades or mechanical changeovers. That’s when these people need the help. I think that those are the groups...

Okay, we’re on page 5-47, executive, information item, operations expenditure summary. Agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Treaty 11 has been around for some 90 years, since it was signed in the summer of 1921. Mr. Speaker, the reason for the land claim settlement was because of the discovery of oil in and around Norman Wells. In order for the government to allow industry or people to move into the Northwest Territories and obtain the right to that oil, they had to have a treaty signed with the First Nations people in the Mackenzie Valley, which included the Treaty 11 area that went all the way to the Beaufort Sea.

Mr. Speaker, the whole reason for treaties some 90 years ago was to open up...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, would like to talk on the program side. I think that we have to be realistic that we notice there is a decline in grants and contributions. Again, there is definitely an area of need. We’ve seen the latest survey from 2009 which definitely identifies areas of inadequacy, core need, looking at condition ratings and those different forms. I think that we have to be fair to the process. I’ve had constituents complain to me, saying that it’s not fair that you see the same people getting the same programs over and over and over and they’ve been applying year after...

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. We are on page 5-47, executive. Mr. Bromley.

Mr. McLeod.