Mr. Zoe.

Mr. Whitford.

The question is taken as notice. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Transportation with regard to the rates paid to private truckers. When a contract is awarded on the construction of highways, is it possible for the hauling of gravel to be one section of the contract, as opposed to subcontract?

Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the areas my department is looking at to see how large contracts can be broken down so that northern trucking businesses, who are not able to take on large contracts, are able to bid on the smaller contracts, so that northern companies are benefiting from these contracts.

Mr. Pudluk.

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, I have requested that information. I have not received it yet. I will have to take the question as notice.

The question is taken as notice. Oral questions. Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Speaker, on March 6, 1991, I asked the Minister responsible for Economic Development a lot of questions about our participation in Expo, in Seville. I spent about an hour and a half wondering why we were going. My question to the Minister of Economic Development is, since he was the SCOF chairman at that time and supportive of this project, does he expect the predictions of Mr. Wray will in fact emerge as Mr. Wray had predicted; that we would be putting $800,00 into our producers of arts and craft in the Northwest Territories; $1.4 million in salaries to employees; $650,000 into the hands of food producers; and we would have a net benefit of $2.8 million into the territorial economy? Does he think those predictions, on the basis of his current information, will be borne out?

Senior Pollard.

Si, Mr. Speaker. I will be putting a report into the House either tomorrow or Thursday with regard to the exposition, but certainly the purchase of arts and crafts and of meat products from the Northwest Territories, as well as the hiring of the majority of people from the Northwest Territories, will plow most of the money that it is going to cost us to be there back into the Northwest Territories. I will have further details on that later in the week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Learning Disabilities Association of the NWT states that the 1986 census reports 44 per cent of NWT residents over the age of 15 are illiterate; 72 per cent over the age of 15 are aboriginal people; and each year in the Northwest Territories, between 700 and 800 students leave school before graduation. My question to the Minister of Education has to do with "assessments must be done before programs can be prescribed." I would like to know from the Minister, where are these educational assessments conducted especially for the Western Arctic?

Minister of Education, Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, we know now the statistics of our students, their graduations, and their post secondary graduations that are taking place in the Northwest Territories. We conducted the survey in co-operation with the CEIC, which is a federal department. From these studies, we will be making some enquiries as to how we can improve the number of students staying in school to graduate from our high schools. In terms of developing criteria to respond to the report, my department is working with all the partners in education, mainly with the divisional boards, to come up to these solutions to questions that are raised in the report. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem here is that there are a lot of children that have learning disabilities in our school system in the North. The problem is assessing

them. I know that in my particular community, there is a great concern by parents there that proper assessments are not being conducted for all the students. I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware of this problem, and, if he is, what he is doing about it? Thank you.

Mr. Allooloo