Mr. Speaker, this government has made a commitment to transfer more government programs to the community level. Some of the 79 positions identified were decentralized in April, while others are targeted

for 1994. To ensure that people have the skills to fill these positions, the Financial Management Board approved $800,000 for 1992-93 and another $784,000 for 1993-94 for decentralization training. I would like to bring you up to date on this initiative.

A total of 86 students from across the NWT have taken various training courses through Arctic College over the past year. Another 33 students have enrolled in Arctic College programs being offered this fall through decentralization funding. These programs are scheduled to be completed by June, 1994.

Approximately twice the number of candidates as the number of positions being decentralized have received training. This is to ensure that there is a pool of trained candidates to compete for these jobs, as well as those vacated by current government or private sector employees moving to decentralized jobs and those freed up by normal staff turnover. To date, 12 students have been offered decentralized positions.

In addition to the students pursuing studies through Arctic College, 13 positions were established through the public service career training program to prepare people for decentralization. These training positions are located in Rankin Inlet, Inuvik, Fort Simpson and Iqaluit. I am pleased to say that the training for the positions in Inuvik are now completed and all candidates were very successful. The trainees from Rankin Inlet are due to finish in December, while the Iqaluit trainees will finish in 1994 and the Fort Simpson trainees in 1995.

Mr. Speaker, the decentralization of government positions has provided an important catalyst for people to improve their skills and education in order to prepare for new employment possibilities. The program has already met with a good deal of success.

My department will produce a detailed student placement report once all the courses are completed, in order to assess the programs' effectiveness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.