(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some comments under capital projects. First of all, I would like to thank all of the Members of the Legislative Assembly, the previous Minister of Education and the present Minister. A school is being built in Lake Harbour. I think it is going to be opened in the fall, the beginning of the next school year. I would like to thank the Department of Education for this and also the Members of the Legislative Assembly.

I recently asked a question in this House regarding the three communities which wanted grade extensions in their communities. Teachers will have to be brought into the communities for grade extensions and housing will have to be provided for the extra teachers. I know the government is in a deficit at the present time. However, there are many students who would like to take their schooling in their home community if they can get the grade extensions in the communities.

For example, in my community of Lake Harbour students must leave the community and go to Iqaluit to take grade ten. There are a great deal of students who go to Iqaluit from Lake Harbour. There are more students going to Iqaluit all the time. Lake Harbour is very close to Iqaluit. We have encountered numerous problems. For example, there are more students from Lake Harbour than from any other Baffin community going to Iqaluit for school. We are now getting a new school which will be opened next fall.

I have been a member of the education council and was the chairman in 1995-86. We stressed the need for a new school and grade ten extension in the community of Lake Harbour. Although we worked hard for this type of assistance, I do not know whether or not we are going to get it. Before we go on to capital projects, I wanted to mention this.

I do not know whether I am within my rights to talk about this or not, but the money which is being distributed to divisional boards of education throughout the territories is going to be distributed monthly. I am only making general comments at present. Later on I will be asking questions of the Minister.

I feel that education is very important in the communities, especially when we are working toward a Nunavut government. I feel that the aboriginal people who are working in the Northwest Territories will have to be better educated to manage their own affairs in Nunavut in the future. We cannot say that we will all get territorial employees from the communities. I feel we have to look toward educating our young people. If we keep cutting the education budget I think we are going to be in a difficult position where we cannot train our aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories.

I am not against people coming from the south to work in the territories and our communities. I am saying that we have to make education a priority in the north. I feel there should be some money put aside in the capital estimates to build more schools. It is very important for our students to reach the high school level and to go on to college. I wanted to say that the capital budget must be in place for the future development of all schools in the territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.