Fort Simpson will be delivering a grade 12 program this upcoming year. On the matter of extensions in other communities, we have not had a request from the Deh Cho regional board of education to provide extension of grades in Fort Liard. Normally, the process would be a discussion from the community to the regional board and then the regional board would develop the plans to present the arguments on behalf of the community. We have not heard that discussion yet. It would be my suggestion to the honourable Member, and most Members, that I would rather have the actual decisions being made by communities and in the regions before I intervened on their behalf. It is my belief that the regions and the communities should have a say in these decisions. Secondly, I think the secondary schooling strategy will address the concerns of long-term planning for high school extensions, generally across the Northwest Territories, and will lay out some plans and guidelines, so that we have some rules which will see us providing the same kind of programs and decision-making processes to all regions and all communities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to wrap this issue up before we go page by page. One of the problems which some students are experiencing when they are exposed to another community, especially when they are going through the higher education process, is home sickness, they are in a strange environment. If students are not able to measure up or keep up with the other students who have been in the larger centres, and not having the physical support of their relatives and parents, these are contributing factors to a student's poor performance. Mr. Chairman, what is good for one student, does not imply that it is good for another student. Exposure is good for some students, but others are not able to get used to the strange and new environment.

Most of the parents that I have spoken with in my community and in my constituency have no problem with their kids going to a high school, but sometimes it is very difficult for both the parent and the student to be separated for long periods of time. The department is very aware of the problems we have had. I know the honourable Minister is also aware. The standard of education in some of the smaller communities is not as good as it is in larger centres because the students who attend high school sometimes have to undergo upgrading before they may enrol in the regular program. This is where the problem lies. This causes stress upon students. I do not have a question, just a point I wanted to make. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would like to pursue some questions from the Minister's statement. I know they could come up in the page by page. On page five, there is a note of the reviews of the Baffin and Kitikmeot boards, which are timely. Are these reviews concluded? Will MLAs have the opportunity to learn the results of these reviews and consider the recommendations which may come out? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, no, we have not concluded the reviews. I will ask the deputy minister to give the details on those reviews.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The review process we are using this year is much broader than has been used in previous years and will, in fact, involve consultation with each of the schools and parents who have children in the school system. We expect to have the review completed around middle to end of April of this year. Once the review is completed, we would certainly see the review being shared with all constituents of that particular region. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is another reference to decentralization of the college. When we get into the college activity, will the Minister be giving us details on the timing and the progress being made on that decentralization of the college into two institutions?

There are a number of issues that are a factor in providing actual detail. However, we would hope to complete the decentralization by July 1 of 1994.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know this is an O and M budget, but I was pleased to see the reference, in

the Minister's opening remarks, to developing direction for regional and community museums. I think the Members know this is a concern of mine. When we come to cultural affairs, will we be able to get some progress on the development of the work toward developing the policy which was recommended by the Standing Committee on Finance at the budget session late last year?

Thank you. During the budget review, you will recall, I made the offer of having the presentation of the broad policy guidelines which we were going to use to develop more specific policies. That particular offer has not been taken up yet by the Standing Committee on Finance. It is still an offer I want to give to the standing committee so they can review, in more specific detail, that particular policy. Only after we have concluded our discussions with Cabinet on the actual details, can we move forward with the actual implementation. I hoped we could have the advice of the Standing Committee on Finance. That has not occurred to date.

Perhaps that is something, as a Member of that committee, I will take up with the committee because, one way or the other, it will be useful to have some input into the development of that policy.

Mr. Chairman, I wanted to conclude my general comments by saying, once again, although I know this is an operations and maintenance budget, since the capital budget was finalized last fall, there has been the unfortunate fire in Apex. I may take the liberty of asking the Minister, when his schools' budget is presented, for some progress on the plans to construct a replacement school. I would like to give him some notice of that at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am extremely proud of this budget. Therefore, I would like to move to go page by page. Thank you.

Directorate

Agreed.

---Agreed