Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the honourable Member, I am as interested as she is with respect to ensuring we got our money's worth. I will undertake to provide the Member with the report as soon as we get it from the Federation of Labour. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Gargan.

Minister of Education.

Mr. Speaker, I am not quite certain whether there is a clear evaluation. I believe there is an ongoing evaluation that is done. On the more specific details I will provide a further answer in written response on the process and the manner in which those assessments are done.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Speaker, my supplementary to the Minister would be why at this point in the delivery of our aboriginal programs, have students been failing to catch onto their own languages? While the evaluation is going on, could you also look into why this is happening?

Mr. Nerysoo.

Mr. Speaker, I want to indicate to the honourable Member that evaluations have been done on the matter of educational programming in aboriginal languages. So far there is considerable evidence to show that promotion and development of a child's first language can significantly help the children's academic progress and instruction in the aboriginal child's mother tongue. Especially during the first three to four years of schooling makes learning a second language such as English much easier. That assessment has already been done as a result of a Rock Point Navajo study and an Edmonton Ukrainian/English bilingual program. We have reviewed the issue, and I want to also advise the honourable Member that the Dene Kede curriculum which deals with language and language programs in the aboriginal first languages, was piloted last year and will be a part of the programming this year as aboriginal languages will be the first language of education. It will begin in 1993-94.

Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Speaker, the aboriginal curriculum in the Education Act, I believe, was implemented in 1978. Since the implementation of this new section in the Education Act the aboriginal language and culture programs has not improved dramatically. In fact, it is gradually deteriorating. What I am saying is that even students my age who went to school understood their own language and their own culture. However, students now of school age do not understand that and I want to know what we are doing that is failing our culture. Would the Minister look into this situation? I compliment the department for doing what they could in those areas, but we are still failing.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will not argue with the honourable Member. I think I agree there have been some significant failures. I would also like to indicate to the honourable Member that both in the Inuktitut language and the in the Dene languages we are moving in new curriculum areas that were not developed in 1978, but are new programs that were developed in the last year. As a result of the support of the previous Ministers we are now piloting those new curriculums that will be helpful to the young people. I appreciate the concern the honourable Member has raised, that is the reason we are responding and we do not want the same kind of failures. Much of the development has been done by the aboriginal teachers themselves so they have an idea of some of the problem areas. We are trying to respond to the honourable Member. I am hoping I could provide him with detailed information so he can see that we are trying to make strides in the educational system to meet the challenges the honourable Member has raised.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Allooloo.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated in this House, our government's position is that no dumping is allowed in the Arctic Ocean, even though the federal policy allows it. What we would like to see happen is, the federal government reviews its policy in terms of allowing industry to dump their garbage into the ocean. Our position maintains that we would like to see no dumping at all on April 15. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have written to the Minister of Environment, Mr. Charest, on a number of occasions. As recently as yesterday I wrote a letter to him conveying our position. Our position is that no dumping should be allowed in the ocean. Our preferred option is to remove the scrap metal to southern places. As an alternative that scrap metal be disposed of on the land if it cannot be shipped to southern destinations.

Mr. Speaker, PanArctic may have mentioned that we lose snowmobiles and other items on the ice when it is melting. PanArctic would like to dump 400,000 tonnes of scrap metal, that translates to about 79,000 ski-doos going through the ice. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.