Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I can't say that anything went wrong. There is always a need to improve. If you recall, as deputy minister at the time, that there was a suggestion by the Assembly that there was a need to re-evaluate where we were going in education. As a result of that, the Special Committee on Education was established to articulate the concerns of the Assembly. What occurred is clear. There was basic core programming necessary for us to deliver programs and to meet the standards that had been set up nationally. What was absent in the core was a reflection of language, culture and heritage that we needed to improve upon.

Secondly, is the issue of the provision of support for authority to schools on a regional basis. Yellowknife had had a board since the 1950s. They saw, in that case, a greater autonomy and more accountability on the part of the people in the community. With respect to that, the assessment that was made was a need to transfer more authority. What is clear, as a result of that, is there has been some very significant success. We still don't want to get rid of the core programming. That is essential. We need to improve upon our heritage culture element. We need to recognize the information networking systems across the north. The whole issue of an early childhood learning system, we don't have. There is the issue of improving student achievement, which all Members have tried to articulate quite clearly in this House. And, there is the issue of the improving access of adults to learning and education. We have done that and we need to move on to the next stage.

In response to that, what is clear is that there is still an absence of authority in the communities. We need to improve upon that.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The issue of programs is really a policy matter and isn't specified in the act. That is something that isn't laid out in an act, otherwise you could change it all the time. Having had experience of 10 years, with the result of a massive inquiry into what things were right and wrong, what is the key element in this new strategy that will redress what was wrong with the act that was revised in 1983-84?

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we have to realize that there are many circumstances that have changed. Technology has changed. It allows us the decision of more grades in the communities. There is the use of language, culture and heritage programming in our schools. Early childhood development was really never part of any educational programming in the north, other than kindergarten. We have seen a need for us to change our child care programming. We have also needed to recognize that despite some of the criticisms, there is a great increase in comparison to what has occurred previously, in the number of students in high school programming; we now have more people in school.

We also have to deal with adult programming. Again, how do we do it. We also have to deal with bridging learning and work; creating community learning and those are elements that are important in addressing programming for the future.

Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

There are all those issues, Madam Speaker. Increasing grades in communities; programming in schools; improved technology, et cetera. That has nothing at all to do with legislation. It is to do with policy and what you want to do as a government. What was there in the act that prevented all these things from happening before? I see that as a matter of policy, not as a matter of legislation.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you. Maybe then, we haven't really seen the problems with the legislation because there are changes that have occurred on an ad hoc basis . We have amended the legislation to a point where sections in the legislation contradict one another. What we are trying to do is improve that situation, and also improve the ability of divisional boards and CECs to assume responsibility for educational programming as has been the case in Yellowknife for many years.

The way the Education Act reads right now, there is only one section -- and Mr. Koe pointed out that students are important -- that deals with students in the old Education Act. It is our view that we should outline clearly the rights and responsibilities at the front of the Education Act, not at the middle and not at the end, where it is right now. Other issues are the rights and responsibilities of parents and another is more authority being given to the communities. Those are issues that need to be addressed and require changes.

And, as I have said, there are sections that are contradictory at this particular juncture.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Okay, I will take my pick out of three or four. Madam Speaker, since the Minister has raised the issue of all the contradictions in the act, can he give me one example of a contradiction. Then I will be happy and I will sit down.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

That's very simple, Madam Speaker. Nothing in the act allows the community, where there is only a band council, to assume the responsibility for educational authority. Rather, we have to create the situation of having a CEC. That is contradictory in that the bands, in some cases, want to assume the responsibility for education and right now, under our legislation, it doesn't allow us to do that.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, yesterday the Legislature passed Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act to change the name of Government Leader to Premier. I would like to ask whether or not there are any legal implications with the definition remaining the same in the aboriginal languages, or has that been addressed by the government, since, legally, the Official Languages Act is still a recognized document in this Assembly.

I would presume a definition would have to be quite clear when it is translated, too, by our translators. Has that been addressed at all, since the definition in the aboriginal languages will still remain Government Leader?

Minister of Justice, Mr. Kakfwi. He didn't indicate who the question was for, but he did indicate that he wanted to know whether there has been a legal definition. And legal interpretation is under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice.

Mr. Gargan, could I ask you to rephrase your question? Mr. Gargan.