Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the problems that I think people have when you review budgets and when there is a need for us to respond to the potential for deficits, is that we have to find resources where it is, in our view, most appropriate to reduce. In that context, the resources that have been identified to respond to what would have been and still could be a serious financial problem for us, we were able to identify in this particular area. I don't like to be difficult, but let's be very honest about the million dollars that the honourable Member is talking about which has been
identified for cost-sharing with the federal government. The federal government removed their million dollars. As a result of that, there is no cost-sharing right now with the federal government.
In the investing in people, which is the $4.5 million that we are looking at over the next three years, which will increase the total number of dollars spent by $3.5 million, those dollars are to be cost-shared with the federal government moving toward signing arrangements, agreements with the federal government to implement that particular program. While the honourable Member is correct in saying that we have removed the money, we are still moving to implement programs that would cost up to $4.5 million for college programming.
The other important consideration that Members must have, and we must continue to remind ourselves, is that there are already training dollars that have been made available to aboriginal organizations through the claims agreements. If we can work in partnership with the aboriginal organizations, we can access some of those dollars to deliver actual training programs to the aboriginal people.
If I may go back to one experience that we had -- and I keep mentioning this one -- is with the Gwich'in. The Gwich'in themselves wanted to proceed with a business program with the University of Lethbridge. Through Arctic College, I intervened in that process. What was interesting is they had already spent $70,000 of development money on trying to develop the program with the University of Lethbridge, which they really, in my view, didn't have to do. We could have worked it out through the Arctic College and would have used that $70,000 to actually deliver the program. They have agreed, through Arctic College and in conjunction with the University of Lethbridge, that we would deliver that program through the Aurora Campus in Inuvik. My view is that we can work with the other aboriginal organizations to deliver programming. We can, as the honourable Member has stressed so many times in the House, use Arctic College as a vehicle for delivering post-secondary community-based training programs. I think it is the best vehicle available to us. I think we should continue to promote that as the institution of training.
The other element is that there are already available opportunities for us to access training educational dollars under the CAP 3 for which we have already submitted proposals to the federal government from communities that will allow us to train various communities, and to utilize CAP 3 money in ways other than social assistance or welfare payments. The possibilities are there.
The other issue is that we should access the unemployment insurance program much better than we have been accessing it previously and utilizing those resources. It is my view that we will be able to access more resources.
On the matter of Arctic College, we have invested $1 million in the decision to separate and have two colleges in the north. The names will end up as Arctic College, Nunavut and Arctic College West. Those decisions have been made.
On the matter of the nursing program, I think we don't disagree with the honourable Member's comments that we should make it as accessible as a teacher education program but, like every other program, my honourable Member will recall how difficult the initial decisions were to move the teacher education program to the community-based program. We needed some additional experiences. I think, without any question, we can use that experience in the health programs. It is our first year of delivering the access year for the nursing program. I think from that we will develop some additional experiences that we might be able to promote access programs in the various campuses. It all costs dollars and we have to look at the program in terms of the resources that we have at hand.
The honourable Member made mention of the fact that we may not be able to access the dollars. The federal government has announced two particular programs, one for $200 million and the other for $800 million over the next three years. We can access those dollars immediately, at the earliest opportunity for various pilot projects that we might be able to consider in terms of training and education. It is going to take us some time but I think that we can access those dollars this upcoming fiscal year. The criteria and the basis by which we are going to utilize those resources is an issue that is being discussed right now between the Ministers. I have had an opportunity, as the honourable Member will note, to make a statement in the House indicating a number of the issues that we have to address. We are moving on those, and we are trying to respond to the concerns that the honourable Member has raised.