Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the Legislative Assembly and on the Commission of Official Languages, in her opening remarks to the committee, the Speaker noted that there is some confusion and concern regarding the reporting relationship between the Languages Commissioner and the Legislative Assembly. This relationship has never been clearly established, and the Languages Commissioner noted this fact in her annual report to the Legislative Assembly.

Recommendation 24

The committee recommends that the Legislative Assembly establish an overall reporting relationship for the Languages Commissioner such that overall reporting is to the Assembly and financial reporting is through the Standing Committee on Finance. The committee further recommends that, in future, the Languages Commissioner should appear before the Standing Committee on Finance to defend her budget.

Education Program

The Speaker outlined, for the committee, the education program which is in the final stages of being developed. This program provides for public education for visitors to the Legislative Assembly, and also for our youth in schools and colleges to learn about our system of government. The committee would like to see sufficient resources allocated to the education program to allow the Speaker to introduce it in a number of communities throughout the territories.

Pages Program

Committee Members support the pages program that is currently being developed in the Clerk's office. The purpose of this program is to encourage MLAs to recruit more students from across the territories to serve as pages in the Legislative Assembly and become more aware of the political process.

Recommendation 25

The committee recommends that the Legislative Assembly complete the development of the pages' program and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated so that the program can be successfully implemented.

That, Mr. Chairman, concludes the report of the Standing Committee on Finance. I would like to make motions.