Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a brief comment to follow up on what my colleague from Yellowknife is saying. With regard to the TEP program, the Minister alluded to that a little earlier. My understanding is that the students who are in this program are having some concerns with regard to the credits they're receiving. I understand that there's a problem or a concern raised by the university not accepting their credits. I'm not too sure if the interpretation is being interpreted correctly by Arctic College or the department itself. Mr. Chairman, I would like the Minister to comment on the concern that has been raised in my area. I know there are a lot of students in the TEP program who have a similar concern with regard to their credits.
I agree with the Minister when he says that for the last number of years, we have been improving with regard to getting our own teachers qualified. Mr. Chairman, I'm really glad because we do have, particularly in my region, a number of aboriginal teachers, and I hope we'll continue to do so in the future.
Another point I would like to touch on, Mr. Chairman, is with regard to the divisional board of education for the Dogrib region. I know that they've been communicating with the department over the last few months with regard to the relocation of their office. Firstly, the board has decided that it would be in the best interests of the residents of the region that they be housed in an independent location, particularly where we have a large group of people within a community. For instance, they're currently housed at the Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in one of the residential wings. They decided to do that a number of years ago so they could be more cost-effective. They've been housed there for a number of years now, but since we've been adding grades and since it has become a regional high school they require additional space at the school. I understand that the board wants to relocate so that they can use the space they are currently using for other purposes. There was a suggestion made to the Minister that they should be moving to the complex in Rae. I know that the corporation in Rae is currently in the planning stage of providing additional office space for the local residents and I understand that the government has also approaches, particularly the Department of Health and Social Services, because we understand that a number of positions will be moving to Rae from that particular department. I think it will be timely if we can coordinate between those two departments and we could address this situation now so that when we get into the planning for our capital for next year this issue could be resolved.
Mr. Chairman, another issue that I would like to raise is with regard to the regional industrial strategy that my region has been pursuing over a number of years. As the Minister may recall, on a number of occasions I raised, particularly with this department, the point that my group will be knocking on your door to seek information and would like your cooperation, et cetera. Not only your particular department, but other government departments also. We were also looking at getting the federal agencies involved, particularly the Canada Employment Centre, those types of agencies so that we can come up with a strategy for the region. I know that my group has been trying to coordinate with these various groups to put together terms of reference so that they can go ahead with their own strategy. But on top of that, another problem that we're encountering is that the department itself is doing some sort of similar study and that concerns us a lot. What we want to do, Mr. Chairman, is specifically gear this to the North Slave region so that we know the type of skilled people we have in the region, their education levels, and hoping that we can also get the mining industry involved so we know if a mine, for instance, if the diamond mine goes ahead, the type of requirements they would need so that we know if we can fulfil those types of jobs and so forth.
We embarked on this issue about three years ago and it's been moving along very slowly, Mr. Chairman. I'm a little bit disappointed. But on top of that, besides the department undertaking their own study, now we also have Renewable Resources with another study going on that is also related to what my region wants to do and also what the Department of Education wants to do. It's causing us some concern, Mr. Chairman. If I could get the Minister to touch on some of the items that I've talked about I would appreciate it so that my constituents who are listening will know exactly where the department is going. Mahsi.