Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a few general comments for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. This is a big department which combines three important areas: education; culture; and, employment. There are quite a combination of different tasks and activities that this Minister is responsible for. The total amount of O and M is $221.403 million, that is quite a bit of money for education, culture and employment.

I will start off with education, Mr. Chairman. Education has always been a very important program for me. I think education for the people of the Northwest Territories is very important, especially for younger people today. In these changing times, there are a lot of pressures to get a good education. It is very crucial that we provide very good programs to young people today, in the north.

I am very concerned about it because we still have quite a lot of students who fall out of the education system from K to 12. We have very few graduates coming out of the system. We have been saying that for the last four years; since I have been here. In the meantime, this department has amalgamated and changed itself, they have a lot of different initiatives on the go.

We are pumping in $221 million to provide programs and services. What are the end results, what is the end product here by putting this amount of money into the system? I am not criticizing the department but I am just saying that I have viewed it as such, right from the beginning when we had the briefings and so forth. A couple of years ago, it was shown that there is an alarming, higher percentage out there who are not completing grade 12 -- from the time they enter kindergarten until they reach grade 12. Why is that?

If the Minister and his staff have the task of providing this service -- it is an enormous task -- maybe he could give me a quick explanation about why are we still seeing this scenario.

In the education area, we have education boards established, with people from the communities sitting on these boards. Funds have been allocated to each board to run its own divisional education board. I am told that this fund has been cut back and it is causing concerns in the communities; it is also causing me some concern. There seems to be a cut to school boards -- about 2.5 per cent; more than $2 million -- across the north. It is causing concern to the school, and the boards will have to decide where they are going to cut.

Usually whenever cuts are made in schools, the first ones to go are the cultural programs. There are very few cultural programs to begin with. Yet, whenever decisions are made, the cultural aspects of a program are cut first. All the way along we see this problem. Again, maybe the Minister could explain this cut; I guess it is really up to the board to decide where they are going to cut, but the one area that I have always had concerns about it is culture in the schools. As a person who speaks my language, there are fewer and fewer younger people that speak my language, so it is a major concern. One of the areas where there was an attempt to try to keep this language alive was in the schools. With these cuts, I am afraid that those programs will be the first ones to go.

I know teachers who provide this program in the schools and they are struggling along. They don't have the type of material they require and they are struggling along to provide this program as best they can. You have a place where we have a problem where they don't have the material to begin with, and if these cuts come along, I am afraid it is going to be harder for the teacher and the CECs to provide that program.

Mr. Speaker, one of the official languages adopted in this Legislative Assembly is the Dene language I speak in my constituency. It is recognized by this House and it should be provided in the school, no matter what. There should be a condition to the Minister that the official languages be taught in the schools.

Carrying on, Mr. Chairman, with the education program, I want to focus your attention to one of the areas I have always raised. People are falling through the cracks in education and training. There are some people in my communities who don't have an education. There are a number of them who have never gone to school. They are adult men and women now. They have asked that there be a program developed for them, so they can learn how to read and write. Nowadays, you have to be able to read and write. I haven't seen anything provided for them yet. I don't know whose responsibility it is. I've raised it in the House; people have heard me in the House before.

The Minister is shaking his head. Maybe he hasn't heard me before, but I did raise it in the past and I'll get some research done to prove it. It's a concern and I would like to see some answer as to how we can deal with the issue. People have come to me to ask for these kinds of programs and services, and I would like to see something come out of that.

I would like to talk about culture, as well, Mr. Chairman. Culture is very important. I've touched on it. Language in school is also important. There are people in the communities who want to develop and keep the culture alive and there are activities that volunteer groups put on to provide this. There has to be more of that and it's really up to the communities to do, and they are attempting to do so in a number of ways. I guess the major way is through language. This department is responsible for the language program and we know the language agreement with the federal government has been cut quite drastically. Maybe the Minister could tell me how his department is addressing this important issue with less money coming into territorial government coffers from the federal government. And, if there are going to be any cuts, I would like to know which areas they are going to be in.

In the area of employment, there is an income support program being developed by this department, along with the federal government. There is an initiative throughout the country to try to deal with the ever-increasing problem of social assistance and trying to work it into employment and training aspects. I think it's a very good initiative. It's really important to keep people in the communities abreast of the developments. There needs to be a lot of communication and dialogue to keep people informed about the reasons this is happening. Already, we hear there is feedback on the national level from different groups against this initiative. But, in the north, we have a small enough population and people will understand the reason behind the program. There are people in the communities who depend on social assistance, yet there are some able-bodied people in the communities who could probably work if there was work available. I think it's important to have this program up and running and soon as we can.

The one concern I have is that social assistance is going to be taken over by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment at some point in time. I would like to know what is happening, to date, with this. Are there any time frames for when this is going to be transferred over? I've talked to people in the communities and regions who deal with social assistance at the present time, and people in Education, Culture and Employment who are eventually going to be taking over this program -- if it ever does happen -- and there is optimism on both sides that it could be properly handled.

Whenever a government does something, the ultimate goal is to provide good programs and services to the people in a community. The people who use this service have to be kept abreast and informed of the developments. I have a concern that this may not be happening and if information goes out to the communities through the media to keep people informed, that would be one way to alleviate the problems that may arise from this very important service we are presently providing.

In terms of the teacher education program, it is a good program and many people are taking advantage of it. I'm glad to hear that a program is going to be developed in the constituency I represent. I'm glad for that. I think there are going to be people who are going to take advantage of this career development program. There are teachers who have been trained through the TEP program for some time now who would like to go back to school. As you know, Mr. Chairman, once you've been educated in one field, you like to go back and get more training. Some people in my area have indicated they would like to go back and, if the opportunity is available, I'm sure they'd take advantage of it. A teacher education program trains teachers to become teachers but, after that, there should be an opportunity to get further education in that field, if they so choose.

The Minister talked earlier about the quality of education. He mentioned that there is the delivery, parent support and student readiness. There are parents who are very concerned about the education of their children and when students are ready, we deal with the delivery of the program and the quality of education. I think that's what is key. The deliverers of the very important programs and services of this government in the area of education are teachers and educators. They are key to quality education. I know it is a very touchy subject, but it is a fact that whatever we do here, there is a lot of discussion over the last four years on education. We have been talking about the quality of education and we even passed a motion to develop excellence as a principle of this department. Could the Minister tell me if one of the key elements of the quality of education in the north is the teachers' reception to the discussions and ideas that come from Members in this House? Are they open to the type of direction that is given by the people we represent? Is there cooperation between his department and teachers, to try to provide the best quality of education to the students as possible? Could he tell us how that situation is? Furthermore, if that isn't the case, what is he doing, as a Minister, with his department to deal with the situations where the quality of education is at stake because there is a lack of cooperation between the deliverers of this program and the department?