Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of issues. The students have said to us in the past, you assist us with loans, grants and contributions to help us get an education. Some of us would like to come back to the Northwest Territories and earn some money so that we can pay for part of our education. Some of them specifically request work in the area that they are training in, so they can get some on-the-job experience.

Certainly, the government has, over the years, tried to accommodate those students. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, the UNW, rightfully so, has certain rules and regulations in the collective agreement with regard to casual positions and obviously they want to protect their members.

The other issue becomes -- and that has been raised by Mr. Allooloo -- the amount of funds and the rate of pay that is paid to students. Mr. Allooloo contends that in his area if the rates were lower, there could be more students hired and the wealth spread around.

There is another contributing factor to this problem, Mr. Speaker, albeit a good-news problem. In 1992, we were at 416 placements; in 1993, 668; and, in 1994, 785. So there are more students out there looking for summer work. I don't need to reiterate to the House that there has been an uptake in education and Mr. Nerysoo is dealing with that.

So we have all these factors pressuring us. We are dealing with the Department of Personnel with regard to resolving our own in-house situation. We are discussing that with the Department of Education and we will raise the issue with the UNW at our earlier convenience, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.