Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. ...developing training initiatives that are suitable for the target population; making special efforts to contact suitable prospective employees who are disabled; providing physical access to buildings and access technology, and so on.

Eighty per cent of job accommodations for people with disabilities cost less than $1,000. With careful planning, measures such as ramps, railings, convenient parking, lower reception and service counters, accessible placement of merchandise, wider entrances and exits, and larger and more easy-to-read signs and advertising need not involve great expense. Without such improvements, though, people with disabilities are prevented from offering businesses their patronage as consumers, or their services as employees.

Figures from the International Association of Machinists Centre for Administering Rehabilitation and Employment Services, a federally and privately-funded program in Canada and the United States, shows that employing people with disabilities can considerably reduce social assistance payments and public welfare costs. American figures, for example, indicated that employing people with disabilities saved American taxpayers about $12 million for each $1.5 million invested. Employing people with disabilities, then, Mr. Speaker, can reduce the cost of public services and thereby reduce taxation levels. Money spent on education and training is an investment.

At a recent community meeting held in Gjoa Haven and hosted by the NWT Council for Disabled Persons, members of QuIlik Society of People with Disabilities voiced their concern about the transition from school to community living for young adults. In that community, Mr. Speaker, there are a number of young adults who are "finished school, but not finished learning," according to Mary Kikoak, the president of Gullik Society.

A day program that would offer both work skills and daily living skills to benefit these young adults is considered suitable by the members of Qullik Society in Gjoa Haven. Thank you.