Are they extensive? Can I refer to them quickly?

Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, there are approximately nine or 10 items that I could run through, if the Member would like. There is $6.7 million that is proposed in O and M new initiatives and $2 million proposed in capital. I will list the capital items first. There is $300,000 in our budget for the building and learning strategy. In the past, the building and learning strategy has always been funded through supplementary requests to the Legislature. So this is a first in that it is shown in the main estimates. I don't think it is a new initiative; it is just because it isn't usually in here that we are showing it now.

We have $1.2 million for technology infrastructure development, which is a combination of both hard and soft infrastructure needs to make sure that all of our schools across the Northwest Territories are prepared to take advantage of the new technology, so we can improve our ability to provide distance education. This is one of the things we need to be able to improve in order to assure smaller communities that the programs being offered in their communities are of an equal calibre to the programs offered in the larger communities. There are fewer resources in terms of teachers in the smaller communities, so distance education is very important for us to be able to improve as we get into grade extensions in the smaller communities.

The next item is $500,000 for small-school senior-secondary schooling. This is just a small allocation of funds to try to assist those schools where grade extensions are scheduled to take place with minor changes that may be required to help them provide the education to high school students. In most communities, schools were built for up to grade 8 or 9. As you can understand, bringing in older students does sometimes require that there be some small physical changes made to the schools to accommodate the teaching of the programs in the schools.

Moving to the O and M side, we, as a department, have allowed $1.5 million for workforce adjustment, which may be required for downsizing initiatives within the department. As I mentioned in my opening comments, we have $2 million for investing in people. This $2 million is all coming from this government. For the past two years, there was an $8 million cost-shared program with the federal government. So there was $4 million from this government and $4 million from the federal government to provide this program. It was only a two-year program that the federal government got started on, so we knew it would end. I have been unsuccessful in getting the federal government to reconsider continuing the program, so all we have to put in is this $2 million.

As mentioned in my opening comments, we have $1 million in here for an early intervention program in which Education, Culture and Employment is playing the lead role. We are working at coordinating early intervention across the Northwest Territories with Health and Social Services and tying together the federal programs which are being offered across the Territories. With that $1 million, we are hoping to wind up with a much bigger program than we otherwise could if we can get both GNWT departments and the federal government to work together on how the programs are offered.

We have $800,000 for a labour force planning and development program. This is a combination of programs. That is broken down further into four different programs. We will be offering a pilot project on pre-engineering technology. There has been a shortage of Northwest Territories residents who we have seen taking postsecondary education in the fields of technology. So the college will be offering a pilot project this year to try to encourage more students to get involved in the technology field. We have $100,000 identified for that project.

We have $300,000 identified for mining training. This should offer programs in four different communities in the Northwest Territories. This is the sort of program I mentioned in my opening comments with Lutsel K'e. As well, it may include heavy equipment operator training, et cetera. There are a number of mining courses that the college offers. The intent is to offer these courses in Dogrib communities and in areas where the potential is best for northerners to get jobs in the mining field.

We have $200,000 identified for a labour force plan and survey. This is to ensure that the department is prepared to put its initiatives or its training dollars into those areas where we can see development taking place; in other words, making sure we are getting best bang for our buck. We need to have a planning exercise to make sure that we aren't just flying off the handle and saying we need mining training here or there. We need to make sure we have a coordinated approach. To do that we need to spend some money and time developing a plan. That is what that is intended to do.

The last $200,000 of the $800,000 is for a workplace literacy project. That is a program to ensure that we can get more people into the workforce. As the Member will know, we have a lot of unemployed people in the Northwest Territories. Their numbers tend to be disproportionately representative of those who are very poorly educated. This is an attempt to try to improve our ability to get more of those people into the workforce.

The next item we have, Mr. Chairman, is 900,000 in support for community programs, training and development. That is made up of three different subgroups. This could get to be quite long if I start breaking down all of these initiatives, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I will just give the totals and if the Member wants more detail on them, he can ask me specifically.

So the $900,000 goes to support for community programs, training and development. We have $100,000 for technology infrastructure development. We have $250,000 in O and M for the small-school senior-secondary schooling requirements. We have $150,000 for improving student achievement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Any further questions, Mr. Ootes?

No, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The college board of governors has a responsibility for recommending where the programs would be offered. Both the College East and West have a responsibility to try and ensure that as many programs as possible are offered in the communities. I can't, at this point in time, commit to the Member that the college will move base-funded programs into Arviat or Baker Lake. However, I do think that the college board of governors will continue to take a look at the demands for training that the residents of Nunavut place on the college and will do their best, given the fiscal resources available to them, to make sure that training opportunities are made available as broadly across Nunavut as possible. For me to predict that they will be able to move programs within the next couple of years, I can't promise that. I can promise that the board will certainly consider the Member's request. I think all Members of this House would hope that we would be able to see adult training courses throughout the Territories in all of the communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Dent, would you like to respond? Was that a statement or a question?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will pass the Member's advice on to the board.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Picco, you have further general comments?

Thank you, Mr. Picco. Would the Minister like to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will take the Member's comments as advice to me and see what we can do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is along the same lines as the last two presenters and it's with regard to the possibility of reallocating certain programs from the larger centres, especially with the question about empowering communities and regions. We have to start looking at exactly where these programs can be better served. In the past, it might have been a good idea to establish them in one location, but I think the tendency in a lot of regions ... Especially where I come from, the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in and the Sahtu are in the process of amalgamating their pathways funding programs so that they can get more mileage out of their resources.

The same emphasis should be put on this government, where possible -- where new Arctic College facilities have been established, such as Inuvik -- to consider looking at allowing certain programs that have been carried out in other facilities such as Fort Smith. An example is the renewable resources program; I believe that in the last couple of years there has been a request, that went up to the board of governors for Arctic College, to look at the possibility of implementing the renewable resource program in Inuvik because of the land claim agreements that have been settled in that area, especially with the Inuvialuit claim, the Gwich'in and also the Sahtu. There is a component of the agreement that consists of the renewable resources section that calls for a biologist, researchers, and people to carry out the duties of the boards. There is an arrangement between the aboriginal groups, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government to implement those claims and there's something like $10 million to do it over a period of time. With those resources, to try to get as much mileage, and also benefit the people in those regions by having them trained. There's also the geographical costs of sending people south and the question of having people close to home because of the drop-out rate.

My question is would the Minister seriously consider looking at the request of the previous board of governors to look at the possibility of moving some of these programs to regions that could benefit more in the sense of land claims settlements and a closer working relationship between the aboriginal groups in those regions; to establish more of a regional centre than a territorial centre so we could train and educate more people in a regional geographic sense rather than just a territorial facility? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, right now, the colleges make a tremendous effort to provide programs in as many communities as possible across the Northwest Territories. Given the fact that this budget that's before this House right now significantly reduces the funding to the colleges in the next year, it puts them under some pressure already. I think it's going to take them some time to respond. I will certainly pass on the Member's suggestions to the western board. I've made the commitment to pass the suggestion on to the eastern college board. I hope Members will recognize that, in these times of fiscal restraint, the organizations are having trouble right now reacting just to the budget that they're faced with and coming up with new initiatives is probably going to be problematic here in the next little while. I believe the colleges will do their best to ensure equitable access across both eastern and western territories to the programs that they offer. I'll certainly reinforce that with the boards; that that should be one of their prime goals. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. General comments? Mr. Krutko.

Right now, there are certain programs being carried out in southern institutions where those resources could have been spent in the North through northern facilities, such as the land administration program presently being delivered in Olds, Alberta, on behalf of the Sahtu claims process.

I mentioned earlier about trying to use other resources that are out there with regard to Pathways funding and training dollars which come with the claims settlements. There are resources out there, but I think by pooling these resources together, we can possibly get a better program overall and be able to deliver it in the North which will be beneficial to everybody, not just the claimant groups or the groups that have access to other dollars such as Pathways or training dollars through comprehensive claims agreements.

So that was my point and hopefully we can seriously look at that as one of the avenues to getting as much mileage out of the resources we do have. We know there have been cutbacks and I think that in this day and age, we have to look at other alternatives to how we do business, especially in delivering programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Would you like to respond?