Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In reference to some remarks made by the Minister of Finance today in the budget address, I took note and interest in the fact that the social envelope has allocated $3,000,000 for early childhood intervention, bringing the total funding for this initiative to $4.5 million. I was wondering, if perhaps the Minister for Health and Social Services could give the House some kind of an indication of what kind of programs are and initiative are involved in early childhood intervention.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an awful lot of research has been done on programs which are offered already in the north and in other locations and the framework to help communities design a successful program within their own community has now been completed by the department. We have not settled on one particular design, but instead, are offering communities the chance to work with people within the Departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services at designing a program which makes sense in each individual community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when we refer to early childhood intervention, what are we intervening in? In what area is the intervention?

Mr. Speaker, the program will be aimed at children from the age of zero to kindergarten. It will also include programs or permit programs aimed at maternal health to ensure that the children are born well. It basically is a very broad program at this point in time in the way it is designed. We have to work with each community, because some communities already have early intervention programs, like Aboriginal Head Start, in operation and what we are looking to do is complement the programs that may be out there and make sure that we broaden the services available, within each community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not involved in a social programs committee, but if I had to guess the kinds of areas where we need to intervene with children of that age, zero to kindergarten, I would imagine that we would need to intervene, educate and offer programs in the areas of nutrition, and with older children, certainly, advising them of the pit falls of alcoholism and intervention in the area of abuse of substances and also abuse in general. I am just trying to articulate a few that come to mind, but there is one area that I am curious about, that you do not hear much talk about, and I do not know if it is even politically correct to address, but we talk about the growing pressure on our social programs and we talk about the birth rate and the population growth rate in the Northwest Territories. What I am wondering is, is there any program or educational initiative in the Northwest Territories to deal with the issue of teenage pregnancy and the health and social issues of children bearing children?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that this fits in with an early childhood intervention program. But, to answer the Member's question, beginning in grade 7, in particular in grades 7 to 9, the health curriculum does, in fact, emphasize issues of this sort. In particular, dealing with AIDS and other potential problems. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that everyone in this House would agree that a human life is a precious thing. Right from the time of conception, we as a government have a responsibility to take care of our citizens. So these programs are very important, but, I am genuinely curious, whether or not it is culturally inappropriate to suggest that young people who have no education, who have no means of support, who are immature and not adults themselves, and I know there are issues of custom adoption and so on, but, is it culturally inappropriate to suggest that children who are uneducated and unable to provide for themselves should not be bearing children? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the risk of rephrasing it inappropriately, I will attempt to formulate a written question and find the answer that way. Thank you.