Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to start off the discussion today with a few more comments. I was listening to the debate yesterday and the discussions that have gone around in the last few days over the Transition Action plan and of the immense task that we have before us in making things happen. I think there is no question at all that our job is to be one of several partners in making Nunavut and the Western Arctic a reality. I think there is a tendency also when we are down to the nitty gritty or the nuts and bolts to sometimes lose sight of the goal sometimes. Because of the many different issues we have before us things like the financing, the staffing issue, the need to get the justice system and executive system in place for Nunavut in the short amount of time we have. It does take the centre stage as it must and those issues are certainly the most pressing ones that we need to deal with. I think also, as I mentioned yesterday and the statement that I have, that we do need to step back every once in a while to take a look at exactly what is going on.
In this case, it is important to remember many of the positives and the main goal that we are working towards and, in the case of the people of Nunavut, it is a creation of Nunavut and that is what I wanted to touch a bit upon. I must say that for myself personally, it is exciting and it is an honour for me to be involved in this area. These are historic times and I think those of us that are involved in this including the MLAs here, the staff that are directly involved are in a sense lucky to be at the forefront as we are trying to deal with this. In one of the positive things that the people of Nunavut are looking forward to is in the area of jobs and training. I have had discussions with Mr. Dent and staff and looked at the information that he has put forward in the work in the area of training and received information a couple of weeks ago. So far there has been over 150 Inuit that have completed full-time courses in the area of preparing for jobs with the Nunavut government. An additional 100 people have completed part-time studies. This is very positive and we have many more, hundreds more that are in the system and for them, although you have the usual difficulties of living as a student and all the different issues that you have to deal with as a young person, it does not affect very exciting times.
I wanted to thank the Speaker for introducing some of those that are involved here, especially in the headquarters, in the government system preparing to step in 1999 as managers. The four that we have today incidentally are in the area of policy and I think it does make me very proud of the fact they are taking this training and that we need to encourage and support these young people. I wanted to mention their names again: David Akeeagok, Nicole Camphaug, Susan Makpah and Jaypeetie Arnakak who are here taking in the work that we do here in the headquarters level and being exposed to and being involved in what goes on in headquarters. I believe they are still here with us today and I think it is very important to note the fact that is why we are doing this. Thank you, Madam Chair.