Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to see a Minister is placing more money into early intervention. We all know if you get children at an early age, they will be much more successful later in life as far as their educational success and there is less likelihood of being on social assistance and all the rest of that. I am glad to see that. I am also glad to see they are proceeding with the grade extensions which are putting grade 12 into most of the communities. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be the same concern or emphasis being put on adult education. I see from the Aurora College's 1995 corporate plan a blueprint for the future. About 33 percent of aboriginal people have less than grade nine, Mr. Chairman. At the same time, I look at the next line and see there is only about 3.5 percent of non-aboriginal people who have grade nine or less. Mr. Chairman, I do not know why this department is not pouring millions of dollars into adult education. I see there is going to be a report on adult basic education which will identify the continuing need for this service. I do not think we need a report or study to tell us we need a continuing need, when there is one out of every three adult aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories who have grade nine or less. What more do you need to tell you we need to continue basic adult education? I do not think we should be looking at sustaining this service. We need to be increasing it, Mr. Chairman, increasing it. This can only be done by a huge influx of money. Sometimes I wonder how it would be to have those 33 percent of non-aboriginal people who have grade nine or less. Would there be a different emphasis on basic adult education? I see we are also concerned about the results of the National School Achievement Indicators Program. I do not know why we are actually in this program, Mr. Chairman.

We do not know where the problem is. We know there is a problem. We do not know where it is because there is no indication of where the tests come from. For all we know everybody that passed those tests came from Yellowknife. We do not know, for instance, how the kids in Hay River did, Fort Smith, Detah, or from anywhere because there is no indication from where the students come from. I really do not know why we bother participating. There must be some way we can participate in this program and find out where our problem is. There has got to be a way. It is not that hard. Maybe they should just photocopy the exams, the teachers there correct them as well. Then you can know where the problem is. I do not think this is that hard to do, but for some reason we have not done that yet. I certainly hope this is going to be addressed.

Mr. Chairman, I see we have a commitment to continue the senior's fuel subsidy. I am glad to see it. However, it looks as though the Minister feels the people who rent their homes do not deserve to benefit from this fuel subsidy. I suppose people who rent their own homes make much more money than people who own their own homes, so they do not need any assistance. This is one of the problems the Social Programs Committee had identified. We had hoped any new program would try to address that. It looks like the new program is going to perpetuate the inconsistencies of people who own their home and people who do not own their own home. We have the assurance that seniors who need assistance to heat their homes will receive it. I guess the people who rent their own homes will have to go to income support and people who own their homes will not have to.

In the area of student financial assistance, I think it is time we started focusing on what results we are getting. By that I mean, if we are supplying loans and grants which can be remised by coming here, then we need to know how many people are actually staying here once their loans are forgiven. We do not only need to know how many people are coming back here once they finish school, because they might only stay here for only two or three years until their loans are forgiven and then they are gone. We need to know how many people actually remain here afterwards. I understand this will be addressed. I am looking forward to seeing the plan, seeing the actual results of how many people actually stay here of the people who receive assistance from us. Mr. Chairman, those are my opening remarks. I will be asking questions in several areas later. Thank you.