Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a department, we have no direct involvement in the construction of that system. The department will participate on the program side and as a member of the steering committee, overseeing the implementation of the system.

Will the Minister and his officials have input into the system design, so it will be adequate for the present and future needs of the department?

Thank you Mr. Chairman. The department was actively involved in working on the committee that set the terms of reference for the system, and the system will be installed according to those terms of reference. Thank you.

Does the Minister know if the technology used is going to be the most state of the art? For example, the use of fibre optics as opposed to copper wire?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I expect that the initial installations we are talking about involve typically three locations in a community, the school, library and the municipal office. Based on that, the initial expectation is that it will be coaxal cable that will be installed, not necessarily fibre optics in the smallest of communities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is the Minister reasonably confident that in fact we will be partners in putting in a system that will not be obsolete technically, before it is even installed; that there is potential or a capacity to move with the technology which advances as it seems to at a very quick pace; that we are not putting all our money in something that is technically obsolete or will be very quickly?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, from what we have seen of the design of the system and in the evaluation which did include an assessment of an ability to take on improvements over time, we are satisfied that it will meet our needs, as far as we can project them, at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could the Minister elaborate briefly on the million dollar re-investment in distance technology that is ear-marked in the budget?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The million dollars that we have identified is for a combination of capital facilities to ensure schools are prepared to receive the signal from the satellite and distribute it throughout the school. Therefore, it is typically capital improvements for networking within the schools and for training to make sure people in the schools are prepared to take advantage of the service, once it is available.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would be happy to provide the Member with some of the technical background on some of the School Achievement Indicators Program which would answer some of those questions. I do not have all of that information with me.

The program is aimed across Canada, not at a grade level but at age 13 and age 16. That is so we can find out whether at that age, students are achieving at similar levels because grades are different in each of the jurisdictions, with some jurisdictions having 11, 12 or 13 years of what is considered primary school. We can not say just a certain grade level across Canada, that is the reason for that age being set. The program across Canada would be very expensive and for us to be able to find out how our individual schools are doing, we would have to leave the program and conduct our own tests. Basically all of the jurisdictions have agreed that in order to keep the costs as low as possible, the results would not be used to try and target one school over another. The schools are not identified to the markers and the results are not then tabulated, according to region they come from. They are given back to all of the provinces and territories on the same basis.

The program and cash cost to us is around $4,000, because the federal government contributes the majority of the funding and all of the provincial contributions are on a per-capita basis. We pay a very small amount to participate in this program.

The Member asked what kind of test had been undertaken. The most recent ones were for science. Previous to that there was a test in mathematics. The previous year there was one in language arts. The program was initially set up three years ago to run on a three year cycle, which would include those three areas. We are now entering the second, three year cycle. Human Resources Canada has just committed to continue their funding for this program, so we will be continuing with an annual test for math, language arts and three years down the road, another one for science. Ministers of Education have suggested to Human Resources Development Canada we should look at adding a test which would examine students knowledge of new technology. In terms of how many schools and how many students were tested in the Northwest Territories, I will have to get that specific information to the Member, with the technical background I have offered.