Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I questioned the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services on the possible impacts of FAE/FAS. His answer to one of my questions states that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment will also be putting funds towards this initiative and early intervention. Mr. Speaker, I think we need to be concerned with how we develop programs. In the past, I have seen many governments, including ours, develop policies and programs that just lightly deal with the problems. It is like building a house and your toolbox is full of little tyke's toys. I think we need to get serious with our problems and FAS/FAE is going to be a major problem in the years to come.

I would like to know from the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, what is the process of his department being involved in this FAS/FAE? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories, as in all areas of Canada, there is a growing awareness of the problems caused by FAS/FAE. I know that in the previous Legislature when I travelled across the north with the Special Committee on Health and Social Services, I heard about the magnitude of this problem in all of the communities that I visited. Education, Culture, and Employment is actively working with other jurisdictions in Canada, particularly through the western consortium, which ties together the Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, to find ways to increase awareness and to develop preventative measures. The department has set up a strategy to provide professional development for teachers and to provide resource materials for people involved in education, to ensure that they can adequately inform people within the education system of the problems that could develop through the use of alcohol. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister tell us if some of this awareness will be targeted, not only at teachers and people who are in the education system, but to those families who are outside the system? Because a lot of times, although we are trying to educate people, it is those who are at school or involved in those programs. We need to actually touch base with families that do not attend school in some cases. Grandparents, parents, those that have children that are at risk of becoming involved in activities that would possibly cause harm to unborn children. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, much of our program is aimed at young parents or potential young parents, so the health curriculum and the career and life management curriculum in senior secondary schools, deal explicitly with this problem. As well, to deal with the situation that the Member has identified, the department has identified funding for the development of a public information video related to FAS and FAE in cooperation with the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. We have also identified funding to develop a best practices support document for teachers. Both the video and the support document will be shared with our partners in the social envelope and be made broadly available to workers in the north. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My line of questioning today will also be along the lines of affirmative action. We all recognize that we have a multitude of pressures on our social programs here and it would make obvious sense to take our aboriginal and long-time northern people and put them to work, as opposed to bringing people in from the south, so that they do not have to rely on this government for their basic needs in life. The Premier indicated in his comments that the affirmative action policy is not what it should be obviously by the statistics, but he also referred to specifics. I would like to ask a specific question of the Minister of Justice, with respect to a recent occurrence in my community, whereby I believe the details go like this. The young offenders' facility required a drug and alcohol counsellor to work with youth who are all northerners. They advertised in the north. They received applications, none of which they deemed to be qualified. They advertised again in the north and again did not have applicants which they considered suitable for the job or did not meet the strictest terms of the criteria in the job description. Ultimately, an individual was hired from Victoria, British Columbia, to come to Hay River to work with northern youth in a young offenders' facility and I understand that there were local people, from my riding, who applied for this job. Aboriginal people, who were qualified, who did not, perhaps, meet the strictest requirements of the job. If the Premier would like to hear specifics, this is one specific situation which alarms me greatly, that there are people, unemployed, qualified to do this work sitting in my community and someone is brought in from Victoria, British Columbia. I was wondering if the Minister of Justice could respond to that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the criteria that was listed in the qualifications was that five years experience was required, although this individual would only be spending approximately 20 percent of their time on drug and alcohol counselling and 80 percent on general security duties. There were applicants who had somewhat less than five years experience but still a significant amount of northern experience. Is there any way to make the criteria for these jobs somewhat more flexible so that somebody can apply a little common sense to them, as opposed to the kind of outcome that has resulted in this particular case?