Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize some long-term northerners in the gallery with us today, Melody McLeod, Mary Broussard and Ben Macdonald. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause

Thank you, welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you. The Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not know why this happened over the past few years in the Department of Education when it comes to curriculum or text books and I do not pretend to know. Mr. Speaker, I have seen letters that have gone to the Minister and to the department. I have been copied on some of them. In one case, Mr. Speaker, I have a teacher who has been teaching for a long time without a curriculum, without a textbook, has not the resources in place. Although we have the protocol with the western provinces, with the divisional board of education, they do not have the adequate funding to put the resources in place. That is not acceptable, Mr. Speaker, in 1998, to have teachers in the classroom having to go out and buy sets of textbooks. So, I would ask the Minister what he is going to do about this. I know that he agreed that there is problem with in-servicing. There has been problems with the math curriculum, but, my God, Mr. Speaker, it cannot be possible to be in the classroom without a textbook, without the proper resources available. That is my question. What is he going to do about it?

Thank you. Okay again, just to remind the Members about the language that you are using in this Chamber. You heard, my God. Some people might take offence to it. It is unparliamentary, but I would like to remind the Members that people might take offence to using it in that context. Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I apologize for my earlier remark. Mr. Speaker, it is very frustrating as a Member to attend a meeting, to have teachers or any other individuals working for this government to come to me with legitimate complaints and the minute it involves schooling or education, we keep saying that that is the most important priority that we have to make sure that our people are educated. If they do not have the resources in place, if they do not have curriculum that seems to be place, if you do not have the textbooks; how can they do their job? If you are asking people to do more with less, you are going to get less done. Mr. Speaker, my followup question is, the Minister talked about the partnership, if the partnership has not made available the monies to have the resources or the ratio, maybe we should review this formula. Will the Minister look at reviewing the formula that is in place that gives the resources or the monetary amounts to the individual boards of education? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Dent.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the teachers' association, individual teachers, the college, parents have written to the department about these concerns. Mr. Speaker, I am not getting a level of comfort that something should be done and can be done. So I wonder if the Minister would look at these individual cases. I know that I have written him on two of them. I wonder if we can get a response back into this House on the issue of class sizes and also on the issue of the resources available, so that the curriculum can be in place because this is not acceptable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Two questions. Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Enuaraq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been a very long time since residents of Pangnirtung have been asking to have their airport runway to be relocated because of the safety concerns. Towards the end of November of 1997 the Minister, the territorial Minister of Transportation, had an opportunity to visit Pangnirtung along with federal officials and which I did not have the opportunity to attend. Can the Minister of Transportation update me with what is going on with the planning of relocating the runway in Pangnirtung. Thank you.

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we did visit Pangnirtung in November and we were able to travel with a couple of Transport Canada officials from Winnipeg just to look at the situation in a number of communities along with Pangnirtung. Looking at the situation there, they have decided, yes, it is worth looking into the Pangnirtung airport. However, at this point in time there is no real solid commitment in terms of financial resources. This is what the stumbling block here is, in this case. We do not have the money to do the type of work that needs to be done in Pangnirtung to relocate their airport. That is quite a large sum of money we are talking about. However, as a result of the trip with the federal officials, there is ongoing talks between my department and their officials to see what the possibilities are there to look at the airport relocation in Pangnirtung and that is all I can report at this point in time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Enuaraq.