Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it is very important for them, especially for the smaller communities and the regions to have an opportunity to make presentations to the ministerial forum. I would like to ask the Minister, how does the he envision this happening to ensure that the smaller communities will be able to have an opportunity to raise their concerns and make an attempt to go to all communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member stated, it is a very important initiative for us in the Western Territory now to review our progress as we deliver programs and services on behalf of the residents of the territory and the terms of reference will include going to each, as I see it, constituency to receive input on the delivery of Health and social

services. Hopefully the terms of reference will also include a number of other initiatives that the department has been looking at to try and go out with a focused document to get some constructive feedback as to how we are delivering services in the west. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that any forum that is established in this government should reflect the Western Territory and constituents that we represent. I would like to ask the Minister, what is going to be done to ensure that we have representation from the different ridings and regions on such a committee so that we do get a feel for the regions and the different aboriginal communities up and down the ballot?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things we are looking at doing is definitely trying to get representation from across the Northwest Territories, north to south, east to west. One of the concerns that we do have is the size of the forum. The larger the size of the forum, the more dollars we will have to pay out for travel and so on. We are wrestling with that right now within the department as to the size of the forum that would go out and trying to balance the interest of the forum, whether there be professional people on there, as well as lay people, and getting regional representation in there as well. We are wrestling with that right now and trying to make sure we address those concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me exactly how many days does he expect this forum to carry out this public consultation to communities and also, when does the Minister intend to table a final report in this House? Are we talking days, months, years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I cannot give the Member an absolute date as to when we see this forum completing its work. What we are hoping to do with this minister's forum is to go forth and receive input from the residents of the territories and produce a document that would enable the future Assembly, the 14th Assembly of this territory, to look at what would need to be done to try and change or move forward with some initiatives that would improve the delivery of the health care system as we know it now. I am hoping that we can start this off in the very near future. Once we have the terms of reference and we let all the boards and the Members know where that is going, we would be able to move forward shortly after that into an actual forum travelling throughout the territory, at least one community in each constituency, to receive input. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At first, I would like to point out that I think that this review and minister's forum was a good investment. It is probably dollar for dollar, in my opinion, the best strategic plan investment made by the 13th Assembly. Over 1,000 people were consulted and at least 15 communities visited. I think it is always worthwhile to go out for something of this magnitude and importance to get direct, first-hand feedback from the people that are living in the communities that are using the services that we provide as a government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make reference to the Minister's statement that yes, it is good to have strategic plans, but there has also been criticism by the fact that we are not devoting any dollars to solving some of these major problems. The Minister stated himself 31 of 42 are non-monetary, but I think if we were to digest these, I think the figure would probably go down substantially from what I can see. I cannot see any in here that are non-monetary, not that number certainly. My question for the Minister is with regard, again, back to the report. It is very clear from our discussions, this is from the report, with communities that the pupil/teacher ratio should be decreased overall and classroom sizes maintained at manageable levels. How can the Minister respond to that when there is no effort to try and reduce the pupil/teacher ratio? Can the Minister tell us if he will continue to pursue the pupil/teacher ratio on an aggressive fashion? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that there is a problem with pupil/teacher ratios in the territories. I wonder if the Minister could tell us if he will address this issue to ensure that the pupil/teacher ratio is reduced? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Finance pointed out in his statement, in fact money has been put in, reinvested, in fact maintained to ensure that the pupil/teacher ratio did not increase. The lowering that the Member has asked about is better than an increase since it is already the highest in Canada. I share the Member's concern about the pupil/teacher ratio and as we move towards realizing more revenues I will be making every effort to ensure that we get the funds we need to lower the pupil/teacher ratio and start to address some of the broader education needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a well known fact that some district education authorities are fundraising on their own. This seems to be a situation in a number of areas and I am wondering if the Minister can tell us if he will look at what kind of revenues these education authorities may be raising? Certainly, if that is the method they are turning to, we do have a critical problem. For example, I understand that in Inuvik they have a full time fundraiser allocated. If education authorities are turning to raising their own funds, we definitely have a critical problem. Can the Minister advise us if other areas are doing this same thing? Thank you.