Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The anticipated final cost of the ministerial forum, more specifically the strategic planning process which will result in a new strategic plan, is approximately $350,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, repeatedly the Minister has suggested that 31 of the recommendations are non-monetary recommendations, that they will not require any money. I have had a chance to look over the recommendations contained in the report, 44 recommendations. If I could, I mean they include words like; a major research project, additional special needs, resources for training teachers, pupil/teacher ratio which should be on par for their jurisdictions. When I read through these, more resources, career counselling, broadening of educational experience, vocational programs, I read all of these and I am sorry, but I fail to see how any of these things could be conducted without additional resources, so I am wondering if the Minister could please again, maybe, even if he has a copy of the report in front of him specifically tell us where he thinks there could be a shuffling of resources when there is such a shortage that could address some of these major initiatives indicated in the report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Very clearly there are some big ticket items in the ministerial forum when you speak, for example, of the pupil/teacher ratio. The Minister of Finance articulated today how we are attempting to reallocate funds from last year where there were savings, so we were able to, for instance, maintain the pupil/teacher ratio so there was no increase, that we were able to top off and maintain the Healthy Children's Initiative, we were also going to find some money for youth employment and adult education. This is a function of some of the savings that were realized due to social and income support being less than anticipated, as well as the amount of the student financial assistance being drawn on that we had anticipated. So, we re-profiled and recirculated those particular funds.

In regard to the ministerial forum, I have the departmental staff working on pulling out their recommendations one by one. I have a breakfast meeting set up tomorrow morning at 6:45 a.m. to meet with the staff, as well as the support staff for the ministerial forum to see how we can best move ahead with getting specific implementation advice in regard to the forum recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to say that I appreciate what the Minister is saying and we do not expect him to wave a magic wand and all these problems and concerns to be alleviated, but the minister's forum went out at a cost of $350,000, has compiled this list of recommendations. As I said earlier, I do not think there is any real surprise in there.

I was curious about the Minister's comments last week when he said, you have told us what to do, now how can we do that? Is the intent of that comment that now the people who have identified the problems are going to be expected to identify the solutions as well? I do not think they have the broader context that we have here in the Legislature in terms of the budget and the variety and sizes of communities and different problems. I just wonder if you could explain that for me, you have told us what to do, now how do we do that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I can attempt to clarify that I will be happy to. The Member indicated in her Member's statement that this is a challenge to us all. What my intent was in those comments was to, in fact, build on what the public has told us which was articulated by the members of the ministerial forum, which is why I indicated the plan was to consult again with the ministerial forum members themselves, as well as the DEAs and DECs to

look at specific ways we could try to address some of the recommendations made in the ministerial forum.

Very clearly we are not going to go back and do a public process again, but now we are going to call upon the people who are in the business in the various regions and communities as well as the broad experience brought to the table by the ministerial forum members to try to look at ways of how we can respond to the recommendations. They gave us the what, now in my opinion it is a need to build on and develop the how to do it. We are going to be looking at the experts in the field and try to reflect community and regional concerns, as well as the broad experience brought to the table by the ministerial forum members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I also indicated last week, I am very concerned that we may have elevated the expectations of people by conducting this forum and that now teachers, educators, parents are waiting to hear what we are going to do about these problems. I am going to ask the Minister to respond to how we might convey or communicate some hope to the educators who are out there existing without things like textbooks, classroom assistants, just basic supplies to do their jobs. We hear there is always no money, but how are we going to communicate hope to them, we cannot afford any more turnover I do not believe with our shortage of teachers in the north. What communication strategy or what are we going to say that is not just going to completely discourage the people who are out there working the communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has articulated the situational circumstances regarding the budget. This House and the Members opposite have been working with the departments now for many months trying to come up with a budget that will help us live within our means but address some of the issues. We have taken the direction we can from the committees in that regard. The DECs within the regions, my understanding is, all have somewhat of a surplus, so I cannot speak specifically to the Member's statement that there are no textbooks in the communities, but I would be very happy to look at that item if the Member wanted to give me greater information on that particular issue.

We are also in the process of entering into negotiations with the NWTTA in regard to the salaries and benefits of teachers, which will address an issue that has been raised in terms of possible pay increases. The Minister of Finance very clearly said that we have two choices and I, like the Minister of Finance, am optimistic that if we take the positive road in terms of identifying revenues, working together with the aboriginal governments to, in fact, get more revenues that we can address some of these issues in the longer term. In the immediate term, we are going to be restricted to the options that have already been outlined and we have been discussing in this House in the last few days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.