Thank you, Madam Chairperson. For greater clarity, I just wanted to mention that the Member, in reading the report, had missed a word on the bottom of page 32. He had indicated that affirmative action policies, in review of the 1999-2000 Main Estimates, the committee also noted the absence of the application of affirmative action policies in granting development opportunities for staff. That should have been granting professional development opportunities for staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I would be pleased to answer that question. I believe we are reviewing the Standing Committee on Social Programs report on the review of the 1999-2000 business plans and the 1999-2000 Main Estimates. I believe, for the Member's information, we were dealing with the page after 32. We are just at the top of page 33.

Agreed.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Thank you, Mr. Erasmus, for pointing that error out. I will now carry on with the report on the review of the 1999-2002 business plans and the 1999-2002 Main Estimates. The next heading, Madam Chairperson, is affirmative action stipulations for training. During the Main Estimates review, the Standing Committee on Social Programs was surprised to learn that there are no aboriginal trainees in the Sirius Diamonds training program. Sirius Diamonds has received government funding for training. The Standing Committee on Social Programs was concerned that perhaps insufficient efforts were made to acquire applications from individuals of aboriginal descent. The Minister will pass this concern on to the company. In the future, government should review how funding for training initiatives could be more closely linked to affirmative action policies of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Building maintenance. The Standing Committee on Social Programs would like the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to determine if there has been less preventive maintenance being performed on its buildings in small communities, since the department of Public Works and Services no longer performs those duties. The concern was raised, during the review of the Main Estimates, that when contractors go into the communities to perform maintenance, they only perform the maintenance they are contracted to do. When DPW performed the maintenance of government buildings in small communities, it was not limited by a contract. Often, DPW personnel would perform more tasks than were listed on their work orders. The Minister agreed to follow up on this issue.

The final one on page 33, Madam Chairperson. Funds spent on administration. The Standing Committee on Social Programs noted that administration costs are involved in the delivery of programs and in the functions of the district education authorities and the department's directorate. The department has agreed to do an evaluation of its operations to determine the total amount of money spent upon administration and provide its findings to the committee.

Madam Chairperson, with your indulgence I would like to pass the report back to my colleague from Yellowknife North, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I would like to thank my two colleagues, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes, and the Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Henry, who are on the Infrastructure Committee, but who have very ably read part of the report since we do not have enough Members on this side to properly address this situation. Madam Chairperson, we are doing the report on the review of the 1999-2002 business plans and 1999-2000 Main Estimates. This report is a report of the Standing Committee on Social Programs. We are on page 34.

Exit interviews. The committee was concerned to learn that exit interviews are not conducted with all personnel that leave the employ of the department. The Standing Committee on Government Operations had placed this as a priority within government. The Minister agreed to act upon this concern.

Madam Chairperson, under the heading informatics. The committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment work in conjunction with other departments in the social programs envelope to develop common information system strategies where possible, and work with other government departments in developing common computer platforms.

Madam Chairperson, that concludes the report of the Social Programs Committee,

--Applause

On the review of the 1999-2002 business plans and the 1999-2000 Main Estimates. This report runs from page 27 to page 34. Madam Chairperson, I just wanted to, once again, thank my colleagues from Yellowknife who were able to assist me in reading this report since we do not have enough other Members from the Social Programs Committee. The Member who had to go to a funeral and to attend to a constituent, a very sick constituent, and we certainly wish that constituent well and a speedy recovery. That concludes the report. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The committee would like to make as a first motion, we have three motions stemming from the report. There may be other motions as we proceed. I am sure that Members would probably have other motions as we know that in the last couple of weeks there have been many concerns brought up with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Madam Chairperson, I move that this committee recommends that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment investigate the possibility of developing territorial-wide tests and a territorial-wide evaluation scheme for grade 11 core subject courses, math, social studies and sciences to ensure consistency in curriculum delivery and an equitable evaluation of students across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I will be voting in favour of this motion. Madam Chairperson, we have heard on many occasions complaints from the general public that there is a feeling that all regions of the Northwest Territories do not provide a consistent method of delivering core subjects and not even only the core subjects, I should say courses. What the people are saying is that, for instance, if you move say from Deline to Inuvik or from Lutselk'e to Yellowknife or from Fort Resolution to Hay River, because primarily what they are talking about is when the smaller communities cannot deliver the same amount of courses as the larger communities so...

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I will just start over so the Ministers will have the benefit of what I was saying. Madam Chairperson, as I was saying, we have received a lot of complaints from the general public that the programs from one region to the next are not consistent. Perhaps because the larger communities are able to use a greater budget that they can offer more courses, a greater variety of courses and that type of thing. Sometimes when children move from one region, particularly from a smaller community to a larger community they find that their children, for instance, are supposed to be in grade 7 when they reach that larger community in a larger school and they have to get readjusted to a larger school and the rest of that, they find that the child is not at the actual grade 7 level that they are teaching in the larger community. I have heard that myself from several people who moved to Yellowknife and they were very disappointed when their child was starting school and very quickly found out that even though they had been doing quite well in the school that they had come from that they were actually at a lower level.

Although we are talking about grade 11 core subjects in this motion, you could use grade 11 as well in my example and that is what is being complained of. Madam Chairperson, we have asked the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on many occasions if the grade 12 courses are consistent across the Northwest Territories and he says, well, yes, because the grade 12 core courses have what are called departmental examinations and these departmental examinations are all exactly the same. For instance, if you take Math 30 in Hay River or if you take Math 30 in Inuvik or in Yellowknife, or Fort Smith for that matter. No matter where you take grade 12 math, Math 30, those students will all have to write the same departmental examination and those departmental examinations account for 50 percent of the mark and this is how the department rationalizes that there is consistency in the grade 12 curriculum and the way that it is taught across the Northwest Territories. Madam Chairperson, recognizing that the department feels that this an effective method of guaranteeing consistency in the core subjects of grade 12, our committee felt that the best way to ensure consistency with the grade 11 core subjects would be to institute a similar type of departmental examinations for those grade 11 subjects, math, social studies and the sciences.

We know that the departmental examinations for grade 12 are not actually developed by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. They are actually developed in Alberta. Our Department of Education distributes those examinations to all the schools where grade 12 is taught and our students write those examinations, of course, with our teachers supervising. What would be needed, Madam Chairperson, to implement these departmental examinations for the grade 11 core subjects in the Northwest Territories, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, of which Mr. Dent who is now the Finance Minister and the current Minister is Mr. Miltenberger, what would be required is that the department would have to develop these departmental examinations for the Northwest Territories.

While we would not actually be able to compare or to say it that is consistent with the Alberta curriculum, unless we based our examinations on the Alberta curriculum. We could ensure that all the students in the grade 11 core subjects that their education is consistent, that they are all taking and learning and do know the basic things that they are supposed to be taught in those subjects. Madam Chairperson, this was the reasoning of the committee. I am sure that if the other Members who are not here, would have not been able to attend today for constituency reasons, I am sure that if they were here they would also vote in favour of this motion as I wish, I hope my other colleagues from Yellowknife South, Yellowknife Centre and North Slave are all going to vote in favour of this motion as well. With that I would like to thank the chair for allowing me to speak on this committee motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, Mr. Erasmus has talked a lot about the need for consistency and, Madam Chairperson, my understanding is that we presently have a process where students in these grades have to sit departmental examinations prepared by, in my understanding, the Department of Education in the province of Alberta. The motion talks about ensuring consistency in curriculum delivery and an equitable evaluation of our students across the Northwest Territories. I think this is an extremely important position that the department and the government as a whole should be taking. We have a number of students in our school system that within the territories we will not be able to always find jobs for the students. It is a common fact that in today's society you have to be prepared to move to where the jobs are. If we are out of step in our consistency with other provinces or jurisdictions, it is going to make it more difficult for the students in the Northwest Territories to compete for higher education and also for jobs in other parts of the country. Any initiative, Madam Chairperson, that is going to encourage and provide that consistency to give the students in the Northwest Territories an equal opportunity to compete with other jurisdictions, I am very pleased to support.

Madam Chairperson, I thank my honourable colleague from the Social Programs Committee for moving this motion and like him, I also hope that all Members that are with us today support this motion and that indeed the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Michael Miltenberger, MLA for Thebacha hears what is being said and the implications of not acting on the motion. Thank you, Madam Chairperson, for the time allotted to me.