Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the first thing I would like to respond to is I understand the concern the Member's concerns are. They are similar to what we have heard in this House over the last week or so. I think it is also important to point out that things are not hopeless, that we have an education system that is doing the job, that we have funnelled hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into and are continuing to do that. There are needs and improvements necessary and we are going to try to take the steps to do that. I think the message we want to send to the people of the Northwest Territories is that we do have a system of education that has evolved over the last 30 years. Hopefully, if we make the right political decisions in terms of revenues, we will continue to evolve.
We are also faced with, as was discussed earlier in this House, if I could bring this up once again, the issue of competing priorities and needs, motions passed on accelerating, things like Highway 3, were raised again today. The Minister of Transportation was asked to in fact do that. We all know what the budget figures are, we also want to put money to education. We have parcelled out the money to the best of our ability we think at this point.
The issue of adult basic education, once the budget is passed, when it is passed, there is $1 million in the budget for a revised, it was called last year, Investing in Peoples, now called Community Skills for Work Program. There should be a letter on its way back to the Member's community, if not to himself or the mayor, about the issue. Once the budget is passed there will be money available for this fiscal year to continue those programs in conjunction with whatever Pathways money and other funds are available at the community level to provide adult basic education services. Thank you.