Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Is the Minister or the department considering doing away with this program in light that you made the statement that the funds are already going to the Divisional Board of Education and they should be handling and maintaining their funding within budgetary items, yet we have a special category here for an interest group which is over and above those which are already being funded, so we are basically funding two groups at this time and I do not think we are fair to all the students in the Northwest Territories who may not have access to this program? On the one hand we are short of funding in our education system but yet you are still funding a so-called unique program, yet we have unique problems in all our other schools. What is so unique about this program which is costing us some $326,000 which could be better spent in the overall budget of all the divisional boards?

Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I am not sure where the Member got $326,000. The Department of Education is putting in $166,000 for the running of the program and it is open to all the students and it is in the budget for this year and there is no intention to remove it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Does the Minister have a list of students and where they come from?

Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I do not have the list for this year, but I have the list here up to 1998. In 1998, students came from Rae-Edzo, Tulita, Fort Resolution, Wrigley, one from Fort Smith, Fort Providence. The year before that there were students from Fort Providence, Yellowknife, Deline, Fort Good Hope, Fort McPherson. We had one from Paulatuk in 1995. The students are from across the western territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. What is the average number of students in any one year which are attending this program?

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I believe the capacity of the building that they are in is for 17. I think at this point there are about 14 or 15.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I believe that serving 14 or 15 students, yet we are having shortages of funding to assist high schools in a lot of our smaller communities. I think this money could be better spent in those communities, so at the appropriate time I will move a motion to have that program deleted from this item.

Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It is the Member's right to make whatever motion he wants. It is just gratifying to see he is consistent in his concern about issues and programs in Fort Smith. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The comments from the Minister saying I am after Fort Smith. I am not after Fort Smith. I am after trying to be fair and equitable to all students in the Northwest Territories where they all have the same education. It does not matter where they come from. Instead of having a handful of students getting special education where there are limited resources in all our classroom at this time because of the lack of funding. This is one area where I see this funding could probably be used to assist us with the problems we have in our small communities to benefit all communities and all students in the Northwest Territories. I take the remark from the Minister to be out of line, and I think that maybe he is stepping the basket from Fort Smith, being the Minister.

Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It is not really an education discussion, but if the Member wants to stand forward and make specific charges that I am, in fact, pork-barrelling then by all means stand up and cite chapter and verse. My concern about my community goes back to issues like airports where there is a move by this Member to try to remove an airport project. My concern goes back to issues attempting to shut down the fire centre in Fort Smith. I do not know if people want to consider me overly-sensitive, but the Member very clearly has made it known that a community the size of Fort Smith should be carved up obviously to his satisfaction. It is not something I am in a position to support. In fact, I am here to defend the education budget and it is a budget

for all of the students and all of the people in the Northwest Territories and the intent is to provide the best quality education we can for all those students in the Western Arctic Leadership Program. In fact, go to the school in Fort Smith, they do not get a special education that is not open to all other students in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I will have to recognize the clock now and come back to Mr. Krutko for further general comments, later if he wishes. I have on the list, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The Member made statements and comments yesterday and raised this concern about not forcing those students that would benefit from a different approach to education and then rather than trying to force them through the academic stream. We have noted those concerns. He has made references now to the issue of social passing. I shared this document with all of the MLAs, it is called, Promoting Achievement in School and What Works. I would ask that the Members take time to read it. The point that the Member raises is a good one that social passing is considered only marginally better than keeping children back a grade. Both are considered less than satisfactory. Ideally the situation would be the system has enough funds where work can be done to keep children at the grade they are at and move them through the system. So, it is an issue that we are aware of and that we are going to be attempting to deal with.

In regard to the shortage of funding in Yellowknife, the situation in Yellowknife is that grade 10 to 12 receive 100 percent funding and that grades K to 9 receive 75 percent funding. The other 25 percent is raised because of the size of the community and the choice of the community to move to the divisional status and greater latitude in decision making and autonomy. In fact, the information from the department is that when you combine the numbers in Yellowknife that there are about 105 percent of what other communities are receiving for funding for education. It is an issue that has been talked about, in fact, I had lunch today with both the chairpersons of YK 1 and YK 2. That was one of the issues that was touched on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Henry.