Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we have a strategy that is before the fishermen's association. We would like to have their response to it. We would like to discuss it with them. It has a number of proposals for how the money might be more effectively allocated. I would like to discuss that with them and if they want to raise the issue of the rising fuel costs, then that should be part of that same discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. I am going to rule that question out of order. It is asking a Minister's opinion. I think we should ask a question. It is more of an opinion, Mr. Nitah. I rule that out of order. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue that Mr. Lafferty is raising is a very important one. I am familiar with the fact that BHP, as Mr. Lafferty has mentioned, gave us a briefing on some of the challenges that are being faced in order for the employees to move from an unskilled level to a semi-skilled level and from semi-skilled up to a skilled level. The challenge there of course is trying to provide literacy training and upgrading training. The Department itself has provided training through a number of sources. Of course, the College is one. Through the programs we operate, Community Skills for Work, for example, ABE programs...we provide access to that. I cannot tell the Member directly how many people have benefited from that who may be employed by BHP. We do have programs in place that no doubt individuals may have benefited from, such as the college programs, the youth employment program that we have in the summertime, and labour force development programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I understand that BHP has spoken with me. Initially, they were contacting the federal Member of Parliament in that regard, and they were awaiting word as to the results of requests for funding support for their particular program. I did mention to them that they should contact me back if that particular process failed.

At the moment, we are working on a literacy strategy, Mr. Speaker, part of which is workplace literacy, of course, how we can address that whole area. We have not completed that particular strategy. We are in the process of doing so and I believe that may, down the road, help us to address some of the kinds of issues that are on the table with some of the industries. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do not have the work place literacy portion of the literacy strategy completed as of yet. It is under development, Mr. Speaker. We are also, while I have the opportunity, working on a joint training program that we have contributed funding to. This is being developed on a joint basis between the department, Aurora College, the Chamber of Mines and, in this particular case, Diavik diamond mines for a number of modules. We have contributed $90,000 to that program, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, we are right now providing a subsidy of $2.5 million plus each year for harvesters. Most of that goes to the fur industry. In fact, $1.8 million, as I said before, goes to trappers. In addition to that, the Development Corporation has spent a lot of money on the fur value-added industry and we will continue with that. In spite of tight fiscal times, there is no thought at this point of any way cutting down on that amount of money.

We recognize that fur prices are going up. We are working with harvesters on that. We will continue, and I am not sure what the Member means when he refers to massive amounts of money, but in my view, spending $2.5 million a year on this industry to support a thousand harvesters is reasonable. I support continuing what we are doing.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, I will allow the question. Mr. Minister can answer if he chooses.

Mr. Speaker, I agree that like any other program of grants and contributions and programs to support our economy, every pot could use more money. Certainly this one could use more money. I think we could easily spend a lot more money very responsibly in supporting trappers, and especially getting more young trappers out. It is a matter of trying to balance all of our needs across the Territories. Yes, it could use more money than what is there, and it could use it very responsibly. Thank you.