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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the funding that was identified as being not used was carried over to the following year in the case of aboriginal languages. I believe it was in the neighbourhood of $300,000 for the next two years. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the funding that is in place is used partially to fund aboriginal language groups. That is done throughout the Northwest Territories and the groups in the various regions to look at revitalizing and stimulating the resurgence of the use of aboriginal languages. Other funding is used through the college system and in the school system. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a selection of programs that are offered in the curriculum, such as Dene Kede, Northern Studies. However, we have devolved a lot of the responsibility on to the communities and on to the regions to be able to offer these programs, such as the selection of an aboriginal language as a first language for teaching. I cannot dictate what communities should choose from that particular program that may be available.

I meet on a semi-annual basis with the chairs of the district education councils and we discuss various issues. In order to enforce any kind of program, I would have to deal with the district education councils.

Now, I understand what Mr. Nitah is saying and I believe we are doing a fairly decent job in advancing the particular agenda that Mr. Nitah is trying to address. For example, when I was in Deline, it was requested that we include land claims issues in the curriculum and I brought that forward to the department. They are, at the present time as we are speaking, looking at ways and means of doing that to deliver that as a possible content in the curriculum. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we do have continuity. For example, we have the Dene Kede program, which is offered at the moment from K to 6 and we are extending that from grades 7 to 12, I believe. The curriculum possibilities are there but, as I stated, I respect the control and desire on people in the communities to be able to select.

Additionally, of course, we have been concentrating on ensuring that governance is done in that fashion. There is a district education authority in each community and there is also a district education council. Those bodies make the decision as to what is to be selected for those particular communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to pursue my question today following up on my Member's statement, Mr. Speaker. My question goes to the Minister of Transportation. It is in regard to Highway No. 3.

Mr. Speaker, a number of Members in this House had the opportunity to visit the BHP mine over the weekend. One of the things I learned was that the company spends $4 million along with other users of the winter road. They spend no less than $4 million on that winter road. That compares to $6 million or $7 million that the department has budgeted for the reconstruction of Highway No. 3. I do not know what the numbers are on maintaining it.

Mr. Speaker, that just speaks to the extent of the need in the North for some infusion of money in building the roads that we need to develop the resources that create jobs and so on. I do not know what this report the Minister will be tabling has in it. I wonder if the Minister could tell us what the latest was in his discussions with the federal Minister as to what the potential is for any kind of money that will come to the North for building roads? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last response we received from the federal Minister of Transport on highway funding is our share of the $600 million is not to be decided until possibly the end of this year or early in the new year. So we still at this time do not know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Steen. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my statement, when I was driving that road I really was convinced that if the federal Minister in charge of money for roads, whoever it is and whoever it will be next election, if they really ever drove that road and saw how embarrassing it is to call that a national highway system, whoever is making the decision in Ottawa may have second thoughts about it.

I wonder, in all seriousness, if the Minister would be willing to bring the person in charge of money for roads and take them on Highway No. 3 and Highway No. 8 and all the highways in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. Part of our strategy in obtaining a larger portion of that $600 million was to try to convince the federal Minister that we are the last portion of the national highway system that does not have hard-top and we still drive on gravel. We thought that if there was some way to embarrass the federal government into putting more towards us than would be allocated to the rest of the country, we would take that. We tried that.

I also invited the federal Minister to Yellowknife with the hopes that we could take him for a ride down Highway No. 3, but he declined. He said he had already been to the Territories twice, but I believe that was as a Minister of the Armed Forces at that time.

In regards to myself as a Minister being embarrassed about the condition of Highway No. 3, I do not share embarrassment alone. If I do not have money to increase the reconstruction phase, it is simply because this Assembly has not given me the money. Give me the money and I will pass it onto the department and we will increase the reconstruction program. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Steen. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, I think it will be a long time before I accept that I have as much power in how much money goes to that road as Mr. Steen. I think there is a big difference there. Mr. Speaker, if we cannot shame the federal officials for money, maybe we can tell them about the unsafe condition of that road. I know that road is unsafe because following the accident on that road in July, a few days after that, and I do not know if there is any connection, I was driving that road and I noticed a really nice, huge, yellow, freshly painted sign that read "Narrow, winding, dangerous, gravel road. Drive slowly".

Mr. Speaker, I think a safe assumption can be made that there is a concern about the safety of the road. If the federal Minister of Transportation does not want to drive on that road, maybe we can drive him to that sign. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.