Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have the employment figures for the DECs. It will take me a minute here to find it, Mr. Chairman. We did provide the chair of the committee with a letter on June 2nd. We can provide the letter again with the breakdown of the figures. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would appreciate the information. The concern I have is when we receive the government roll ups for Peoplesoft information, the divisional education councils and schools, that whole component was not included in the information. I am curious to know why that is.

If they are on Peoplesoft and it just affects the numbers, the numbers that the government gives us has little a qualifier on the bottom that it does not include health boards and school boards, which are hundreds upon hundreds of positions.

There are over 400 teachers in the Northwest Territories alone, not counting the DECs staff and related administrative support that may be there. From a process point of view, since it has come up, could the Minister indicate why those numbers are not included in all the education numbers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. They are considered as separate bodies. They are separate from the territorial government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Chairman, are teachers not considered Government of the Northwest Territories employees under a collective agreement negotiated with this government? Especially the ones outside of Yellowknife in particular, not the ones in Yellowknife, where there are school boards, but the 400 or so teachers outside of Yellowknife. Are they not considered Government of the Northwest Territories employees under the Government of the Northwest Territories negotiated collective agreement?

They were on strike. They struck the government. They struck the schools. It was the government that negotiated the agreement, so could the Minister clarify for me what their status is in the mix of things? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. By the collective agreement, they are, but they work for the various boards and district education councils.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will save any further questions on that particular area. I just want to point out that it is a significant gap in the government information to leave them out. When, in fact, they are funded by the government, they are government employees. They have a government collective agreement and it makes it very difficult to have an accurate figure. When I was comparing active positions in government and government funded positions, it is a huge gap. If the two schools were not in Fort Smith there are dozens and dozens of government jobs. I will be looking for them to be included.

In regards to the Digital Communications Network, Mr. Chairman, I would like to support the comment made by my colleague, Mr. Dent, in terms of the need for an assessment of the Digital Communications Network. Could the Minister indicate how many years are left in the contract with the Digital Communications Network at this point? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Financial Management Board Secretariat holds the contract on that. We believe there are about two more years on it.

Mr. Chairman, given the significant problems with the Digital Communications Network, the premiums that we are paying, by our recollection is, Education, Culture, and Employment is an anchor tenant, and pays a million dollar plus premium. There is a relatively short time in terms of the scheme of things for these kinds of systems. Would the Minister consider and commit to as, the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment, before they look at any kind of possible extension, that they will in fact be pushing their Cabinet colleagues to do a thorough assessment of this particular system to see whether it is adequate. If it is not adequate, how do we deal with it? As we move into the 21st Century, the speed of technological change is very fast. It seems to me that we have a system that is not capable of matching the speed of technological change.

I would like to ask the Minister, as the Minister practising good business sense, would he commit to ensuring that as far as education is concerned, he will be pushing for an assessment of the Digital Communications Network?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a government-wide initiative and we are part of that initiative. Naturally, as the renewal of any type of contract comes up and as we move along in this, we will start to do analysis and monitoring and ensure that we get value for our money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister in regard to establishing goals that this government is trying to meet, I believe that one of the goals that this government should try to met or surpass is bringing down the high rate of illiteracy especially in our constituencies. I would like to ask the Minister, do you have a specific percentage that you are trying to meet, say within the year 2003 or 2005, to where you see the percentage of illiteracy? Because right now in some regions, it is up to 40 percent. I would like to see a decrease in those figures. So I would like to ask the Minister, what are you doing to bring down the illiteracy percentages, and what are the goals you are trying to set for yourselves, or trying to surpass or meet?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko, I might just mention that what you are getting at there might be more in line with the next area that we are going to, capital operations expense, $4,154,000. Mr. Krutko.

Can the Minister tell me how many individuals or people he has involved in self-government negotiations, who is representing the department in those negotiations, and what is the cost of that?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have two individuals who serve in this, but it is not a full time role for these individuals. They simply serve as leads, and we bring other individuals in as required.