Could the Minister speak, as well then, to the Public Service Training Program, which lapsed a significant amount of funds? I have heard that it is under-subscribed because it is so complicated and difficult to access that they just stay away from it, the same way that they used to stay away from trying to access the VRDP money because it was so difficult on the administrative side. It made it not worth the pain and aggravation. Could the Minister indicate the plans for that particular program area, given that they just put $250,000 into a staff retention policy? The issue of training staff and human resource development has been very dominant in the Assembly here since this Session started. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Until 1996, the program was funded 100 percent for trainees' salaries. This was reduced to 50 percent of the subsidy, with the remaining amount to be funded by the sponsoring departments. Because there has to be a provision of 50 percent of the salary provided by the sponsoring department, and also there has to be a guarantee of a position in the department, interest has weakened. It should not be forgotten that we have some successful cases in this. We are going into discussions with departments about how the program is structured and if there are more effective ways of delivering this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Quickly, with my remaining four seconds, does the Minister recommend that there should be no lapse of funding next year, that everything should be fully subscribed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are going to monitor this very carefully. It depends, of course, on the uptake, and it is provided on a regional basis. Thank you.

There are a couple of areas that I would like to touch on, and one of them is in the Student Financial Assistance Program. Having been around for a number of years and having four kids going through the education system, it appears that every time one of my kids come to post-secondary education, there is a different set of rules applying to how they receive funding. I still have two outstanding issues with student financial assistance, and I have not had time to go through that whole booklet. Maybe my particular situation has been addressed, but I am going to ask a couple of questions in that area and get specific answers to what I am looking at. Maybe it will help me understand part of it at least.

When my son finished high school, he went to a post-secondary institution in Calgary called the Rye. They had a different system than university, whereby they had three semesters a year with no summer break. When he applied for student financial assistance, he could not get funding for the three semesters a year because the department said they could only pay for two semesters per year. My son took four years of education in a matter of three years, but only collected financial assistance for three years. At the time, I was to understand that he still had one year of financial assistance left through the department. I would just like to ask the Minister, with the changes in the policy, what funding would he be able to access now? Does it change his funding in any way? Does it increase it or decrease it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Without seeing the details of that particular file, I would not be able to comment on what that particular student may still have available. We moved to the semester system, whereby for 12 years of schooling, the individual would earn 12 semesters of schooling. At this particular time, it could be used for three semesters per year, providing the courses are for a minimum of 12 weeks at a recognized institution.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did not quite get what he said on that particular situation, but I was not specifically referring to that case. I was using it more as an example if we have somebody in that situation. They have been out of school for two years now, but at the time they still had one year's funding left, like two semesters left of funding, that they had not accessed. With these new policies, does that change that at all? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I will ask Mr. Cleveland to answer that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the parents remain residents of the Territories, yes, the child is still considered to be a resident of the Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for clarifying that for me, Mr. Minister. Another area I would like to touch on is the area of teachers in the Territories. I know we have been talking about a target for teachers, if I am not mistaken, to have 50 percent of the teachers in the Territories aboriginal. I am wondering if the department has any figures as to how many northern teachers we have? They may not be aboriginal, but if we know what a Northerner is, how many do we have?