Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am prepared to make commitments as far as this legislation will support me on making. There are a number of motions and directions made by Members which need to be responded to. Some of them I believe, entail incurring costs. We have areas in which we can reduce expenditures and reallocate.

We need to work on that in partnership with the Members. So we are presently scheduling our work as a Cabinet to coincide with the target of meeting with Caucus the first week of September. In order to meet that, there are a number of areas in which, as a Cabinet, we need to give direction to our officials to start working on. There are areas where the staff that worked with the MLAs need to work with our officials, so that when we meet in September, there is something of substance that is going to come out of it.

There is a tremendous amount of work to be done, and we have started that already. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. It is regarding access to adult basic education and literacy problems we find in our communities. Mr. Speaker, many of the small communities in the North do not have access to ongoing adult basic education programming.

Programs delivered in a lot of our small communities rely on project-based funding, such as those now defunct in the Community Skills For Work Program. These type of unsecured, short-term funding literacy programs create unequal access between communities. There are communities that have full-time positions. There are communities that have a part-time position and there are some communities that strictly deliver small programs.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, something further must be done to include small communities, to give them the ability to have the same access to programs. It should not matter where you live. Mr. Speaker, does the Department of Education have a policy in regard to how they allocate literacy funds? Or is it strictly a first come, first serve basis? Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me first state that I think that this is a very good discussion to have and a good question period to have today to focus on literacy and adult basic education here in the Territories.

I want to emphasize the need for us to address the whole issue of the need that is out there. It extends from early childhood through our school system and into the workforce. Literacy is an extreme problem here in the Territories, Mr. Speaker.

-- Interjection

I am sorry, Mr. Ootes, just a moment. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to answer the question. You are making a statement. Please answer the question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding for literacy is done through several processes. One is through the College and the other is through the community organizations, dispensed by regions and is done on an application basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. I just want to remind Members that question period is one hour long. The longer you take for preamble, the longer you take for answers, cuts into the questions. You should not make statements when questions are being asked. Get right to the point. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the point, Mr. Speaker. The efforts of planning in all departments, there is usually a five-year capital plan for our business plans. Yet when it comes to funding literacy programs, the only thing we seem to see is a year-to-year basis for funding.

I would like to ask the department if they are implementing long-term funding arrangements for literacy programs in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we know, the Community Skills for Work was lapsed. It was not put into base funding by the previous funding. We are proposing, if the budget is approved, to put the funding we are identifying for Community Skills for Work into base funding.

With regard to long-term funding, we have the amounts in the system base funding in all areas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, regarding the literacy program, it appears there are some communities who do not have the adult program being presently delivered in their communities. I would like to ask the Minister, is the department doing a long-term plan to ensure that all residents and communities in the Northwest Territories will have the same opportunities in delivering adult programs and literacy programs?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Aurora College delivers some programs in some communities, and we supplement that with the Community Skills for Work. That is intended for the smaller communities. It will be based on proposals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is sad to say you have to apply for funding. Literacy is a problem that affects all of us.

I would like to ask the Minister again, to be fair to all communities in the Northwest Territories, that we allow all communities to have the same access and the same amount of money to deliver adult programs. Will the Minister to commit to promise the communities that he will do that?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is a resource allocation problem. We do not have the funds to be able to provide equal service in all communities. It is based on proposals in communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes. In the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's document, Towards Excellence, A Report on Education in the NWT 1999, on page 24, it is stated:

"Two thirds of communities do not have learning centres or adult basic education. Options for mature students wishing to complete grade 12 in their community are limited to school."

The report goes on to say:

"Given the increase in the number of students at the secondary level, and the changing demographics of that population, there is a need to consider funding to meet the needs of mature students."

Has the Department of Education, Culture and Employment made any headway in addressing this issue raised in their report, this being there is a need to consider securing funding to meet the needs of mature students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process that is used is through the delivery of adult basic education, Mr. Speaker, and it is done through the College, through the regional organizations and community groups. Funding is provided to the three regions, as well as through the Community Skills for Work program. We have not proceeded beyond that because of resource limitations. Thank you.