Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I made that commitment, I subsequently realized that it was a Cabinet document, an internal working document, subsequently submitted to Cabinet. What I would like to offer the Member, Mr. Speaker -- it was a document that covered a number of topics, such as paying suppliers direct, food allowances, issues concerning the working poor and exempting income. What I would like to offer, Mr. Speaker, is to provide an in-depth briefing for the Member and anyone else who may be interested in that briefing, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a welcome offer. I appreciate the difference sometimes with what is a Cabinet document and what is information. When would the Minister be able to make this event happen? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would be quite pleased to be able to address that immediately. As soon as the Member and others who may be interested in this are available, we can arrange that. We are quite prepared on it already, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden. No supplementary? Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Minister responsible for Education. Mr. Speaker, it is that time of year again when students have gone back to post-secondary education, college, university, and yet, Mr. Speaker, I have received a lot of calls this fall regarding problems our students are having with the income support program. We revised it to make it simpler yet, Mr. Speaker, we still continue to receive these calls. The problems that occur are where students find themselves at a particular college trying to find a place to stay, no resources in hand. Again, they are pre-registering themselves at university and college and finding themselves up against a roadblock because of either the paperwork has not been done right or they just have not got into the system.

My question, Mr. Speaker, to the Minister is this: is there a possibility of taking another look at this program and making it more community friendly by delivering these programs through income support, through the regional college systems, like Arctic College in Inuvik, Fort Smith and also here in Yellowknife, so that those students who are from the smaller communities can access it through the regional college rather than having to deal with it through Yellowknife? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments of the Member and that there is no doubt that some students have still had some difficulties for various reasons, Mr. Speaker. I do want to emphasize that we believe that the program has dramatically improved over the past year over what it was the previous year, not discounting the fact that perhaps some students may still have difficulties.

The Member's question is with regard to the issue of being able to deliver this particular program on a more on-the-ground basis in the communities. One of the issues, Mr. Speaker, we have been looking at, we started it already last year but because of the many areas of concern with the revamping of this particular program, we wanted to make sure we had other areas, administrative areas, out of the way first.

We are working towards more utilization by the regional offices, Mr. Speaker, and I think that is a progressive step for us. We trained our people at the regional offices on the computer system and we do want to move forward on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we have less than two years to go in this House. I would like to ask the Minister, how soon can you move on this initiative to improve the flow of programs and services? I am talking about decentralization and ensuring that we have more community friendly programs that we deliver through this government. When, Mr. Speaker?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, the issue of more delivery at the regional level and possibly more local level was started by us some months ago by training our regional people, our regional career officers. We would like to pursue that further. We did need to take the step of educating them on our CMAS system, the computer system. There are still some complications in that whole area, being able to turn it over. The request was also made previously about being able to cut cheques locally and to do the actual approvals. We are moving forward on that, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to state that I can be in a much better position by the spring of this coming year on this whole area. It is a case though of involving our regional career officers. We are not in a position to be able to add individuals to this because I do not think it is necessary with the new computer systems that we have. I think it is educating our regional staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if we can be kept informed to what he is doing with the department and also keep the regional boards and regional colleges informed, to bring them in the loop because they do play a key role of delivering programs in the regions and also to the different communities. I would like to ask the Minister to ensure that he does receive input from those groups in this review that he is considering looking at.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, when I discussed this with my officials from my department, I did mention to them that I was interested in ensuring that the high schools are well aware of this program, that the colleges are very well aware of the program and the details so they can start providing assistance on the local scene to students who may be leaving high school, who may already be in the college system. This particular program is one that I am working on from time to time, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that we educate our people and that it is well known to those who may have to become involved in delivery. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko. No supplementary? Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years, we have heard from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment as to how much more money we are providing for education and everything the department is doing to increase the education levels of our youth.

Recently, Mr. Speaker, our grade 9 students took part in an Alberta equivalency exam. My question, Mr. Speaker, is could the Minister inform this House as to the results of these equivalency exams, specifically in mathematics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have the exact results in hand here. I can certainly get them for the Member. I know that in mathematics, I understand that both the students from YK 1 and the South Slave were below standard compared to Alberta students. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister inform this House as to how many districts took part in those equivalency exams? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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