Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of areas that the honourable Member has referred to. One is on the investment we are making in PTR and student needs. As the Member knows, we are making significant investments in that area. I am a bit surprised to hear that there is a rumour floating around that a number of class supports are going to be cut, in one particular case, in one of his schools. Of course, that is not the intention of this program. I would have to know the details of that and check with the DEC, who is ultimately responsible in this area, to ensure that this funding does flow through to the schools. We believe it does.
At the end of the year, we ask that an accountability be provided for funding that we put forward. It should show that we have made inroads in terms of improving the student financial assistance and the classroom support area, as well as the reduction in PTR.
Mr. Chairman, the Member also referred to the clear need for cooperation between Health and Social Services and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. That is certainly my intent as well. I believe the Minister of Health and Social Services has spoken on that end as well.
It certainly is becoming very strong. We are working tremendously hard together on various areas. We have formed a Ministerial committee that meets on a consistent basis now. It is an informal Ministerial meeting, of course, but it does include the social envelope Ministers. So there is increased activity in that end.
As well, as the Member well knows, we have partially completed the harmonization between income support and housing, between the Minister responsible for Housing and myself. We have met a number of times on that area. It is a matter of introducing that now.
On the decentralization of the student financial assistance program, as I mentioned, I think it may be a wrong assumption to say that we are not prepared to look at decentralization. We have made some moves already in that regard, Mr. Chairman, to ensure that on a regional basis, the regional career development officers are trained to handle inquiries from students and to ensure they can handle filling out application forms and so forth.
We are strongly moving towards a computerized system. One of the reasons that there is not as much response required on the part of MLAs on the income support side is because we moved into a computerized system two years ago. We basically have three-quarters of a year under our belt, not quite, with student financial assistance on computerization. I think we will see the same results in that area, Mr. Chairman.
On maximizing northern employment, we are making strides very quickly in that area. I know it has been an area that has popped up quickly, but it is an important area for all of us in the Territory. It deals with a number of areas. We are looking at summer employment programs for students, a website for students, work experience programs for them, career employment and career development experiences, so we are making moves in that whole area as well, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.