Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to make some general comments on this Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I feel it is a very important department. This department is charged with preparing our youth and our residents for employment. We heard from the Finance Minister of the number of employment opportunities in the last while in the Territories.

However, the communities I represent still have high rates of unemployment, virtually no training opportunities and there is really no training going on. We have one program now, Women in Trades. They are learning how to do welding. They are taking a two-week course in welding. Other than that, there is really nothing.

There are some safety courses that have gone on, and there is really no opportunity for training, especially in the area of oil and gas. The Deh Cho is an area that has high potential for oil and gas. We have already seen some lands being opened up, oil and gas in the Liard.

I also heard the Aboriginal Affairs Minister announce today the Deh Cho First Nation had signed an interim resource management framework agreement. We are anticipating that we are going to start seeing a lot of oil and gas initiatives in the area really soon.

However, we are not seeing anything in the area of oil and gas training. We have known that oil and gas was going to come down the tubes for many years, yet to datem we have no college program to accommodate oil and gas. There are no college programs for oil and gas training in the North. The only thing we have is driver training and safety courses.

If anybody wants to take courses in the area of oil and gas right now, they have to go to the south. There is no community based training. I was hoping to see additional dollars in this budget committed to oil and gas, but the money committed is the same as last year.

We were told that the oil and gas sector would get the same attention the diamonds were getting. We are not seeing that at all. In fact, there was a mine training committee put in place, but there is no equivalent group for the oil and gas area. There is no oil and gas committee.

The Minister mentioned yesterday in my line of questioning that there is a training group. I believe there is a training group located in Inuvik, but that has no bearing on what we are doing over on this side of the Territories. During question period yesterday, I asked the Minister about how successful he felt the government was in their discussions with the Minister of Indian Affairs. He did not take the time to really answer that. He indicated that they were continuing their discussions. That does not tell us where we are.

I am concerned that we will be missing a lot of opportunity, and we will see a lot of jobs go south because we are not prepared for oil and gas when it starts to come about. I believe that is in the very near future.

Another concern I have is something that has been raised a couple of times now, and that is the maximum allotment for the fuel subsidy for the seniors. I have had a couple of seniors now that, because they are raising the inflated gas prices, their heating fuel subsidy has gone over their maximum allotment. I think that is something we have to take a look at.

Other concerns include some of the programs that are listed in the detail, and I have a concern that a lot of these programs that are listed are very hard to access. For example, we have a group that is traveling to California and will be performing in a number of different places. They are a youth group. They had to raise a lot of money, and they are just about there. They are planning to leave in about a month. They are going to demonstrate hand games and drumming. I see programs here for northern performers, for cultural projects, yet they cannot access any money from this government. I cannot for the life of me understand why an aboriginal group demonstrating cultural activities, and something we all say we promote, cannot draw down from some of these programs.

Another concern I have is regarding high schools. I think Mr. Roland touched on some of the concerns that I have also. That is regarding the quality of education that our students in the North are getting, especially in the smaller communities. Since the introduction to the smaller communities, more specifically Fort Providence, I think it has been four years now that the community has had a grade 12 program. We have not seen one graduate yet. The numbers seem to be dwindling rather than increasing.

When I was in high school, there were 26 of us in grade 12. The community has just about doubled in size, yet I think we have four or five students in the high school. There seems to be a reversal in the trend. Some of those students who are in grade 12 are not satisfied with the level of education they are receiving, and they have taken the option of attending the Northern Leadership Program in Fort Smith. There is a real concern that this option might not be around for much longer. I think that is something we should really revisit.

It has a lot of importance for us in the communities because it gives those students who want to try living in a different environment, want to access the better sports programs, have more opportunity for different academic programs, it gives them that opportunity. Just about all of the students who have attended the Western Arctic Leadership Program are now in university, while we still do not see that kind of success coming from the grade 12 programs in the communities.

I was quite happy to hear mention of FAS over the last little while. We as the Regular Members will be addressing it as part of a theme day. A lot of the communities have started discussing FAS. Myself as an MLA, I am fully aware now. The profile has been raised. I hear it in the communities. I think, judging by the level of discussion, we finally brought this issue out to the public attention. It was not the easiest thing to do. I have heard from my own communities that it is kind of a negative backlash to coming out and say you have a certain level of FAS.

We are trying to approach it in a way so that we are not pointing fingers at anybody. Our schools are really taking an aggressive approach. In fact, we have been trying to secure some funding in the last little while. We have been turned down for funding by the federal government because they considered the proposal too ambitious. However, we are not going to give up. We are planning more workshops and a lot more discussion on this issue.

I am also concerned about the harmonization for housing with income support. The biggest concern is adding the additional costs to the seniors. I realize a lot of these costs are very small and for the most part are not in the smaller communities. However, I believe most of the seniors -- and I have a lot of discussions with the seniors -- are experiencing a lot of hardship. I do not think it really does it any justice to add increasing costs to them. I also do not believe that we should be adding any costs to the students, as this program will start charging a level of rent to students also.

I will be addressing some of these issues during detail, so I will reserve my questions until then. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.