Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with regard to the programs that are out there, a lot of funds are accessible to aboriginal organizations such as dollars within Indian Affairs, especially with regard to the non-renewable resource area. I feel that we have to try to attract as many dollars and resources as we can from other federal funding sources, especially when it comes to training and curriculum development and finding the institutions or the mechanism of delivering those programs.

Through the Arctic College program, we have programs in just about all of the communities in the Mackenzie Delta. One of the problems I see is we administer programs, but usually there are not enough resources to really attract qualified people to train or people to put on these courses. In order to attract good people, we have to pay good money.

Has the Minister looked at finding ways to coordinate with other organizations to either sponsor a program that we come up with so much money and another organization will come with so much money? So instead of having a third of a position, you are able to have a full position or a three-quarter position?

That is one of the problems I hear in communities. The money that we get is either not sufficient or we are not able to attract good people to fill those positions, but by partnering with groups to look at that...we have to start doing that a lot more. Have they considered looking at partnerships when it comes to hiring instructors to deliver programs?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, another area that I have a real problem with is when you start looking at statistics in the document that was just recently put out by your department, the post-secondary indicators report. When you start looking at the statistics between larger centres, Yellowknife, the regional centres and the small communities. In Yellowknife, the graduation rate is almost 30 percent. In the regional centres, it is at 20 percent. When you get down to the communities, you are a little less than ten percent. Just by that indicator, we can see from that that we are not getting the graduates that we should be getting out of the smaller communities. I feel it is critical that we get more students out.

You start looking at the statistics of students with less than a grade 9 education and in the smaller communities, it is almost 30 percent. In places like Yellowknife, it is not even three percent. I think because of those statistics, we can see that there is something definitely wrong with that picture.

So I would like to ask the Minister, exactly what are we doing to try to revamp or find out? We are not seeing a major shift, especially when students are graduating from high school.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is a need to ensure that community graduation rates are addressed. We intend to take that up as the discussion matter with the chairs of the DECs and the DEAs, whom we get together with semi-annually. I am doing that in another month with those chairs and the directors of the district education councils. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. We are on page 9-11, advanced education and careers. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is a challenge and we have a huge challenge to achieve some success here, Mr. Chairman. It extends very broadly across the Territory.

As we know, we have many people seeking work and many of those are at low grade levels. There is a challenge there in order to train them and in order to get them to be able to participate in the workforce. There is no doubt that extends to aboriginal governments and community organizations, Mr. Chairman.

Our efforts are being directed in areas that look at the possibilities of providing support for advancement of individuals throughout the Territories, through the Literacy Program, through our maximizing employment program that we still have to fully develop, and through our training programs, Mr. Chairman. So yes, we readily acknowledge that there is a need out there and we recognize that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Public Service Training Program is just that. It has been identified as a Public Service Training Program to allow departments to bring individuals within government. There was an area of concern with respect to expending the fund, but we do not anticipate that to continue in the future. There were some reasons why that occurred. I cannot make that commitment, Mr. Chairman, to ensure that the funding we have for a specific program is redirected to a different program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The program is there. I cannot tell you today. It may lapse some money this year, but we anticipate with the thrust we are taking, it certainly is not going to lapse money next year. So it becomes a case of where do you direct the money then? It was specifically designed with the purpose of training for the Government of the Northwest Territories to bring employees in, to create efficiency in the system and to allow departments to train individuals and to bring them in. They are individuals from throughout the Northwest Territories. It is a mechanism by which we can ensure that individuals who are Northerners are brought into the system, Mr. Chairman.

I recognize the concern the Member is expressing. I believe that needs to be addressed in another fashion. We are trying to deal as much as we can with the maximizing employment program to identify areas of concern and areas of need.

I think it would be better addressed by another mechanism because the uptake of this could be quickly exhausted next year, Mr. Chairman. I have to ensure that it was set in place with that purpose. So it needs to be sustained with that in mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can certainly speak to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs about the areas of concern that the Member has expressed. I think there are a number of avenues to approach this and I will certainly be able to do that. Thank you.