Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in the area of my Member's statement. I would like to know from the Minister what his department has done in conjunction with the Department of Health and Social Services to try and address the growing concerns around the special needs in the classrooms across the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our efforts have been on two fronts. One was to reduce the PTR, as the Member knows, and the other is in special needs. We increased funding substantially for schools in that area, from eight percent to 15 percent, Mr. Speaker, to assist students.

Where our collaboration has been very extensive, Mr. Speaker, is in the early childhood development area, prior to entering school. We feel that's the place that we can make a significant impact for students; not to ignore the ones that are there now -- I understand what the Member means by that -- but we have, as I said, increased funding to that so that students can get some extra help, Mr. Speaker. But, as I say, our collaboration is very strong on the early childhood area so that we get children ready for school. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work is very important in the area of early childhood development, and critical. But at the same time, Mr. Speaker, when numbers do come across our desk and state quite clearly we have some concerns with those just entering into the system. Is there any ongoing work between the Department of Health and Social Services and his department on how to deal with this? Those are the children that will go through the system and will continue to need support if we don't catch them early. So has there been any initiative between the two to try and work together to come up with something that might be more successful? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the working level on each district, I'm not sure what kind of collaboration is taking place. I know that, as I mentioned, strong on the early childhood. I would have to check to see what is taking place on the collaboration with Health and Social Services in the area of school enrollments. The Member spoke earlier about speech therapists and so forth. Those are the kinds of areas that we are very concerned about, but there's also a dearth in the availability of those types of individuals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an issue that has been ongoing for some time in a number of communities, and specifically in mine as well, when I know that, for example, parents would go to the school and request a speech therapist because they've been told that their children need that help and the schools would say sorry, we don't have funding for that, go to the Department of Health and Social Services, and there seems to be little collaboration between the two. So will there be some directive or initiative sent down, not only at headquarters -- and I think that's where it needs to start -- but will there be a collaborative approach to try and deal with this situation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll have to check into this, Mr. Speaker, to see what we can do in terms of further collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Services in many areas, because it's not just in speech therapy it's also school psychologists and so forth. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also inform us in the area of special needs, can district education councils or district education authorities have any further assistance than the formula funding that's handed down now, if they do in fact find that they have a high need in their classrooms? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The DECs are restricted, Mr. Speaker. Other than we have initiated a school improvement project for student success, and we're doing this on a pilot basis in seven different districts. Each one chose a school to do a specific project, which could be an area that we could look at for next year to see if we can expand and that was our intention. As we see successes happening, then we can expand the student success projects. They're small funded projects, but they're specifically geared to testing projects to see if they are successful, and we want to take our best examples and repeat that in other areas, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand from some information that I got just a few minutes ago, that there has been some fairly dramatic action over at the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. A prominent member has been, apparently, dismissed from his duties by federal Minister, Mr. Nault. As a consequence, there is no quorum on this board. This is a critical board to the North and development approvals, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to address a question to the Premier. In partnership with the federal government, can he confirm that this action has been happening and what is the status of development permits now under review at this board? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Braden,

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Premier outline for us the nature of the relationship that the government has with Northern Affairs on this board? Actions of this nature, as the Premier has indicated, are quite significant for us. Just what is the obligation of the Minister to let us know what is going on? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a board that also ties into the Gwich'in claim and the Sahtu claim. It is a partnership between the different groups, including the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories, as well as the Sahtu and Gwich'in. So there is a very high expectation for cooperation, partnership and consultation in the way this board operates in the terms of reference it has, especially the need for arm's length. independent ability to operate and carry out their duties as all parties expect them to. Thank you.