The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have all the details or background of the lack of our participation in this particular program. However, we are looking at revitalizing our discussions with government to see if we can't participate in renewal of this particular program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister cannot tell us why we haven't participated in it, can I ask the Minister to commit to tabling in this House the reasons for the GNWT not having signed onto the existing agreement?

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that part of the reason for not participating in this particular program is that it is per capita based and again it recovered from our particular transfer payments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, knowing that, can the Minister outline what approach we are taking to make sure we access these funds without them cutting into our base transfer and not getting them just on a per capita basis? Thank you.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The concern has been there on the part of all Ministers and MLAs on the per capita funding that we've used. As we are all aware, the Premier had an opportunity with other Premiers to bring this to the attention of the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister indicated that he also wants something done about the per capita funding issue because it does impact on our government and our funding here dramatically in terms of low funding for our population base. We are bringing this to the table when we are discussing it with the people who are negotiating this particular agreement. Additionally, we are looking at just the issue Mr. Dent has mentioned and the fact that we don't want it taken out of our capital base.

Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would hope that the federal government would certainly want to make sure that we were able to get more money into the hands of persons with disabilities. You would think they would be embarrassed to know that it wasn't possible, even if we signed this because of a reduction in our transfer payments. Could the Minister outline what sort of timetable we are looking at for concluding these negotiations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that the federal program expires within a month and that we are in negotiations now. I can't tell the Member how quickly we can conclude that. However, there is a meeting of Ministers planned in April of labour market Ministers, in which this particular issue can be taken up in discussion with the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.