Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think this is an issue that there's an interest for this in high schools right across the Territories. There is a lot of demand for improvement in this kind of programming.

When we had the meeting here on February 24th and 25th with the chairs of all the DECs, we took an opportunity to talk about partnerships and we talked specifically about this kind of training. The Yellowknife Catholic Schools here have an example of how, through a partnership arrangement, they have managed to put together a fairly good operation. The people from Yellowknife Catholic Schools talked to the other chairs to how to perhaps structure themselves and take advantage of opportunities. Yellowknife Catholic Schools have, for instance, offered their facility to the Dogrib Community Services Board so that their students could come in during the Yellowknife school break. The students at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School were attending, so they could come in and use the facility. They found opportunities to make the facility available to the college for pre-trades training. So what they've done is looked for opportunities to expand outside of what is normally considered within the box, and they've found sources of funding outside it.

As I said to the chairs, this is really something that we're all going to have to get better at is looking for partnerships. Unless this Assembly is going to vote me a whole bunch more money, I'm not going to be able to respond to the demands. I certainly don't hear the interest in this just from Hay River, I hear it from communities across the North. Wherever there's a high school there's a demand for increased programming in the trades area, and it is a legitimate demand. We know there's a need for improved trades training, we know that there are jobs for young people if we can get them trained, but we're constrained by what we have in our budget and are able to provide. Thank you, Madam Chair.