Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to, for the record, state that my background is employee relations and I was quite active with Dome Petroleum in the Beaufort in developing their labour force. One of the areas that we do need to ensure that when we talk about training programs is that we do give the trainees the opportunity to accumulate the seat time. Seat time is a common phrase used in industry in that the longer they spend on the actual job site the more seniority they get in terms of union standards. I am just going to ask again quickly if the Minister would have his officials and his partners negotiate with the union representatives where we can in effect get trainees onto the job site, give them a tenureship on a piece of equipment that would be used in the North. I think that would be one of the first steps that we should take in terms of trying to maximize northern training and northern employment opportunities. With that, Mr. Chair, I will conclude my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will follow up on the Member's advice.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Allen. At this time I would like to ask committee if it is okay if Mr. Delorey can take the chair for now.

The Chair recognizes Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Cabinet was certainly aware of the recommendation that the committee made, and there was some discussion about it. As I have said, I think we would all agree that investments in early childhood programming are significantly important investments, but we haven't yet found a way to say that we have the money to put this back into the budget yet. As I have already said though, this is something that we are continuing to discuss. I am convinced that this is the area where we should try and

look for an opportunity to reinvest, and we will continue to do that.

In terms of the language nests, I know I have heard these comments from across the Territories. I know a number of Members have gotten letters from their constituents and passed on the information to me that this has been a very useful program. It certainly does tie into culture across the Northwest Territories. It is close to $900,000 that was being spent on it this year. So that is not a small amount of money, it is not easy to find. That part alone is almost a million dollars of what we have given up. So we have heard the concerns, and I don't have the answer yet, but I am going to continue to look and to work with my colleagues on Cabinet to see what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you very much. I just wanted to also mention the importance of supporting our children and youth in schools. I was really pleased to read the increase of the enrolment of our schools from 1998-99 to 2003-04. There is a significant increase in our schools, and the department must be doing something right or something that the communities and our schools are doing right together to get our students to that level of enrolment. It shows that the students, teachers, and the communities are doing something right that got our kids into school. The numbers are up and we need to continue to support our children as they go through to high school, college, and post-secondary programs. We are looking for them to receive some good educational training and come back to our communities and be very productive especially when it comes down to something like the Mackenzie gas pipeline and other initiatives that may happen in our communities. Again, I will hammer back onto the point where it is going to have all of this training, but for our students to know that hopefully there will be some strong cultural initiatives. We know who we are, but we also need to know and practice our culture, and it has to be supported by this government. That is why I said, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Minister has...(inaudible)...Department of Education, Culture and Employment, it is a huge department, and that for our people our culture is who we are in our livelihood. So I want to see through the main estimates. I will look at some of these initiatives that the department is going to be taking on throughout the life of this government, and I want to just keep my comments to that, Mr. Chair. I know my time is running our and I want to respect other Members. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I didn't hear too many questions. Did you want to respond Mr. Dent?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Yakeleya was commenting on the improvement of keeping young people in school. I must say that I was really pleased to see the committee and their report reflected on the importance of community and family support for education. Because while the Department of Education and this government have a role to play in schooling, when it comes to culture and language the schools should reflect and reinforce the community. We aren't there to teach culture and language as much as we are to reflect it. There has to be a significant buy-in from the community, from the families, from the parents in order for the system to improve. What I find most heartening about the increase in numbers is that that has to mean that we are seeing more and more support from families and communities for our schools. We have some areas where it is really strong and that is typically reflected then in the participation rates and the success rates of kids in school, and we need to do more to make sure that we get that family and community support because that is the biggest predictor of what I can see of whether or not we are going to have success in the schools. Again, I am really pleased to be able to say that we are seeing some increases in numbers, and I along with Members of the committee, want to keep encouraging the people in our communities to recognize the important role they play in helping young people be successful in school. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I recognize Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, I would like to reiterate with some of my colleagues about the early childhood development program. This program is very important to the smaller communities because it does help the young children be able to work with elders, and also prepare them for the...(inaudible)...too. In the opening comments, Mr. Chair, the Minister indicated that the department will re-evaluate the program to determine if they can invest in the future. Mr. Chair, can the Minister find out how long this evaluation will take place in order to fund it further down the road? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the evaluation should be completed in April. Then what we would hope to be able to do is if we are able to find any new money, use the evaluation of what programs that have been particularly successful, use that as a guide for where we should then start to emphasize the new money going towards, if we are able to find some new money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is good to hear. Hopefully we can see the re-evaluation by the end of April as he mentioned. Another one that I would like to get into is the school system in his statement. Again, my colleague Mr. Yakeleya indicated the increase in graduates. Mr. Chair, I would like to ask the Minister, of those graduates, how many of those aboriginal people are actually up to par when they do go down to college or university? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to graduate, it means that you typically had to achieve certain marks in the departmental exams, and we use the same exams as Alberta. So if we have people who are graduated they should be at the same level no matter what community they are at. I know that there are concerns about how many programs can be offered in all communities, and the small schools have a real problem with delivering the same level of programming as a larger school does. So not everybody has access equally across the Territories to the same level of program. In

general, the level of schooling on graduation is supposed to be the same. I know that we have had a considerable amount of discussion at the committee about whether or not we are delivering the same sort of program in the smaller schools. I think one of the concerns is whether or not in high school young people are at the same level. Sometimes there are some problems with being at the same grade level in the 10th year or the 11th year of schooling, but if somebody graduates they should have the same level of schooling. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The experience that I have encountered in my region, again I will go back to the level of education, it is well known and I am aware of it that a lot of our young people, although they end up graduating from Grade 12, they still lack the education that's required. There are some Grade 11 students in some of my communities and they are supposedly in Grade 11, but they are at a level of about Grade 8. They say that the level of education is the same as in Alberta, Madam Chair. I think the department should at least try to ensure that our students are getting the required education as in Alberta.

I think the department should consider or review their programs in terms of the level of education in the small communities. I would like to see a comment from the Minister. Thanks.