Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Could I get the Minister to expand a little bit on the second paragraph on page 3 where, for example, the department is preparing an aboriginal language and culture-based directive that it will be sending to all education authorities outlining program requirements and criteria for expenditure? Could you expand a little bit more on what directive is going to be? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, when I met with the Chairs of the divisional education councils we had some discussion about how...Some of the funds that we identify in the formula are categorized as funding aboriginal language programming. There has been a fair amount of latitude about how that money is being spent, and we are concerned that in some instances it may not be being used in the ways in which we had expected that Members of this Assembly would expect. So what we're going to do

is work with the DECs. This isn't something that we're just arbitrarily imposing ourselves. We have had staff working with the divisional education councils to see if we can't come up with a directive which would reflect what we think the expectations are for the use of that money, and make sure that it is actually being used for aboriginal language programming.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On the bottom paragraph where the Minister states In addition to the federal funding over $2.6 million, we propose another $2.29 million. That includes an additional $100,000 to the support of establishing two language boards. Is that $100,000 the total expenditure for those two languages boards? How does that play into that? Is there more money out of this $2.29 million that's going to be going into the operation, the running, whatever, of the languages board, or is the rest of it actually going to be going into programs? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Dent.

Madam Chair, there may be a slightly higher cost to the boards over the $100,000. We're hoping that we can get them to operate for that amount. Remember we're just starting them in July of this year, so it's not a full year of programming. It will be close to that, we think. So the goal is to have most of the money going to programming and keep the cost of the boards as low as possible.

This $100,000 is reflective of what was transferred from the Legislative Assembly. That's the amount of money that the Assembly had in its budget to operate these boards, and when the responsibility for the boards was transferred to my department, this money was also transferred over. So that's the money we have. If it costs a little bit more, we'll have to find a way to deal with that. But we're reasonably confident it will be close to that.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you. Just one more area I would like to touch on, Madam Chair, and that is on maximizing northern employment or job training, whether it be in apprenticeship programs or getting people into the trades. It's an area that I've addressed a number of times over the last four years with the previous Minister of Education. At that time I got the same answer more than what I wanted to hear about. If we do it in one place we can't do it in the other. We have to do it right across the Territories. In an area such as Hay River if there's a huge interest in promoting the trades in the school, and we have a huge volunteer base there now and it's in big demand. Kids are really taking on to this. They have some work in carpentry, some work in welding, some work in automotive, but with very little resources and very little equipment to work with. Is the department still under the same impression, that there is no help for these areas? If we do it there, we have to do it right across the Territories. Are we going to find a way to help and promote in an area where there is a demand and to pick up students who are maybe falling through the cracks or whatever, if this would help? Is the department willing to look at areas where there is a demand? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Dent.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Next on the list I have Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I understand it, when the program was started three years ago, the intention that was always stated was to review it at the end of the program. So the review process wasn't started until fairly recently. So it hasn't been an ongoing review; it is something that has been recently undertaken.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just another question on that issue is on a program or an initiative that has received the positive feedback of all the players who have been involved in this initiative, has basically come to a lot of the Members' attention in the last few months just due to the fact that they knew the program was going to be sunsetted. I'm just wondering if the Minister could give me some indication as to when they do determine, and I don't think it's going to be too hard to determine the effectiveness of this program, through all the correspondence that the Legislative Assembly has been receiving as far as the early childhood development initiative. I know that the initiative has cost the government around $800,000 as far as our share into this whole program. I know that the whole department has taken some cutbacks in a lot of areas, but I really feel that reinvesting into this very important key area in education especially at the early childhood stages where research has shown us that the more your investment into it is the best return for your dollars spent. I'm just wondering if the Minister would be able to put every effort he can into finding some additional funding to keep the program running on a quarterly basis. I'm sure on a quarterly basis, $200,000 wouldn't be too hard of a find in a budget of close to $250 million. Just to keep this program going over the next three months after this evaluation process is done, then basically reassess it and reprioritize it after these quarterly stages.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's certainly an area that I recognize the importance of investing in. I think all of my Cabinet colleagues do, as well. It is something that we have had some discussion about, and we are certainly interested in seeing what we can do. We will look at whatever options we can. Without having rolled it out, just off the top of my head I know that non-government organizations don't like to see short-term funding, and I don't know how excited they would be about quarterly funding because it's tough to get staff to commit for programs that you don't know how long they're going to be going. The shorter the term, the tougher it is to find people for them. I am certainly prepared to put every effort I can into seeing how we can find the money to reinvest in this program.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Villeneuve.

Madam Chair, I thank the Minister for his passion in this topic.

---Laughter

Moving on to page 3 of the statement, I'm just wondering if the Minister could just give me a short briefing on what the department is talking about when they want to expand student assessment activities in relation to the aboriginal languages and culture-based directive.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Dent.

Thank you. There are two separate things that we're talking about in that paragraph. The first is the aboriginal language and culture-based education directive. That's the issue I explained to Mr. Delorey that we're going to try and reach an agreement with education authorities as to how monies will be spent supporting aboriginal language and culture-based education.

As a separate topic, I've also broached the subject with the Chairs of the education councils about the need to be able to demonstrate to legislators that the money that we're spending on education is in, in fact, improving the system. So we are also taking a look at expanding assessment activities, so we will have some yardsticks that we can use to demonstrate to the Legislative Assembly that the system is making improvements in how students are doing.