Mr. Speaker, the Sunchild proposal is an effective tool for learners who prefer the self-paced individual approach. My proposal has been with the department. I'm sure they had some comments on it and it's really about exploring alternatives and providing alternatives to our smaller communities, Mr. Speaker. Are there any opportunities under our current education system for this kind of self-paced individual approach, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, for a number of years now, the department has supported distance learning as a method of allowing students to participate at their own speed. This, unfortunately, has not had a great amount of success in the Northwest Territories, even though we have put considerable investment into training facilitators and making sure there was somebody in every school who is trained to facilitate students using distance learning and Internet learning. But we are still continuing to advance the system as one potential way for making sure that, in smaller communities, access to varied programming is more available.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I asked what would be the department's comment with respect to this proposal, Mr. Speaker, but actually I think the question is, will the Minister listen to our communities and allow us to examine further this proposal by bringing them up and listening to what type of proposal they can offer to our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, the Member has sent me a letter and we're in a position, or I'm hoping to be in a position within the next week, to respond to the Member's letter. But what I would hope that we would be able to do is find a way to work with the divisional education council and assess their interest in this proposal as well. So I will take a look at the Member's request and hopefully respond within the week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I don't think the intent here was to change our whole education program at all. I just have a program that works

down south in the small reserves, the small communities. Let's bring them up, let's have a look at this proposal. We'll bring in some educators from Fort Liard and members of their education council and myself, maybe some departmental officials. That's all the proposal entails, to get them here, and I would like the Minister just to say yes, let's have a look at it and if we want to go further, we'll do it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to say that we're going to have to work with the DEC, because the DEC is ultimately responsible for the delivery of education in the region. It's not something where the department deals directly with the community body because we don't fund the community bodies directly. So we're going to have to look at a way to move this forward and I'm prepared to work with the Member and see if we can't work with the DEC to follow through on the community's interest. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member, in his Member's statement, referred to vacancies we've had in the Audit Bureau, as well as in the government Just for the record, we overspend, on an annual basis, all of our salary dollars; just for the record for the Member.

Mr. Speaker, on the Audit Bureau situation, we find that with the system that we have operating the external audit of the Auditor General of Canada on the Government of the Northwest Territories is just that, external reports to the Assembly. We deal with that process and then we have our internal audit process within FMBS that we do, whether asked by departments or if we see something not right we step in and do our own audit process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, regarding the internal audit process, would he be willing to make recommendations that the internal audit process goes forward to the Legislative Assembly and then is further readdressed to the appropriate standing committee? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

No.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A man of so many words. Mr. Speaker, all I can say is public transparency is paramount and I think that we all run on that argument and we want to ensure that our public service, our government service, all our functions have checks and balances that are appropriate, Mr. Speaker. So what is the level of detail that this internal audit system does and why are we not willing to demonstrate our public transparency by bringing it forward to the Assembly and forwarding it to the appropriate committee? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Two questions there. I'll allow the Minister to answer one or both of them. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, without internal audit process, when we're called in to review a situation it can be right down to the detail of an employee not exercising their authority in the correct way or not accounting for specific dollars. That is a process where we get right down to the minute detail and if the Member is asking could we do that in this forum, I think we could be tied down in a very lengthy and protracted process. What we do from an internal point of view is to make sure that the rules are followed for the expenditure of dollars through this government and if we find something that's not appropriate, we would make a recommendation to the appropriate Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.