Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just on the Apprenticeship Program. I have a constituent for whom I must ask a question. Mr. Chairman, the Apprenticeship Program is a lot of different trades in the Northwest Territories. Not all of the training for those trades is available here in the Northwest Territories, so obviously some of the theory training is acquired outside; probably in Alberta mostly, I would assume. Mr. Chairman, when the training that is required for certain trades is available in the Northwest Territories, could the Minister confirm that the apprentice has no option other than to attend the designated northern training institution? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we insist that if we offer the training in the Northwest Territories, that's where we will pay for the apprentice to go to take the training.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, then I would ask the Minister if that is consistent with any other type of post-secondary education here in the North. I think of programs like the Nursing Program, the Social Work Program, programs that offer the students the ability to take their training and graduate here in the Northwest Territories. That is a type of post-secondary training. Could you want to be a nurse and decide, at your own discretion, to take your training someplace outside of the Northwest Territories, even though it's available here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's not totally consistent with our other approaches, but we would likely wind up in the same situation as we did with social workers. If we didn't insist on it, we would have to probably stop offering it anywhere in the Northwest Territories. We've been challenged to try and provide as much training as possible in the Northwest Territories. We have very few students who take this; that's why we can't offer all the school courses for apprentices in the Northwest Territories. We have chosen a few and we have chosen to try and make sure we offer those ones in the Northwest Territories. But in order to gain the economies of scale, we have to insist that everybody who's a registered apprentice and wants the schooling in that course has to take it in the Territories. Otherwise, we couldn't be offering it in the Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If an apprentice is registered in the Northwest Territories, but chooses at their own expense to register in a program in the South, is it recognized in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that would be normally the case. The apprentice would have to work with the apprenticeship officer and make sure the training was booked through our offices but, yes, that's possible and the training would be recognized, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One other question then is if the apprentice is employed by someone who is accessing the subsidy program for apprentices and is a registered apprentice in the Northwest Territories, then schooling in a southern institution would not be a problem provided that the department did not incur any of the cost for that training. Correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said, as long as the apprentice works with either an apprenticeship officer or CDO to make sure that the training is recognized and approved by us. If you're going to NAIT or SAIT or some other recognized institution, then there should not be a problem. It should be no problem at all.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for clarification then, the program available to employers would not be impacted either by the apprentice taking their program in the South, as long as it was accredited. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, I don't believe they're linked. I think the employer applies for a training-on-the-job subsidy. That's not linked at all to the apprentice who goes by himself to book the schooling with their apprenticeship officer. We can follow up to make sure of that, but my understanding is it would be two separate programs and they're not linked.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mrs. Groenewegen.

That's all I have for right now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I believe it was Mr. Ramsay who had a debate item that kind of interested me. It was with the graduation rates and course completion rates and that's something that I've been dealing with the Minister on over the last couple of weeks, especially in the smaller regional centres. I'm sure I agree with the Minister and the department, that whatever we can do to improve graduation rates and course completion rates would be a boon to our young people, to our schools and to our communities.

I came upon a gap, perhaps in the system and maybe the Minister can address that for me, is that I propose, I said, hey, there is this nice program I ran across, I got support from the community of Liard. I said the department should look at this program, specifically with the Sunchild E-Learning Program that has been used around Rocky Mountain House on the smaller reserves there. Here is a program where they are improving graduation rates, astronomically in our terms, in our levels, because theirs is at 80 percent and ours is at 45 percent. It is even smaller yet as we do the breakdown and get to the smaller communities, Mr. Chairman.

Of course, then course completion rates are right up there in these small communities, and they are similar communities, they are aboriginal communities, aboriginal schools, with the same types of social problems happening in their homes and their communities. Yet they are achieving some success. I am saying I would like to check it out, how it can be applicable to us, what we can learn from it, indeed if there is anything there that we can use.

That is all my proposal was, Mr. Chairman. I didn't want to do a whole scale change of the department, their priorities and all their goals and objectives which they have strived so hard to do. All I wanted to say is that here is something that is working in another community. Can we look at it? Can we get our department officials to seriously consider it? Because anything, like I said earlier, Mr. Chairman, that improves our communities and the lives of our people in those communities, we are going to have to do it. In fact, I am obligated to do it and if I chose to ignore it, then they will choose to ignore me too. Perhaps if the Minister can address that at this point.

I know that we have some type of programming out there. Just looking back in the main estimates, Mr. Chairman, there is a category, education operations and development, I think that is something that will fit in there. I noticed that the budget, in that particular line item, increased by $700,000 and the Minister indicates to me that he checked his front pockets and he checked his back pockets and they are both empty and there is nothing more he can do. I see that they doubled the thickness of the wallet, so I don't know how he can say that, Mr. Chairman.

Perhaps I can just get the Minister to comment with respect to new development objectives, exploring new options and keeping our mind open, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Minister.