Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I'm not going to allow that question. The matter of determining that is before the courts and I will withdraw that question. Oral questions, the honourable Member from Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, we need to support our youth who face many challenges today. We need to help them to live up to their expectation that we have for them. We need to give youth positive experience that can make them our future leaders. Youth centres with meaningful activities and programs will be an important step towards that support.

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Youth. The Minister recognizes that there is a problem that there is only money to build youth centres and no money to run or operate the centres. What will the

Minister do to solve these issues or problems that we're faced with? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Youth, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years we've been working hard in the department to expand our youth programs. Last year we were able to expand our program funding by another half a million dollars to run a number of pilot projects. We have a number of projects that have been very successful. Over this last while, a lot of communities have been applying for the Community Initiatives Program, which has a budget of $1 million to use towards building and constructing of infrastructure and these have included youth drop-in centres or youth centres. We've encouraged communities to do that and we've supported it because most of these communities have identified sources for operation and maintenance and the bulk of the money is coming from the federal government. We have, I think, six communities right now that are being currently funded through the Youth Centre Funding Program. The community that the honourable Member is mentioning has not applied for this funding. We'd gladly work with him to apply for these dollars. However, we do not, as a government, have a program dedicated towards the operation and maintenance of youth centres. We have identified it as something that there may be a need to address. We have scheduled a youth conference for January of this year. This is one of the subjects that we'd like to talk about, is some of the needs that communities across the North will be focused on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I've outlined in my Member's statement that prevention is less costly than healing. Prevention also creates healthier communities and committed community members, eventually becoming the community leaders. At this point, Mr. Speaker, has the Minister made his point to the social envelop colleagues who are well aware of the cost of justice, health treatment programs, when we don't take steps to prevent youth crimes or encourage healthy lifestyle choices who could be faced with more major issues and problems in the communities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure if I heard a question in there. We have certainly agreed with some of the principles that were mentioned by the honourable Member regarding prevention. We have a number of programs that are earmarked towards the youth at risk. We are also looking at ways we could encourage our youth to become good leaders, good role models. We've started a number of programs that encourage that and we continue to work with our youth in setting up conferences where they can speak up and have their voices heard. We've also embarked on setting up a Youth Ambassador Program that we'll be kick starting this year as the Canada Winter Games come forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I understand the fiscal circumstance of the GNWT, what we're faced with today. The GNWT has to stop using these circumstances, Mr. Speaker, as an excuse for not taking care of future generations. When it comes to these issues, there's always the money and the program dollars where there's a shortage. So, Mr. Speaker, if youth are a priority for this government, can the Minister commit to finding money within, or from the federal government, for the operation of youth centres in Behchoko and in other smaller communities for this coming fiscal year? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We'd gladly work with the community of Behchoko to look at identifying the resources that that community needs. There is already some resources that we can, upfront, identify that has not been tapped into. There's a number of other program dollars that we have that are available for the community to apply for through the youth core for some youth at risk programs. We also have youth contributions. We also have a youth advisor. We have trapper training programs and this year we've launched a website that will be coming on stream this fall. That can be certainly a resource that can be used for referral. So, Mr. Speaker, we'll work with the community to identify the resources. We still continue to move forward in our discussions with the federal government to see what other commitments we can obtain from them to support youth centres. There are dollars currently in the federal budget for youth centres, but only through the National Association of Friendship Centres. So this causes concern in other communities that don't have a friendship centre. So we have to continue to do more work in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to come back to my earlier statement addressing the impact of funding cuts to literacy in the NWT. Mr. Speaker, investing in adult literacy is a key component to ensuring a healthy Canadian society and economy. So where opportunity is at its best for people in the Northwest

Territories, cutting back on literacy programs is the worst idea possible. So, Mr. Speaker, I don't agree with these cuts and I call them non-acceptable. So my question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is, what exactly is he doing to stop these cuts? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have worked with my colleagues in the Council of Ministers of Education Canada to ensure that we are able to meet with Minister Finley from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to let her know personally of our disappointment with the approach. That meeting is, by the way, set up for next Tuesday. I have written to Minister Finley as well to outline our concerns for the impacts on the Northwest Territories that we will see from these cuts and to request from her their plan, the federal government's plan, to reinvest in literacy so that we can better understand and assure residents of the Northwest Territories what sort of response we're going to see to improve literacy here in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because these, in my opinion, I'll say it that way, I see these cuts more like a butcher filling in for a surgeon, Mr. Speaker. I see them just being chop, chop, chop and where they fall they fall, Mr. Speaker. So what is this Minister doing to ensure that the speciality, localized programs are going to be restored, because that's where they really truly will have their effect? So what is the Minister going to do on a territorial level to ensure that the haemorrhaging of things like the NWT Literacy Council will not continue? Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have met with the NWT Literacy Council. Our government continues to support and to fund the NWT Literacy Council and I have assured them that we will continue to look for ways to work with them to ensure that we can help them to provide literacy services across the Northwest Territories. I think it's important to remember that the Government of the Northwest Territories also invests heavily in literacy in the North. We provide $2.4 million annually to the NWT Literacy Strategy and Aurora College receives more than $4.1 million annually to support adult literacy and basic education. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm hoping to see the federal government reinvest in literacy programs, particularly literacy programs aimed at the aboriginal population. I am hoping that they will recognize that they have an important role to play in the Northwest Territories in that area.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Department of Education, Culture and Employment offers literacy programs to seniors, persons with disabilities, in our corrections centres and our workplace. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to be sure today in this House that are these programs going to be protected under these potential cuts or these cuts that already have been made by the Conservative government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Northwest Territories our government has no intention of cutting back what's there. So programs that are entirely funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories will definitely continue. The college is going to have some programs that they had hoped to expand this year that they're not going to be able to expand, but we will take a look at what we can do in the future budget to strengthen our literacy program in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.