Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are actually three new sources of funds. One is not so new. The $450,000 for recreation contributions is...We reprofiled some of this money; $300,000 of this was listed prior to this under regional operations. We have now moved it into recreation contributions as this money is going to the new sports council.

The Northern Youth Program, the $500,000 is money from the Northern Strategy money. This money will be allocated through six different programs: $100,000 will go to the Youth Trapper Training Program; another $100,000 will go to the NWT Youth Leadership Program; $50,000 for a youth leaders' forum; $20,000 to bring students to the Aboriginal Achievement Awards; $30,000 to set up a youth web site; and, $200,000 will be used for Summer Youth Trade Institute Program. So that makes up the $500,000. There is also $250,000 from the community public infrastructure money that will be spent to support trail development. So those are the three areas that are new profile dollars.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing to look at here is the sustainability of these various initiatives. For instance, Mr. Chair, the Northern Strategy money was one-time dollars. We are shoring up some fairly aggressive initiatives here, certainly good ones, but, of course, when something is started, if it meets with any degree of success and has some good outcomes, people want to see them keep going. Can the department advise on what, if any, these would see continuation in future fiscal years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a number of things here that are considered to be pilot projects. The NWT Games, of course, was brought forward as a pilot project over a couple of years. I think 2007 is the last time we are going to see this funded as part of this budget or as part of our business plans. We intend to look at this, review how successful the games were and see whether it was valid to carry them on. If that is the case, then Sport North has indicated that this would be something they would consider as part of their revenue funding from lottery tickets.

In regard to the Northern Youth Program, the six different programs that are listed under there are all considered to be pilot projects, also. If these programs are very successful, very popular and they achieve what we want them to do, we would consider looking for new sources of funds or else a possibility of moving them under our Youth Corps Program. We have a budget of $750,000 for youth programs there, so those are the possibilities. Those are actually the targets of where we want to go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under the Youth Program, there are trappers, leadership, involvement in

the aboriginal achievement awards, which I certainly support, the youth trade initiatives, the web site here, can we get some information on just what would be the purpose or the function of this web site? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, with the creation of a web site, we are hoping to be able to package up all the information that we have compiled on youth programming and youth resources, use it as a reference and an area to access resources and to list out some of our programs. So it is an opportunity for us to take all the information in the area of youth and some of the upcoming events, the opportunities and the different programs and pooling them and put them in one area that the youth can access quite easily.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Mr. Chair, I don't have the information at my fingertips, but through at least one other department, and I am thinking ECE, is there not a web site with a youth focus or a youth audience already designed? Are we duplicating something here? Has the department checked into whether or not there is something already existing that we could use? Thanks.

Mahsi, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, this web site is intended to capture all the youth initiatives, all the programs, all the activities that fall under our responsibilities for youth. We have developed this web site as a source of information. I don't know if...Have we checked? I am not sure if ECE has a program of that nature. We have an interdepartmental committee, so I don't believe we are duplicating anything here.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have a specific example to point to, but I do point it out as an example where there may be something already in existence. Our government has web sites and helplines all over the place. In the absence of a detailed kind of survey or system, I am not entirely convinced that we are really putting these efforts and getting good value out of them, because there are already a lot of existing similar functions in other departments. That is all I have for questions for now, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, I understand what the Member is getting at. We may have a similar web site, but they are not the same. Our information is quite different, but there may be an opportunity to package them up under one web site that would serve all the youth. We will have that discussion with ECE.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Anything further, Mr. Braden? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This $500,000, the activities for which the Minister listed off, would we, as committee members, have had any prior knowledge of what those activities were, or is this the first time we are hearing it right here? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I believe this would be the first time the Members are seeing it or hearing of it. When we did present our business plans, we did not have the programs ready and we have not been able to develop them, identify all the different areas we wanted to spend this money. So we had indicated to committee that we would be coming back at budget time to include the programs and have them ready by then, but we did not present to the committee at all.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thanks for that, Mr. Chairman. I didn't think I had missed something this significant. This is a large piece of that Northern Strategy money that's $500,000 for youth programs and I'm not particularly impressed with the line-up in terms of activities. I don't know much about it, though, so it's hard to say what they're like, but I wouldn't mind just getting a print-off of some kind. You know, say we come back during the budget session, give us this, if we passed over this page without asking these questions, we still wouldn't know what they were. So I don't know if you have a more detailed description that you could photocopy and circulate to Members as to what these are. I guess my concern is who was consulted on taking this $500,000 and dividing it up under these particular activities. Who decided that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.