Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a very easy commitment to make. We recognize the value of Volunteer NWT and we have committed to working with them, and we will continue to press the federal government for additional resources and make the case that this whole initiative is very worthy, and we will continue to look for other sources to help fund this whole program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May I make a request for a harder commitment, and that is to ask the Minister if he could make an effort to look within the government budget to see if we could enhance the money that he's allocated in the amount of $50,000? Also, I think there might be other organizations like United Way who may have some funds available. Could I ask the Minister to seek additional sources for funding, not just within the government but wherever that may be necessary, because the help of the Minister will go a long way. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if we can work harder, but we'll continue to work as hard as we can. We have committed to put $50,000 towards this initiative. It has come within the ranks of our department and we continue to press the case to the federal government, and we are speaking to other agencies, other organizations, including the United Way. Hopefully this will result in a partnership arrangement or something of that sort that will help bring further resources to Volunteer NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a couple of questions to Mr. Menicoche, Minister of Transportation, and it's a follow-up to the statement that he gave the Assembly earlier today on Yellowknife passenger terminal building improvements. Mr. Speaker, the Minister advised that the system, a new baggage screening system, was, indeed, operational ahead of the January 1, 2006, deadline. I'm happy to hear that. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to quiz the Minister to see about the total budget for the project, to ask, indeed, was the entire project completed on budget and what was the final cost of the overall airport improvement project, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The total project was around $11.2 million. I can commit to get further detail for the Member as well. There was $4.6 million for the explosion detection system, as well as 6.6 for the improvements that would address capacity levels at the airport, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would look forward to the information of my question as to whether the project was completed on budget. There was also concerns when the project came forward, Mr. Speaker, that the cost of this was going to be passed on entirely to the travelling public and people using airport services, and I wanted to see if the Minister could advise how are those payments being scheduled, how are they being spread out and what is the impact on the people who use air services in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; typically airport improvements are gathered from the public through airport fees, but that's something that we did look at but did not consider at all. Because a lot of these improvements are because of CATSA, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, and it was based on after 9-11, the extra

security numbers, they did provide some funding to help us with the construction and improvement of our airport, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

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

Mr. Speaker, recently there has been a bit of media attention to one aspect of this and that is the security service itself, the number of people involved in providing the screening service. I do not profess to be an expert at all on whether that's being handled adequately or not, but as the requirement for security is established and rolls out, I would like to ask the Minister is there any ongoing assessment of the costs of providing this service and is there any provision for potentially making adjustments that could be cost saving in providing this very valuable service, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, there is always ongoing assessment of all of our services that we do provide. With this particular issue, it has been raised to my attention and we have been looking at that, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the Great Hall we had the opportunity to share a celebration with the Aboriginal Head Start Program and the release of their 10-year evaluation; the only jurisdiction in Canada to do that.

---Applause

One of the concerns that was raised was that their funding had been reduced from a three-year funding guarantee to a one-year sort of interim, you're-on-notice funding from the federal government. I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, who was also at this celebration, whether he is considering, if he already hasn't written to his corporate counterpart in the federal government, to make the case that this is one program that the federal government should keep their hands off of? In fact, they should continue to fund because it is such a success. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague across the floor, I would like to send my congratulations to Aboriginal Head Start in the Northwest Territories for 10 marvellous years of work. The evaluation has demonstrated conclusively that Aboriginal Head Start is an important learning opportunity for young children. So I'd be pleased to, using that tool, ensure that my federal colleague is aware of the importance of continuing the funding for the program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister indicate, given his busy schedule, how quickly he'd be able to do that? Because there's a federal budget coming and it may already have been in their books that they're going to cut like they've done in the past and if we could avoid that it would be a tremendous relief to the Aboriginal Head Start people. Thank you.