Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The regional contributions for wage subsidies is the area that is being under-expended. My expectation is that because of the regional distribution of the monies, there may be some areas that we haven't had the uptake and perhaps late in the year then it's not easy to get that money used in another region. We've been reluctant to just put all the money in one pot and have it used that way because if somebody came in with a regional application, we wouldn't have the money available. We have been trying to save the money on a regional basis.

We're hoping to deal with some of that regional issue through government departments. As you know, we are going to see in this budget a growth in government actually providing positions for apprentices, and we expect that will help us to deal with the regional allocation and that may allow us a little more flexibility with this money.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I'm just trying to get a handle on...I appreciate that if we allocate money on our best forecast to given regions and they're isn't an uptake of money, if the Minister could advise is there any trend or pattern in terms of allocating funds to a specific region but they just do not get taken up all the time? Is there, as I say, any pattern and which regions might be involved, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don't have any details to provide that level of explanation. We have undertaken a review of the Apprenticeship Program. There are some areas that haven't taken off in many areas of the Northwest Territories. For instance, the Schools North Apprenticeship Program, we found that in Hay River, for instance, that program is always fully subscribed and we know that in other provinces it's a popular program but we haven't seen the uptake in other regions. We're trying to discover how we can improve uptake in that area and look at some other areas with the Apprenticeship Program to make sure that we can fully expend the monies in the program this year.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Is one area that we could be looking at is the level of assistance that we provide to employers to bring apprentices into their workshops and their workforces, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That very question is one of the questions that is being asked through the review process.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Okay. Thank you. I'll look forward to getting some further reports on that, especially the aspect on...To the extent that we're providing supports to employers, I think, is one way of really helping to get

some uptake. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering, in that area, to what extent is the private sector onside and, you know, in this whole career apprenticeship area does the private sector in the Northwest Territories provide an appreciable level of support? What is the nature of partnerships that we have in our apprenticeship field with the private sector, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The private sector, by and large, are tremendous supporters of this program per force. They need to see the workers and this is one very good way to get the workers into the various fields like plumbing and carpentry and so on. One challenge is that in the smaller communities there doesn't tend to be a lot of employers who can take on apprentices. They may not have enough work for another full-time employee. That's one of the reasons that we think that there should be more interest in the Schools North Apprenticeship Program which gets somebody into the workforce on a half-time basis while they're still in high school. We also believe that for the GNWT to expand back into supporting apprentices is going to be important, because we have positions in some of those smaller communities that would allow us to train apprentices, as well, to expand the program out beyond the larger centres. The program is working very well in the larger centres; our challenge has been to expand it into the smaller communities so we're looking at ways in which we can do that. We think that through this review, by putting some money in for government to take on employees, or apprentices, we think that we are on track.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. On page 8-29 is detail on where these grants and contributions are going and it shows that this year, or next year as this year, we're allocating $763,000 to advanced training initiatives in the oil and gas industry. I wanted to ask, particularly in this area, Mr. Chairman, is the oil and gas industry coming in as well with fiscal or other contributions in advanced training initiatives in the oil and gas industry?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just about half of this money is contributions to Community Futures, the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership, and that one has definitely brought industry players' money into play, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

How much money, Mr. Chairman? This is three-quarters of a million dollars. We put it in last year, we're going to put it in next year and I know that this is the way the system works. We put some taxpayers' money on the table, it attracts some private sector money and other services in kind. How are we going here? You know, we've just signed off a socio-economic agreement that commits us all over the place in terms of what's expected of us. How is the oil and gas industry doing as we are ramping up toward this big project? Are they matching us, at least, Mr. Chairman? Maybe I'll put that as a question.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said and consider the whole program for Aboriginal Futures, I said Community Futures before, it's Aboriginal Futures is the name of the ASEP program for oil and gas. The three-year program is $9.9 million. When you look at the amount of money that we're putting in, it's a heck of an investment.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Next I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under this section, I'd like to ask the Minister on what headway has been made about constituting an independent Aurora College in Yellowknife. It's been a subject that's been raised by myself as well as other Members from time to time over the last three and a half years, and I'm curious on what headway has been made. Thank you.