Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will certainly have to continue to advocate for sound water management and we need to have all our information from the technical side, from our scientists, from our biologists, from the residents in the Northwest Territories, as we move forward. That includes the aboriginal people, Mr. Speaker, especially the elders in the communities, and, as with other initiatives, we will commit that we will have discussions with the elders also. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 22nd of this year I spoke about the need for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to find new ways to encourage our youth to graduate, because their graduation rates are only at 50 percent. I'd like point out two things, Mr. Speaker: Nothing is being done about the truancy; and, why are we treating 50 percent as a standard, Mr. Speaker? My question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is what is he doing to encourage young people to attend school, and what manners is he developing to encourage them to stay in school such as Ontario has by looking at taking their drivers' licence away if they do not graduate? 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, we need to be careful that we don't miss an opportunity to celebrate the fact that our graduation rate has nearly doubled to the point it has gotten to 50 percent. It's important to remember that the Canadian graduation rate was about 25 percent in the 1960s. It's now, across Canada, just under 70 percent. To make that kind of change over the period of time that's happened, 40, 50 years, and then compare it to how we've doubled our graduation rate in the space of 10 or 12 years, it's pretty amazing what we've done here in the North.

While I would agree with the Member that 50 percent is not good enough, what we are doing to ensure that we get a better graduation rate is ensuring that our programs are much improved in the smaller communities, because that's where the challenge is.

It's in the smaller communities where we're not seeing the graduations at the highest rate. So through grade extensions and by ensuring that when we bring in new initiatives like we have in this year's budget, they are targeted to smaller communities. We are going out of our way to improve the offering where it counts the most. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, doing half the job is nothing to be proud of, so...

As I said two weeks ago, this should be considered a children's crisis, Mr. Speaker. It should be a call to arms to find out any way we can to ensure that these kids are in school and graduating, because kids that do not graduate, their future does not look very bright, Mr. Speaker. When we talk about the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, you know, they talk about, well, we'll only hire kids with high school. Well, holy smokers! You've just said a lot of these kids out there, in the communities who this is supposed to benefit, can't get jobs. Mr. Speaker, what is the Education Minister doing, like Ontario, to encourage these kids to stay in school?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're offering better programs. We're working to ensure that we have an adequate number of teachers. We're reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. We're putting money into physical education, into trades. We've increased funding dramatically for students with special needs

All of these are aimed to ensure that northern students have the best opportunity to graduate. Mr. Speaker, we have a combination of carrots and sticks and what we have found in education is that the carrot works best. The Member may say that we've only achieved a 50 percent graduation rate, but we've doubled the graduation rate in 10 or 12 years, and that's happened nowhere else in the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The time for oral questions has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has a lot to be proud of because I'll tell you, if you only have 25 percent and you've now doubled; yes, that's a 50 percent achievement, Mr. Speaker. But the fact is...

---Interjection

We're up to 50 percent, sorry, of our graduating students. That's what I meant. Mr. Speaker, the fact is, those better programs, as the Minister has just pointed out, are only going to half the students. So we put all these millions of dollars into half the students, Mr. Speaker. So the fact is, he talks about the carrot, but we don't do anything about truancy. You know, shame on you only works so far, Mr. Speaker. It doesn't work too good on a 16, 17 or 18 year old, Mr. Speaker. The Minister...

Do you have a question, Mr. Hawkins?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister now needs to find the stick approach. Is he going to work with the Department of Transportation to say, hey, if you don't graduate, you have to lose your licence? Is he going to consider options? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back in the early '90s, the participation rate in high school was less than 40 percent. We're now very close to 80 percent. So we've got the young people in school. It does take a while for the graduation rate to catch up to the participation rate, but, Mr. Speaker, we've demonstrated that we're on the right track. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to celebrate our failures in the past by calling them now successes. Because we had a 25 percent graduation years ago and now we have a 50 percent...